The Sweet Torture of Sunday Morning
An interview with Gardner C. Taylor
Terry Muck and Paul Robbins
July 1, 1981
In a 1979 story, Time magazine described Gardner C. Taylor as one of the seven best preachers in America. Yet Taylor, pastor of the 10,000-member Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, admits preaching has never been an easy task.
"As a young man I didn't feel entirely comfortable with my calling to preach; as a new pastor here in Brooklyn I felt the tugs to join in the political life that swirled around our community; and even now after thirty-two years here at Concord, I rarely feel fully delivered in my sermons."
In spite of these difficulties so common to the preaching ministry, Taylor is thankful for the life to which he's been called. "The Lord does not misfire. I'm thankful more and more every day he made me a preacher."
Taylor is a large, grandfalherly man, who commands as much respect for his genuine spirituality as for his considerable preaching skills. Called "the dean of the nation's black preachers," Taylor was born in Baton Rouge, attended Oberlin Graduate School of Theology, and came to Concord Baptist after pastorates in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Elyria, Ohio.
LEADERSHIP editors Terry Muck and Paul Robbins went to Brooklyn to interview Taylor. It was a profound experience. The external trappings of greatness are all there: a multimillion-dollar church built under his supervision in 1954; a two-story nursing home adjacent to the church, built in 1975; a 155-student grade school run by Lora Scott Taylor, Gardner's wife.
Taylor is pleased with these things he calls, "God's blessings." But many will tell you God's richest blessing on Concord Baptist Church of Christ is Taylor himself.
Do you think you're a better preacher today than you were thirty years ago?
I know I am. But I'm not as good a preacher as ...
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