Who is Pastor Mike McClure Jr? The truth about the Stella Awards triumphator 

Pastor Mike McClure Jr was a star of the evening at the Stellar Awards winning in six categories. 

The last Stellar Awards, taking place on July the 16^th at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre was nothing short of remarkable. One of the reasons being that Pastor Mike McClure Jr. became a top winner at the ceremony. 

McClure became number one in six categories, including prestigious “Artist of the Year” and “Album of the Year” for “I Got It: Single’s Ministry Vol. 1”.

Such achievements seem big for McClure but what do we know about him behind the recent triumph? 

Mike McClure Jr. — pastor, recording artist, and Megachurch founder 

The figure of McClure is quite intriguing as he is quite more than just a singer and a recording artist. His music career started as a side project while he was acting as a founder and the leader of the Rock City Church in Forestdale, Alabama. 

Nevertheless, music surrounded McClure since his childhood. At a young age, he led worship at revival events and the ministry, owned by his father. 

McClure said to Christian Post that he always had a strong relationship with God: 

My entire life. I’ve loved God. 

These relationships are not accidental — McClure’s family is a big dynasty of ministry leaders. The artist’s grandfather, Bishop Calvin Woods, was the president of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. McClure’s father was a pastor before founding a ministry. 

An ability to lead people was in McClure’s blood. When he was 25, he founded a church with his friends. A year was enough for the church to gain a thousand more people. Two years were enough to reach out and transform lives in big arenas across Birmingham. 

The church was the main priority for McClure for ten years. 2019 marked the end of a big music break, and the artist released his first single “Big”. 

The success was tremendous. “Big” hit the Top-20 on the Billboard charts and placed No. 7 on Billboard’s gospel digital song sales chart. The singer’s debut album “Live Free” topped Billboard’s gospel album chart after a month of its release. 

Speaking about “Big” and music, McClure says what he wants to achieve: 

It’s to inspire people and help push them to Jesus, Gospel music is the only genre of music where the message plus the melody equals a miracle. 

He is definitely right. 

New milestones for Pastor Mike McClure Jr. 

McClure is happy about winning in several categories at the Stellar Awards. However, he still keeps himself humble and respectful towards senior counterparts from the music industry: 

No words can describe how I felt. I’m sitting in the room with Marvin Sapp whose ‘Never Would Have Made It’ [song] got me through some of the most difficult times in life. Then you look over there’s Erica Campbell. Then you look to your right, there’s James Fortune and there’s [Kirk] Franklin. So for me, it’s still surreal. 

Six awards at the same ceremony are not the only milestone for Pastor Mike McClure Jr. The artist wins “Artist of the Year” for the second year in a row which is also a big achievement. Such a consecutive victory is the first one for the Stellar Awards in the last fifteen years. Before, Donald Lawrence won “Artist of the Year” twice in 2006–2007. 

Did you know? 

By taking the “Artist of the Year” award, McClure has overtaken Maverick City Music, another big loud name in this year’s Christian music industry. 

Mav City and McClure debuted in the same 2019. The career path led the band to the Grammy awards in 2022, where Mav City was honored to perform on the stage during the ceremony. Besides, Mav City received a Grammy for the album “Old Church Basement”. 

At the last Stellar Awards, Maverick City Music took a statuette for the “Song of the Year” for “Jireh” and received three more nominations.