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player ready...Gospel Temple Baptist Church, on Chicago’s Far South Side, was never a big church, but it was always strong.
Its 200 or so worshipers included middle-class members from the south suburbs and working class people from the South Side. A few more usually wandered in off 103rd Street, looking for hope or perhaps a diversion.
For 38 years, they came to hear Rev. Jethro Gayles.
Gayles founded Gospel Temple in 1956 and moved it to its current, low-slung concrete building in 1970. He became a leader in Chicago’s black church community and a father figure to his flock at Gospel Temple; as the decades passed, he became a grandfather figure to a new generation.
Then, the day before Palm Sunday in 1994, as Gayles was working on his sermon, an intruder broke in and stabbed the pastor 10 times in the face and neck. The attacker tried unsuccessfully to steal Gayles’ car, then ran away. Gayles died a few minutes later. The case was never solved.
Palm Sunday services went on, with almost an anguished howl of grief from the pews. As the weeks passed, a dozen visiting ministers came and went. To help organize services while Gospel Temple searched for a new pastor, the pastor of nearby Messiah Temple Baptist Church sent over a young man who sometimes assisted him on Sunday mornings.
The assistant, a 25-year-old with the prescient name of Bishop Smith, was a husband and a new father. He worked for the Chicago Park District, running recreational basketball leagues and elderly fitness classes at Fernwood Park.
He was also a fervent Christian. In his spare time, he had studied at the Chicago Baptist Institute and received ordination as a Baptist minister the year before.
For him, that was not a career move, but another way of working on his faith. His fantasy job was to run a community center of his own some day, but for now, family and job kept him plenty busy.
There was something about him, though, that kept grabbing the attention of the congregational leaders. Maybe it was his energy level, a constant motion that suggested vast, internal reserves of caffeine. Maybe it was his impressive knowledge of the Bible, or his big, booming presence behind the pulpit when he filled in as a preacher.
Maybe it was his undented sense of optimism, a confidence that defied any explanation other than faith.
“The man showed me that he was God’s child. He knew the problems we were having and he’d say, `Let’s just pray on it,’ ” said Wallace Mosby, a deacon at Gospel Temple.
Five months after Gayles’ murder, the chairman of Gospel Temple’s search committee asked Smith if he wanted to be the new pastor. Smith said no.
“I went back and told my wife. She said, `Did you pray on this?’ I told her I did, and she said, `You’d better go back and pray some more,’ ” said Smith.
He finally decided that if the church leadership came back and asked him again, it would be God’s will, and he would accept. A few days later, the search committee asked again.
Replacing a 72-year-old legend with a 25-year-old rookie carried a price. Some of the congregation had drifted away during the search, feeling lost without their beloved pastor. More left in Smith’s first few months as pastor.
“Truthfully speaking some of them thought he was too young. Some thought he was too inexperienced to be a pastor,” said Claborn Holmes, a longtime member of Gospel Temple.
Smith winced at each departure.
“Some would say to me, `I just couldn’t get in tune with you.’ Others would give you a different kind of greeting, or just walk away,” he remembered.
“Pastoring is different than working in a steel mill or working on a farm. Pastors work with people, and when you go to give people a hug and they turn away, that hurts.”
But Smith kept on preaching. He started a Friday night prayer meeting, and turned the Wednesday night Bible study into a provocative, demanding sometimes marathon examination of faith. Sundays pumped with praise and thanksgiving.
“He’s got us reading and studying and praying. We don’t want to be left out. We want to be right up there with him,” said Bettie Evans, another longtime member.
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Word of mouth brought some former congregants back. New worshipers, looking for the right kind of church family, arrived. Membership surpassed 200 again.
This summer Inspired Partnerships, an organization that supports church-based community service in Chicago, gave Gospel Temple a special award for its resilience–an understatement if there ever was one.
Gospel Temple is still a small church. But it has found room for the memory of Pastor Gayles, whose larger-than-life portrait hangs behind the pulpit, and the vibrant, undaunted presence of Pastor Smith. The church is stronger than ever for it.
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