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~\ Gaston Is Too Bl)sy Too Retire By MARGIE EVERHART is hard to get ministers togeth­

Staff Reporter er," he said. "I guess it is because everyone is so busy these days."

Life has been a pattern of hard Concerning the controversywork, commitment and dedica­ 'It's a rough going over Jan. 15 designated as a na­tion for the Rev. John Gaston, tional holiday in honor of Martinjob at times, but but that is what makes him ap­ Luther King, Gaston said hepreciate life and gives him the with the experience. thinks King deserved the honor. determination to carry on his "What he accomplished for ourI've had with the ministry. race in his lifetime, he did with­

Gaston, 67, presently serves Lord, I'd do the out violence - staying withincongregations which together to­ the Constitution of the Unitedtal more than 600 people. same thing allover States."

"I've been asked so many times Gaston believes the churchagain. I just"put myabout my retirement, but it's should be separated from govern­really up to the Lord to tell me trust in the Lord and ment, he said. "I don't feel thewhen to quit," Gaston said with a government should step in andgleam in his eye. I live by faith.'

tell churches what to do - onlyGaston is pastor of two members of a church should be

churches - the 148-member able to vote on issues within theFirst Baptist Church in South­ church. . mont, where he has served over see the basement through the ~hurch in Henrietta. "I also tell my people to get out23 years, and the more than 500­ cracks in the floor." "I can't say I have a favorite and vote when there is an elec­member Shady Grove Baptist Over the years the church has church for I love the people of all tion," he said. "I don't tell themChurch in East Spencer, a post he been air conditioned, and new ' my churches and they love me," how to vote but just vote and nothas held since 1955. - hymnals, a ·piano and robes for \ he said. "Even now, I have dele­ give up their God-given rights."

Sunday services are held only the choirs have been purchased. I gations of my former parishion­ Gaston said he thinks Socialtwice a month at Southmont, at 3 In 1976 a wing was added for a . ers visiting my churches in East Services has ruined a lot of peo­P.M., but every Sunday at East women's restroom and a public I Spencer or Southmont." ple, causing them not to want toSpencer, Gaston said. He com­ address system installed. . 1 Gaston said the ministry is work. "I base all my argumentsmutes between his home in Salis­ • more complicated in some areas on my Mother's advice. bury and Southmont not only for Gaston, a native of Cleveland today than it was when he began "I'm just a simple man who be­the Sunday sermons but for Sun­ County, was seven years old his first pastorate. "There seems lieves in hard work and doing a day school teachers' meetings, Bi­ when his father died, he said. to be a ministers' gap today -'- it job well." ble studies and visitations. "There were 14 of us children and

He is president of the Davidson my mother had to struggle to see County Baptist Ministerial Con­ that we were all fed and clothed," ference, moderator of the Rising he recalled. "We stayed on theStar Missionary Baptist Associ­ farm for a while, each one of us ation and a member of the gener­ working in the fields; then myal board of the North Carolina mother moved us into town atBaptist State Convention. Shelby where she found work as

"It's a rough going job at a domestic. As we became old ~times," he said, ''but with the ex­ enough we all worked at publicperience I've had with the Lord, jobs while attending school." I'd do the same thing all over

Gaston said his mother always again. I just put my trust in the taught them to take ' a job and Lord and I live by faith." give it their all. "'Don't do a half• job; do a good job,' she'd say. 'IfAccording to a church history, you go and ask for a raise after the First Baptist Church of you know you've done a good jobSouthmont began in 1905 "w:hen and don't get one, then it's up to a little group of devout baptized, you if you want to quit and find God-fearing Christians saw the another..lob.' " need for a church_in _Southmont

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and met with a Kev. .l"razler who KB a young man, uaston was a was to become the first pastor of laboratory technician at Carolina the church." The first deacons Dairy in. Shelby, .a position he were A.C. Owens,Robert Har­ earned by "learning on the job," grave and Thomas Miller. he said proudly. He said he was

For a period of time services licensed by the state board of ag­were held outdoors, under a riculture to do the Babcock but­brush arbor, but a building was terfat test. built in the latter part of 1905. In 1935, Gaston married the

Under the ministry of the Rev, former Carrie Leach, who is em­Abraham Sloan, who succeeded ployed as a private duty nurse in Frazier, the church continued to Salisbury. They have two daugh­grow. Ebbie Welborn, the com­ ters, seven grandchildren and munity school teacher, was in­ two great-grandchildren. strumental in organizing a Sun­ While residing in Shelby, the day school. Essie Moss and Allie Gastons became members of Mt. Holmes were the first Sunday Calvary Baptist Church where school teachers; the first superin­ Gaston · became the youngest tendent was Caesar Israel. member on the board of deacons,

The church showed great pro­ he said. gress from 1905 to 1935 in spite "After hearing those deaconsof a depression when money was carry on and arguing', I thoughthard to get and members were then I would never want to be a few, the history read. preacher," he said. "So when the

The Rev. Willie Sloan succeed­ Lord called me to preach, I ig­ed his father and served First nored that call for three years. I Baptist for 30 years. He was cred­ went through a terrible time ited with getting the members to then - I couldn't eat and I )'Vas so build a choir room and also to dig despondent, But when I accepted out a basement that was used pri­ the Lord's call at the age of 25, marily 'as an eating place for and entered the ministry on Aug. homecoming and other church 30, 1944, life became beautiful affairs. again." ,

Gaston became the seventh Gaston pastored Shoal's Creek pastor in 1961, and under his Baptist Church in Shelby while leadership, the church has con­ attending Friendship Junior Col­tinued to progress. The Men's lege in Roc~ Hill, S.C. He earnedChoir, Men's Day, Women's Day, the A.B. degree in 1949 at Bene­Junior Choir, Junior Usher dict College in Columbia, S.C.Board, Deaconess, Pastor Aide, During weekends, holidays andKitchen Committee and Junior summers while in college, he still Church were organized. worked at the Shelby dairy.

A new sanctuary had been in "They had no one else to do mythe talking stages for years, but job," he said. it was six years after Gaston took over the church reins that the Before coming to Salisbury, dream became reality. On Feb. Gaston's pastorates included 23, 1967, the foundation was dug. Monk's Grove Baptist Church in The church was completed Aug. 9 Spartanburg, S.C" Ellis Chapel that year. "It was sad in the old Baptist Church in Patterson church," Gaston said. "You could Springs and Henrietta NfJ)'V Zion

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---- _.__......--.._._.__..•_..,. - --­On the anniversary he shares with America, the Rev. John Gaston preaches what he preaches all year long - find freedom in responsibility

Preaching liberty every week .

of a South Carolina sharecl'o·,....'''- ·~ • See Rose Post,

EAST SPENCER - Routinely the Rev. John Gaston tosses his coveralls in the car. No telling when he'll need them for some odd job at his Shady Grove

Baptist Church. Like last Tuesday

night. The baptistry

lights behind the pulpit were out. His 34th anniversary cel· ebration was in full swing with a dif­ferent congregation taking charge each night. Certainly everything had to be right for the big day coming on Sunday.

But the stained glass had to come out first and it is heavy. And high. They needed a three­tiered scaffold.

He listened to the professionals - and the estimate.

"If we rent the scaffolds," he told his deacons, "and put them up ourselves, it will be cheaper."

So he rented scaffolds, and after the Tuesday night service, the deacons took off their ties and suits and put on their jeans and went to work. The lights were changed. The scaffolds were down before the service Wednesday night.

BOle Pod

"We don't dare say we don't owe a penny on anything," says Sarah Jones, Shady Grove's financial secretary, "and whatever it takes, let's fix it. We saved a hundred dollars - or maybe a little more. And it's all his idea of being good stewards."

She laughs. "And he didn't choose the deacons

because they knew what to do. He chose them because they had strong backs."

A difference Good stewards and strong backs have

made a difference at Shady Grove since 1955 when John Gaston came to a church with a leaking roof and a $368 debt.

Today - and Sarah Jones knows - it owes nothing and has assets of nearly three-quarters of a million dollars.

"Because we're all busy with childrett and jobs," she says, "we may get a little uptight when he finds something we have to do, but when we sit down and drink a cup of coffee, we know this is why we're where we are today. It's his philosophy of good stewardship."

And his philosophy of using the Bible as the rule book.

" He believes the doctrine of the church establishes the rules," Sarah says. "We don't have by-laws. We have the Bible."

It shows Sunday when Shady Grove's

anniversary celebration shares the weekend with the 25th birthday of the Civil Rights Act and Fourth of July fireworks and waving flags and red, white, and blue parades.

John Gaston knows about freedom and civil rights. He's lived the changes. Today neither he nor his congregation have to pay the same fare but sit in the back of the bus. They no longer order the same hamburger but get it through an opening in a back wall, not at a counter up front.

He remembers. And the memories and his gratitude for what this country is undergird his message as he takes his pulpit back from visiting congregations.

"We can speak about our indepen­dence," he says, "but we're still struggling here in this world. We're still not as free as we ought to be. "

So he also preaches higher law.

Judge not, that ye be not judged. First cast the log out of thine own eye. Whatsoever ye would that men should

do to you, do ye even so to them.

And the congregation responds as it always does.

The hymns start low, a hum more felt than heard, gradually picking up as the congregation joins the choir, and the tempo quickens and hands begin to clap.

The voices start low.

" Amen!" they say quietly. under­scoring what their preacher says.

And "Amen!" they say with vigor. applauding truth.

"Yeah! That's right! " •

"He's a country preacher in a city church," says a member of the con­gregation. A country preacher who calls for response and luxuriates in it. who wipes his eyes and cleans his glasses as the tempo picks up and the sweat pours from his brow and carries his people to a pitch of high emotion, telling ·them what they have to know.

" So you see my brothers and my sisters, there are some principles in life."

Big principles. Justice. Affirmation. Love.

" We wouldn't have all this marching, killing. beating one another, if we had love."

Freedom? Civil r ights? Love! Work! Freedom doesn' t come

without a price. Be honest, sincere, stay in school. Just because you were born black, the world doesn't owe you anything.

John Gaston grew up in another world that knew the same values. The youngest

children, his family moved to Shelby when he was 5. His father died two years later.

"We gathered the crop that year," he says. " I carried the water to the field for the others and mopped the floors .

"And then we moved into Shelby, and my mother went to work for a family, in the kitchen and washing and ironing." As each child got old enough, he got a paying job to help the others.

Licensed black man He worked in a dairy while he

went to Cleveland High and stayed when he finished.

"I was the only black man in North Carolina licensed to do the testing for butterfat," he says, " before the Lord laid it on my heart. Folks tell you there's no such thing as a call. I had the call. I didn't want it. I tried to evade it. But I couldn't eat or sleep. It would come on me strong and when I submitted myself, everything turn­ed out right."

Already married, with one child, he quit his job and entered Friend­ship Junior College in Rock Hill, . S.C. In 1949 he finished Benedict College in Columbia, S.C., and was ordained. He had three churches, but he was called to East Spencer.

"I questioned the Lord about it," he says. "I was praying and asking the Lord, 'Why did you want me to leave there? I was,,'t having any problems.' "

But the Lord wanted him to set in motion the things that were

"My mother taught us not to do a half job. To do a good job," he says, so he got busy.

" I just kept hammering on the Word, and I demonstrated tithing. If the Lord hasn't blessed you with anything, I tell 'em, you don't owe Him anything. But life is a blessing.

"And I never ask anyone to do anything I wouldn't do."

So he's done, enlarging the church, adding a ministry at First Baptist in Southmont. .

And sometimes it 's still rough going.

"But with the experience I've had with the Lord, I'd do the same thing all over again," he says. "I'm not going to retire until the Lord calls me. "

When the Fourth of July is over, he'll still have so much to teach about being prepared for freedom and liberty and responsibility and love.

But he's ready. His rule book is handy and his coveralls are in the car.