c. 1997 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ When the Rev. Gardner C. Taylor steps into a pulpit, a palpable sense of expectation ripples through the congregation for the august designation”dean of African-American preachers”has long preceded the man about to speak.

At 79, Gardner, the senior pastor emeritus of Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, N.Y., now moves from one dais to another _ speaking in churches and ballrooms, at Easter sunrise services and presidential inaugural events _ and has left an indelible imprint on American Christianity, not only in his preaching but in the life of the black church and its role in the civil rights movement.

But it is as a preacher that Gardner is best known and celebrated. He captivates his audience by weaving a key Scripture passage with contemporary examples and simple phrases that bring his sermon home in a way people remember days _ and sometimes years _ later.”His messages … always challenge you to try to become a better person and become a better Christian and become a better pastor,”said the Rev. Ruth Travis, a Baltimore pastor who heard Taylor speak recently at an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church district conference.”He always preaches on a level you can understand, kind of like Jesus. Jesus was a plain and simple preacher.” In a Washington, D.C., hotel ballroom recently, Taylor stepped to the podium after AME Bishop Vinton R. Anderson introduced him as”this marvelous pulpiteer.” The tall speaker, mostly balding on top, started by spinning tales, almost like a grandfather sharing wisdom with his beloved grandchildren. But over the course of half an hour, Taylor strung together anecdotes, Scripture and words he repeated into a crescendo of emphasis that literally brought his audience to their feet cheering.

On this particular evening, he focused on the story from the Gospel of Luke about the blind man who sat at the side of the road, heard the commotion when Jesus was passing by and asked Jesus to give him sight.

(BEGIN FIRST OPTIONAL TRIM)

From those verses in the 18th chapter of Luke, Taylor wove a message about the blindness of American society and its need for God’s healing.”Nobody but God can do anything about sight,”Taylor told his audience, referring to Jesus’ description of his duties in an earlier chapter of Luke that included”recovering of sight to the blind.” The biblical texts propelled Taylor into a litany of examples about the country’s”blindness”_ from drug addictions to poor race relations.

(END FIRST OPTIONAL TRIM)”This nation sits blind, blind at the roadside of history, and Jesus is passing by. … What would our fathers, what would (AME Church founder) Richard Allen, what would Martin King, say looking at us after all of the sacrifices, all of the blood that has been shed, all of the journey that has been made?”he asked.”What would they think of us?” Taylor ended his sermon by recalling how he preached some 50 years ago in a place where a minister was”nervous about a black preacher coming to his pulpit.”Just as he was getting into that sermon, the lights went out.”There came a voice _ and I leave that with you tonight _ from somewhere in that little church, midway,”he recounted.”It said, `Go on, preacher, we can see Jesus in the darkness.'” It was a phrase people carried out of the ballroom with them.

The Rev. Grainger Browning, pastor of the prominent Ebenezer AME Church in Fort Washington, Md., stopped to greet Taylor at the conclusion of the service.”When you preach, we can see Jesus in the dark all day,”Browning told him.

Still, Taylor pooh-poohs his status as”dean of black preachers.” But Bishop John Hurst Adams, senior bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, who has known Taylor for about 25 years, said a more apt title for Taylor would be”dean of all American preachers.” Adams notes that Taylor’s reputation is so great that ministers frequently leave their pulpits in the hands of assistant pastors when they learn he is in town so they can hear him.”He’s one of the few people for whom they do that,”Adams said.

Though he has a divinity school series _ the Gardner C. Taylor Lectures in Black Preaching at Duke University Divinity School _ and a street in Brooklyn named after him, Taylor speaks humbly of himself.”I’m appreciative that people take notice of me, but when I go to worship, I’m not looking for that,”he said in an interview.

Taylor, the son of the Rev. Washington and Selina Taylor of Baton Rouge, La., originally planned to be a lawyer. More than half a century later, he jokes about his change in career plans:”I think I’ve got a better client.” He pastored churches in Louisiana and Ohio before moving to Brooklyn’s Concord Baptist in 1948.

Under his leadership, the church grew from some 5,000 members to 14,000. The 2,800-seat church is the largest black church in New York City.

When he retired in 1990 after 42 years of Sunday sermons, Taylor said,”I never lost the thrill of preaching.” During those years, Taylor said with a touch of sadness, he believes the art of preaching has declined somewhat.”I think television has corrupted the preaching enterprise by making … people think that preaching is more entertainment than it is proclamation of the gospel,”he said.

But he quickly adds that his opinions may simply be”the superannuated, dotish reflections of someone my age.” Taylor mixes his gospel message with concerns about race relations.

He believes improving those relations is now a job for people on the local level rather than one prominent national leader, like his friend, the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.”The reason why leadership such as … Dr. King’s was so important was the need to dramatize, to call attention to, the problem of race in America and to the other problems in America,”he said.”I think now we are faced with the problem not of seeing what the problems are, so much as recognizing them and doing something about them.” It was Taylor’s support of King that led him away from one black denomination and into the founding leadership of another.

In what Taylor described as”a fierce denominational struggle,”he sought the presidency of the National Baptist Convention, USA, in 1960. A bitter fight _ including a physical confrontation between supporters of Taylor and his opponent, longtime denominational president Joseph H. Jackson _ prompted Taylor, King and other clergy to leave the National Baptist group to establish the Progressive National Baptist Convention in 1961.

A key point of contention was whether the National Baptists should embrace King’s civil rights agenda, which the denomination’s conservative leadership, including Jackson, did not support because it was considered too radical.”I think Baptists have been haunted by their rejection of Martin King,”he said.”Since he was rejected, there has never been peace in that denomination. … God stands for liberty. I think Martin King was an agent of that liberty and there were many reasons why he was rejected but whatever the reasons might have been, it was a rejection of God’s offering to the denomination.” The Rev. John Chaplin, first vice president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, said Taylor has a right to his opinion.”I think anyone is entitled to interpret the history as they see it, but we still can’t go back and change it, so we have to pray and trust God as we … move on to the 21st century,”he said.

Chaplin, a Washington, D.C., pastor, noted that Taylor is”not an enemy of any of us. He’s a well-respected preacher, one we admire.” Admiration for Taylor stretches from denominational bodies to theological schools.

Hartford Seminary President Barbara Brown Zikmund said Taylor has addressed commencement exercises at her school’s black ministries program.”He is an eloquent speaker, a real master,”she said.”As someone who’s watched preachers with some interest over the years, he has a wonderful style and touch that’s both friendly and accessible and also deep.” The Rev. Bernard Richardson, dean of Howard University’s Rankin Memorial Chapel, recalled hearing Taylor preach when he was a student at Yale Divinity School in 1984 and more recently, as his host at the Howard chapel.”When you talk about Gardner Taylor, it’s more than just the words,”he said.”It’s his presence and I mean, everything about him preaches … his mannerisms, his sincerity, his love of God, love of Scripture. … When he mounts the pulpit, one immediately feels they’re in the presence of someone who is truly gifted.” (OPTIONAL TRIM _ STORY CAN END HERE.)

While listening to Taylor preach, it appears his sermons come easily. But the preacher himself said his life’s work takes a great deal of preparation.

Because he chooses not to use manuscripts, he must keep his thoughts in his head, and only draws out a black pocket Bible when he is ready to read from Scripture.

In fact, Taylor admits some of his most embarrassing times came when he momentarily forgot the Scripture he had chosen as his focus. That’s happened at such distinguished moments as his delivery of the sermon at President Clinton’s first inaugural prayer service in 1993 and at a divinity school lecture.”I lost my train of thought completely,”he said, recalling a lecture at Yale Divinity School.

But, Taylor said, his experience paid off at such moments:”I’d been around long enough to tread water, so to speak.”

MJP END BANKS