PALATKA–Along the banks of the St. Johns River, near land that once held the Putnam County Jail, Pastor Willie McKinnon can’t help but think about his life story.
Born and raised in Palatka, the son of a Baptist pastor, McKinnon made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord at an early age. As a teen, McKinnon rebelled, fell away from his faith and struggled with a long season of addiction, which landed him in prison. After serving his sentence, McKinnon was freed from prison and headed to rehab. His broken relationship with the Lord was rekindled; his marriage was restored, and Christ, he said, freed him from addiction. It wasn’t long before McKinnon sensed a call to ministry.
“When God pulls you up out of the muck, it motivates you to tell everybody about the power that’s found in Jesus,” said McKinnon, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Palatka.
We are in the middle of something that only God can do.
Just as the jail, that once was set near the banks of the St. Johns River, was demolished in 2015, McKinnon’s life of bondage and addiction also was demolished. God took him, he said, “from the prison to the pulpit” and a life committed to “go and tell” others about Jesus.
“I want to tell everybody about Him,” McKinnon said, adding that his motto is, “I am a sinner too.”
Revival on the river
Today, as McKinnon steps from the banks of the St. Johns River into its cool waters to baptize those who have professed faith in Jesus Christ, he also can’t help but think about Baylee Holbrook, who was committed to “go and tell” others about Jesus. The sixteen-year-old student lost her life to a lightning strike in September 2023. The lightning strike that claimed the life of the teen, who had been a member of Trinity Baptist Church, sparked a spiritual revival throughout all of Palatka and Putnam County.
In mid-October 2023, just two weeks after the teen’s death, with hundreds looking on, 172 middle and high school students were baptized in the St. Johns River. Many of the new believers stated they had been impacted personally by the life and testimony of Baylee Holbrook, described by McKinnon as an “ambassador for Christ.”
Many years earlier, women had gathered in prayer on the riverbank, pleading with God to bring revival to Palatka. They had no idea how that prayer would be answered, but it’s an answer and a spiritual revival that continues to this day.
During the closing months of 2023 and throughout 2024, spiritual revival continued to sweep through the community, changing the lives of not just young people, but also among entire families, McKinnon said. In September 2024, more than 100 people were baptized in the waters of the St. Johns River.
“God has restored broken lives and homes,” McKinnon said.
The movement has transcended racial, age, economic and social barriers. Many local pastors have joined forces to minister to students at the local high school, where now students are sharing their faith with their peers and leading Bible studies nearly every day of the week, including one Bible study for the high school football team. McKinnon recalled that Baylee Holbrook, in one of her last messages to him, said she hoped to bring the whole football team to church.
McKinnon credits Baylee Holbrook’s mother, Casey Holbrook, with sharing the gospel with high school students at the church as well as his wife, Sheena, with leading many middle school students at church to faith in Jesus.
When God pulls you up out of the muck, it motivates you to tell everybody about the power that’s found in Jesus.
‘Something special’
Asa Greear, executive director and associational mission strategist of St. Johns River Baptist Association, shares that although he spent 14 years on the international mission field serving God, he has “never seen anything like what He is doing now” in Palatka, which he describes as “something special.”
Greear rejoices in being a part of the revival in northeastern Florida, sharing that the Lord placed a “calling on my life to share the gospel.” He said that God is moving to draw many young couples as well as many youth and their families to faith in Christ, including bringing many people “back to church” and also reaching those who have never heard the gospel and have been unchurched.
“We are in the middle of something that only God can do,” Greear said.
Even today, more than a year after Baylee Holbrook’s death, Greear said that students often use the phrase “Pray like Bay” to encourage one another to live faithfully. He emphasized that “the first thing she would have you pray is to pray and receive Jesus.”
Partnering with many local pastors, including McKinnon, to train and teach new believers in the faith, Greear personally has led three discipleship classes. Trinity Baptist Church now has 12 leaders who are training new believers each week in a program the church calls “Trinity Tribes.” McKinnon is praying for God to raise up new leaders to begin in-home discipleship classes in 2025.
As McKinnon issues a challenge, “Go and tell,” Greear adds, “Expect people to be saved.”