The Rev. Mack Jackson will preach to anybody, anywhere, anytime.

        The 71-year-old minister is pastor of Truth Universal Missionary Baptist Church, a group he started in 1973 as a small mission of 10 people in his basement in Mount Auburn.

        The congregation doesn't have a church building since it was evicted from a storefront at 743 E. McMillan St., Walnut Hills, in November.

        He is holding services in a Masonic temple at 2530 May St., Walnut Hills.

        “I really would like to find a church building where we can rent with option to buy,” Rev. Mr. Jackson said. Since the eviction, his congregation has dwindled from 75 to 30 members.

        That hasn't stopped him from preaching, something he said he has done since age 15.

        He started pastoring 31 years ago, mostly in storefront churches. His largest congregation was New Jerusalem Baptist Church, then in Avondale, from 1969-71, where he had 150 members.

        The Rev. Damon Lynch Jr. succeeded him and still pastors New Jerusalem in Carthage.

        The Rev. Mr. Jackson has always mixed pastoring with full-time work. He has been a construction contractor, a waiter, a valet parking attendant, a machinist and now a maintenance man and driver for Hall Jordan & Thompson Funeral Homes.

        “I preach funeral services there when families request me,” he said.

        At 71, he is not thinking of retirement. “Oh no,” he said. “You never retire from the ministry.”

        SILVERTON — Senior Bishop Nathaniel Linsey, presiding prelate of the Second Episcopal District and chief executive officer of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, will be the guest speaker 4 p.m., Sunday at Olivet Baptist Church for the Martin Luther King Jr. program. Bishop Linsey, of Amberley Village, is a longtime activist in the civil rights movement.

       Allen Howard's column runs on Saturdays. Call: 768-8362. Mail: The Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati, OH 45202.

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