Bishop John Daniel & Mother Lela Mae McKenzie

Tree of Life Apostolic Faith Holiness Church, Inc. was founded by Bishop John Daniel McKenzie and Mother Lela Mae McKenzie.  In 1949, Bishop John Daniel McKenzie moved his family to Jackson, AL, which was his birthplace wherein he had spent his childhood.  They remained there for 3 years while he preached in turpentine camps and any other location in which he was led to deliver the gospel. They preached from house to house and in their own home from 1950-1953. Then they began to preach and teach in store fronts. He sold his 596 acres of land and used a portion of the proceeds from it to buy a tent under which he continued to preach. The remaining proceeds were used to buy a building on Coventry Street in 1955, which had formerly been known as Westside Baptist Church. This building became available as a byproduct of the integration movement wherein Caucasians began to move out of West Savannah and the congregation Westside Baptist willing permitted Bishop J. D. McKenzie to purchase it from them. Today,it is known as Tree of Life Apostolic Faith Holiness Church #1. Although it should be noted that it immediately became the venue in which Bishop J. D. McKenzie delivered unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ.

Bishop J. D. McKenzie gave all he had to the up-building of God’s kingdom such that there was a time when he had to move his entire family, which include his ten children, into the church building and depend on the deacons of the for food after all funds had been exhausted.

Bishop John Daniel & Mother Lela Mae McKenzie