

He was ordained and sent out by the Winans in 2001 to establish Perfecting Faith Church in Freeport, New York, where he is now Senior Pastor.

"I tell people to believe that God will save you," he says, " I had to turn around and practice the very thing that I preached." The doctor suggested immediate treatment, but McClurkin, who was then 31, decided to take his own advice. In 1991, a sharp pain and swelling, followed by internal bleeding led, he says, to his being diagnosed as having leukemia. McClurkin served as an assistant to Winans for over a decade. He was hired, as an associate minister, at Marvin Winans' Perfecting Church in Detroit, Michigan, in 1989.

By the time that he was a teenager, he had formed the McClurkin Singers, and later he formed another group, the New York Restoration Choir, with recordings from as early as 1975. Two of his sisters dealt with substance abuse problems, and that's when the young McClurkin found solace in his going to a church and, also through an aunt of his who sang background vocals with gospel musician, Andraé Crouch. Soon after the loss, McClurkin experienced family turmoil due to the loss of his brother, and shortly thereafter, he was a victim of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of his great uncle, and years after that by his great uncle's son. When he was eight years old, his two-year-old brother was hit and killed by a speeding driver. McClurkin was born in Copiague, New York in the United States of America.
