Richard Preston Wilkerson Jr. (born March 28, 1984) is an American pastor, author, and speaker best known as the lead pastor of VOUS Church in Miami, Florida, and for officiating the 2014 wedding of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
Alongside his wife, DawnCheré Wilkerson, he built VOUS from a middle-school youth gathering into one of the most culturally visible churches in the country.
He’s also close friends with Justin Bieber, the author of three books, and a fourth-generation member of a Pentecostal preaching family that includes his father, Rich Wilkerson Sr.
You’ve probably landed here because you saw his name attached to a celebrity wedding, a Justin Bieber post, or a church with a French name that doesn’t sound like any church you grew up in.
Here’s the full story: where he came from, how VOUS actually got its name, what he believes, and how his family tree connects to a completely different, much older Wilkerson.
Rich Wilkerson Jr. at a Glance
| Personal | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Richard Preston Wilkerson Jr. |
| Born | March 28, 1984, Tacoma, Washington, USA |
| Age | 42 (as of 2026) |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse | DawnCheré Wilkerson (m. 2006) |
| Children | 4 — Wyatt, Wilde, Waylon, and Wolfgang |
| Parents | Rich Wilkerson Sr. (father), Robyn Wilkerson (mother) |
| Siblings | Three brothers, including Taylor Wilkerson, Graham Wilkerson, and Jonfulton (JF) Wilkerson |
| Education | |
| University | Lee University, Cleveland, Tennessee (Bachelor’s degree) |
| Ministry | |
| Title | Lead Pastor |
| Church | VOUS Church, Miami, Florida |
| Denomination | Non-denominational (Pentecostal-Charismatic roots) |
| Since | 2015 (led Trinity’s youth ministry, The Rendezvous, from 2007–2015 before planting VOUS) |
| Career | |
| Books | 3 — Sandcastle Kings, Friend of Sinners, Single and Secure |
| TV | Rich in Faith (Oxygen Network, 2015–2016) |
| Net Worth | Not publicly documented by a credible source |
Early Life and Background
Rich Wilkerson Jr. was born on March 28, 1984, in Tacoma, Washington. He’s the son of Rich Wilkerson Sr. and Robyn Wilkerson, who spent decades in youth evangelism before planting roots in South Florida.
In 1998, when Rich Jr. was still a teenager, his family moved to Miami so his parents could take over what was then a small congregation of about 250 people, mostly Haitian immigrants.
That congregation became Trinity Church, and it eventually grew into a megachurch serving thousands each week.
Preaching wasn’t a career choice for Wilkerson. It was the family business. He’s part of what several ministry bios describe as four generations of pastors on both sides of his family tree, and he grew up watching his father speak to more than a million students across 1,600 public school campuses in the U.S. and Canada.
Family and Parents
Rich Wilkerson Sr. founded Peacemakers, a youth evangelism ministry, and later became senior pastor of Trinity Church in Miami alongside his wife, Robyn.
In January 2024, Wilkerson Sr. stepped back from Trinity to take what he called a “medical sabbatical” to manage a serious health condition.
Trinity’s Miami Gardens campus was later folded into VOUS Church, becoming its fourth Miami location.
Rich Jr. is one of four sons. His brothers include Taylor Wilkerson, Graham Wilkerson, and Jonfulton (JF) Wilkerson, all of whom have their own ties to ministry and public life.
Education
Wilkerson earned his bachelor’s degree from Lee University, a Christian university in Cleveland, Tennessee affiliated with the Church of God movement.
He married DawnCheré shortly after graduating and headed straight to Miami to work under his parents at Trinity Church.
Ministry and Career Journey
The Rendezvous Years at Trinity Church
From 2007 to 2015, Wilkerson led Trinity’s young-adult ministry, a Wednesday-night gathering called The Rendezvous.
When he started, about a dozen people showed up. By the time he left to plant his own church, attendance had grown past 1,000.
That gathering became the training ground for everything that followed. It’s also where the name of his next chapter came from.
Why Is It Called VOUS Church?
VOUS Church got its name by shortening “The Rendezvous” down to its final syllable. When Wilkerson and DawnCheré launched their own congregation in September 2015, they kept the name their young-adult ministry had built its reputation on, just trimmed.
The first VOUS service was held in a middle school cafeteria in Miami’s Wynwood arts district, chosen because the neighborhood reflected the mix of cultures and backgrounds the church wanted to reach.
VOUS has since expanded to multiple Miami campuses, including South Miami, Little Haiti, the Design District, and Miami Gardens.
In late 2025, the church broke ground on a $32.5 million renovation of its South Miami property, adding a 17,000-square-foot auditorium built to seat over 1,000 people.
Growth and Recent Expansion
VOUS bills itself as a home for people who feel far from God and far from traditional church. Services lean on contemporary music, casual dress, and a heavy social media presence, a combination that’s made VOUS one of the most-followed churches in the country online.
The church’s stated mission is simple: “to bring people that are far from God, close to Him.”
Rise to Prominence
Officiating Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s Wedding
Wilkerson’s name went national in May 2014, when he officiated the wedding of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian in Florence, Italy.
Kanye had first shown up at a VOUS service after an invitation from Chris Julian, a Trinity Church member who co-owned a Miami boutique Kanye shopped at.
The friendship that followed led to the wedding request, and the media coverage that came with it made Wilkerson and DawnCheré household names almost overnight.
The two stayed connected well beyond the ceremony. In 2020, ahead of Super Bowl LIV in Miami, Wilkerson hosted one of Kanye’s “Sunday Service” gatherings.
Friendship with Justin Bieber
Wilkerson is also part of the small circle of pastors, alongside Judah Smith of The City Church and Carl Lentz of Hillsong NYC, who’ve publicly supported Justin Bieber through his very public ups and downs.
Bieber has shared Wilkerson’s sermons on his own social media, at one point captioning a screenshot of one of Wilkerson’s messages, “This is what I believe.”
Wilkerson has spoken about Bieber with a consistent message: grace over judgment. “People aren’t projects, people are people,” he told Entertainment Tonight in 2015. “Anybody who gets put into that limelight gets a bad rap.”
Rich in Faith and Wider Recognition
In 2015, Oxygen Network built a 10-episode reality series called Rich in Faith around the couple, following them as they launched VOUS and navigated their very public struggle to start a family.
Wilkerson has also spoken at the Hillsong and Catalyst conferences, at Liberty University’s Convocation, and co-founded the annual VOUS Leadership Conference, which draws thousands of young adults to Miami’s South Beach every June.
Books by Rich Wilkerson Jr.
Wilkerson has written three books, each aimed at a younger, culturally fluent audience that he says has been burned by legalistic church experiences.
- Sandcastle Kings: Meeting Jesus in a Spiritually Bankrupt World (2015) — His debut, which uses four stories from Luke 7 to argue that material success can’t fill a spiritual gap. The cover art was designed by Kanye West and his creative team at DONDA.
- Friend of Sinners: Why Jesus Cares More About Relationship Than Perfection (2018) — Challenges the idea that Jesus is primarily a rulekeeper, arguing instead that he prioritized relationship over religious performance.
- Single and Secure (2022) — Addresses identity and self-worth for readers navigating singleness.
Personal Life
Wife: DawnCheré Wilkerson
Rich and DawnCheré Wilkerson married in 2006, right after he finished at Lee University. She’s a co-lead pastor at VOUS, along with being a speaker, singer, and author in her own right.
The couple spent eight years trying to conceive before their first child arrived, a struggle they chose to document publicly on Rich in Faith.
DawnCheré has said a doctor warned her on her 25th birthday that conceiving would be difficult, a diagnosis she initially didn’t believe.
How Many Kids Does Rich Wilkerson Jr. Have?
Rich and DawnCheré have four children:
- Wyatt Wesley Wilkerson, born January 23, 2018, called their first “miracle baby” after the long wait
- Wilde Wilkerson, born in 2019
- Waylon Wesley Wilkerson, their first daughter, born in 2021. Waylon spent six days in the NICU for breathing trouble before coming home healthy
- Wolfgang Wilkerson, their fourth child
Wilkerson has been open that the wait taught him something Scripture couldn’t have on its own. “We learned that we are complete with or without a child,” he said after Waylon’s birth. “I’m just grateful that God decided to grant us this blessing.”
Theology and Ministry Philosophy
Wilkerson’s preaching centers on grace over performance. His consistent message, echoed across his books and sermons, is that Jesus prioritized relationship with people over religious correctness, and that churches often get that order backward.
He’s been direct about how intentional that approach is. Asked whether he “sugarcoats” the gospel to make it more palatable, he replied, “Yeah I am! If the medicine gets in, the medicine gets in. That’s called being a good fisherman.”
Theologically, VOUS sits in the broader Pentecostal-Charismatic tradition his family comes from, but the church is officially non-denominational.
It doesn’t preach prosperity theology in the way some megachurches are known for; the emphasis instead falls on identity, belonging, and reaching people who’ve written off organized religion altogether.
Is Rich Wilkerson Jr. Related to David Wilkerson?
Yes, but the connection is one generation removed from Rich Jr. himself. Rich Wilkerson Sr., Rich Jr.’s father, was a cousin of David Wilkerson, the evangelist who founded Teen Challenge and wrote the bestselling book The Cross and the Switchblade.
That makes David Wilkerson a relative of Rich Jr.’s by marriage of generations rather than a direct cousin, though most coverage simply calls the two men “cousins” for shorthand.
David Wilkerson passed away in 2011. He and Rich Wilkerson Sr. represent two very different eras and styles of American evangelism, one built on street ministry to addicts in 1950s New York, the other on a modern Miami megachurch, but the family name ties both lines of ministry together.
Influence and Legacy
Wilkerson is often grouped with a wave of “celebrity pastors” who emerged in the 2010s, millennial-leaning leaders like Judah Smith and Carl Lentz who built churches around cultural relevance and heavy social media presence rather than traditional denominational structures.
VOUS has become one of the more visible examples of that model, with hundreds of thousands of combined followers across Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook.
Whatever the debate around that style of ministry, the numbers speak to real reach: VOUS took a Wednesday-night youth meeting with a dozen attendees and turned it into a multi-campus church with a $32.5 million building project underway a decade later.
Criticism and Controversies
Wilkerson’s high public profile and celebrity friendships have drawn criticism from some corners of the evangelical world.
Critics argue that his emphasis on relatability and grace can come at the cost of addressing sin directly, a critique he’s addressed head-on rather than dodged, openly admitting he leans toward approachability as a strategy for reaching people who’d otherwise avoid church entirely.
He’s also faced the same scrutiny most “celebrity pastors” face: questions about whether proximity to famous friends like Kanye West and Justin Bieber shapes the substance of his ministry or simply its visibility.
Wilkerson has pushed back on the “celebrity pastor” label itself, telling Christianity Today, “I don’t see myself that way. I see myself as a person who’s trying to build a church.”
Net Worth and Financial Information
There’s no verified net worth figure for Rich Wilkerson Jr. from a credible financial source. Numbers circulating online, ranging anywhere from roughly $1.5 million to $5 million, come from algorithm-based estimator sites that calculate social media earning potential rather than actual disclosed income or assets. Treat any specific figure you see for him with real skepticism.
Awards and Recognition
Wilkerson has spoken at major national platforms including the Global Leadership Summit, the Hillsong Conference, and the Catalyst Conference.
He co-founded the VOUS Leadership Conference (VOUSCon), which now draws thousands of attendees to Miami annually and has featured speakers like Sarah Jakes Roberts, Judah Smith, and Mike Todd.
Interesting Facts About Rich Wilkerson Jr.
- He’s part of a family with four generations of pastors on both sides.
- Kanye West personally designed the cover art for Wilkerson’s first book, Sandcastle Kings.
- He and DawnCheré waited eight years and documented their infertility journey on national television before having their first child.
- In 2020, his car was stolen from his driveway. When it was recovered, he publicly told the thieves he wouldn’t press charges and challenged them to turn their lives around instead.
- VOUS Church’s first-ever service was held inside a public middle school cafeteria in Wynwood, Miami.
Timeline of Rich Wilkerson Jr.’s Life
- March 28, 1984 — Born in Tacoma, Washington
- 1998 — Family relocates to Miami as parents take over what becomes Trinity Church
- 2006 — Graduates Lee University and marries DawnCheré
- 2007–2015 — Leads The Rendezvous, Trinity’s young-adult ministry
- May 2014 — Officiates the wedding of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West
- 2015 — Launches VOUS Church in Wynwood, Miami; releases Sandcastle Kings; Rich in Faith premieres on Oxygen
- 2018 — Son Wyatt Wesley is born after eight years of infertility; releases Friend of Sinners
- 2019 — Son Wilde is born
- 2020 — Hosts Kanye West’s “Sunday Service” ahead of Super Bowl LIV in Miami
- 2021 — Daughter Waylon Wesley is born
- 2022 — Releases Single and Secure
- January 2024 — Rich Wilkerson Sr. steps back from Trinity Church for a medical sabbatical; Trinity’s Miami Gardens campus becomes VOUS’s fourth location
- 2025 — VOUS breaks ground on a $32.5 million South Miami campus renovation
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Rich Wilkerson Jr. known for?
He’s best known as the lead pastor of VOUS Church in Miami and for officiating Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s 2014 wedding.
He’s also recognized for his close friendships with celebrities like Justin Bieber and for writing books aimed at young adults skeptical of traditional church.
Why is it called VOUS Church?
VOUS is short for “The Rendezvous,” the name of the young-adult ministry Wilkerson led at his father’s Trinity Church before planting his own congregation in 2015.
How many kids does Rich Wilkerson Jr. have?
He and his wife, DawnCheré, have four children: Wyatt, Wilde, Waylon, and Wolfgang.
Is Rich Wilkerson Jr. related to David Wilkerson?
Yes, indirectly. David Wilkerson, author of The Cross and the Switchblade, was a cousin of Rich Wilkerson Sr., making him a relative of Rich Wilkerson Jr. through his father’s side.
Who is pastor Rich Wilkerson?
There are two: Rich Wilkerson Sr., who founded Peacemakers ministry and pastored Trinity Church in Miami, and his son, Rich Wilkerson Jr., who leads VOUS Church. When people say “Kanye’s pastor,” they mean Rich Wilkerson Jr.
How old is Rich Wilkerson Jr.?
He was born March 28, 1984, making him 42 years old as of 2026.
Who is Rich Wilkerson Jr.’s dad?
His father is Rich Wilkerson Sr., founder of the Peacemakers ministry and former senior pastor of Trinity Church in Miami.
Did Rich Wilkerson Jr. speak at Hillsong?
Yes. He’s spoken at the Hillsong Conference as well as the Catalyst Conference and the Global Leadership Summit, among other national platforms.
Where did Rich Wilkerson Jr. go to school?
He earned his bachelor’s degree from Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee.
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