Reverend Ike

Reverend Ike (June 1, 1935 — July 28, 2009) was an American minister and electronic evangelist based in New York City. He was best known for the slogan "You can't lose with the stuff I use!"

Background

Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II was born in Ridgeland, South Carolina, and was of African American and Indo (Dutch-Indonesian) descent. He began his career as a teenage preacher and became assistant pastor at Bible Way Church in Ridgeland, South Carolina. After serving a stint in the Air Force as a Chaplain Service Specialist (a non-commissioned officer assigned to assist commissioned Air Force chaplains), he founded, successively, the United Church of Jesus Christ for All People in Beaufort, South Carolina, the United Christian Evangelistic Association in Boston, Massachusetts (which was his main corporate entity), and the Christ Community United Church in New York City.

Known popularly as “Reverend Ike,” his ministry reached its peak in the mid 1970s, when his weekly radio sermons were carried by hundreds of stations across the United States. He was active on the Internet and in a syndicated television program.

He fully restored and owned the Christ United Church (“Palace Cathedral”) in Manhattan's Washington Heights section, formerly the Loews 175th Street movie theatre. Restorations included the seven-story high, twin chamber Robert Morton organ. The “Miracle Star of Faith,”...
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