| |
By KIM MULFORD
Courier-Post Staff
It's Sunday morning and the pews at St. Matthew's Baptist Church in Williamstown are packed for the second service. White-gloved ushers wave the late traffic into a few empty spots.
The youth choir is set on high volume. Teens and youngsters clap and sway to the fast beat of a gospel hymn. Shouts of "hallelujah!" rise up from across the modern 2, 000-seat sanctuary.
The crowd is warmed up.
The Rev. Dr. Raymond M. Gordon Sr. bursts onto the dais. People jump to their feet, clapping and cheering at the top of their voices.
"Praise the name of Jesus until it hurts," Gordon says to his flock, which overall numbers more than 7,000.
They do. And then they thank God for their pastor.
•••
In 1986, St. Matthew's was a traditional country church with about 150 members. When the previous pastor died, the church spent a year searching for a replacement. It invited a young associate minister from 19th Street Baptist Church in Philadelphia to deliver a sermon.
At the time, Gordon was a communications specialist for the federal government. He had a way with words, an ability to explain and teach the Bible.
The congregation was hooked.
"One lady stood up and said `That's him! That's the one we need to call,'" Gordon said. "The rest was history."
Walter Hicks, an elder and ordained deacon at the church, remembers the response was immediate. They liked his spirituality and his enthusiasm.
"Would you believe, the first week after his initial sermon, when they knew he was going to be there for another Sunday, the place was packed?" said Hicks, 77.
Gordon had a vision, too, given to him from Jeremiah 1. Uproot and tear down the old; build and plant new.
It came to pass. In 1994, a new church was built across the street. The old one was eazed to make room for parking.
Next week, Gordon celebrates 15 years at St. Matthew's. Today, there are 25 associate ministers, more than 60 deacons and a paid staff of 42 to help him.
He also has a television and radio ministry called Perfect Peace Ministries. (For a schedule, visit www. stmatthewsbc.org.)
St. Matthew's is one of about three largely African- American "megachurches" in the South Jersey area, said Dr. Sharon Gramby-Sobukwe, an assistant political science professor at Rutgers-Camden.
The others are Bethany Baptist Church in Lindenwold with about 14,000 members and Living Faith Christian Center in Cherry Hill with about 3,000.
A megachurch is one with more than 3,000 members, a wide range of ministries and activities nearly every night, said Gramby-Sobukwe. She is working on a book about the trend.
St. Matthew's ranks are still swelling.
On a recent Sunday, 22 people joined. Baptisms are held every third Sunday. When the pews are full, the overflow is seated in the gym and the service is piped in.
Gordon does not try to explain the reason behind the church's growth, except that it was Jesus Christ's will to make it so.
"I can't take any credit for it," said Gordon, 51. "I never knew I was going to be a pastor actually. I was just minding my business, sinning like everyone else, when God called me into the ministry."
•••
Gordon's sermon on this Sunday morning is titled "God's Wisdom Defies Logic." He pulls verses from the book of Isaiah. "My ways are not your ways," God tells the prophet. "My thoughts are not your thoughts."
The congregation hangs on his words, silent.
"People who are not saved think what we do is moronic," Gordon says to his congregants. "You're moronic to work and give a tenth back to the Lord. You're moronic for coming to church every Sunday, for praying to a God that you cannot see."
But the world's wise men are fools, he explains, quoting from Romans 1. And judgment is coming.
•••
Veronica Smith started coming to St. Matthew's eight years ago. The Washington Township resident was looking for a church where she could feel at home. She joined because the church felt like a family and she especially liked Gordon.
"He speaks the truth," said Smith, a 50-year-old high school teacher. "He speaks from the Bible and tells you exactly where everything is located. He makes you think, makes you feel that you want to learn more about the Lord. He revs you up and gets you going."
At Sunday morning services, Darlene Walker sits with her best friend. To find each other, they always sit in the same pew.
When the Monroe Township resident first came to St. Matthew's seven years ago, she could hardly find a seat. But the service was awesome, she said, and church had never been this compelling.
"There was something in my soul that was stirred up," said Walker, a 53-year-old Monroe Township resident. "There was a longing to want to know more and want to learn more."
Tymeka Robertson, 25, is a lifelong member who works as a project manager for the church.
Congregants clap when the offering is collected. That's because God loves a cheerful giver, she explained. They know their money will be well used.
The church bought three buses for trips. It offers free counseling, hosts free church meals and a host of programs without charge.
In January, the church plans to build a community center with an Olympic-size swimming pool, tennis courts, classrooms and banquet facilities. The center will serve the community with a host of outreach programs.
"I look at St. Matthew's as a resource to the community," said Robertson, a single Sicklerville resident. "It's not just a church body. We open up our doors to the community."
On Halloween, the church hosted a skating party called " Hallowed Be Thy Name" to keep kids from celebrating what Gordon called "Satan's holiday." Nine hundred youngsters attended, Robertson said.
Monroe Township Councilwoman Loretta Winters is a church member, too. Her family was quickly drawn in after a visit six years ago.
"My son was 9 when we first went there," Winters said. " He turned around and looked at us and said, `Mom, I don't fall asleep anymore.'"
At 6:30 every Sunday morning, Ed Arnold joins a prayer circle in the sanctuary. A dozen members link hands and pray aloud for the church, the pastor, the sick, the unsaved.
Arnold and his wife are among about five or six white families who attend St. Matthew's. The Erial couple joined last December, drawn to the preaching and teaching.
Gordon wants to integrate his congregation, crossing racial, ethnic and cultural barriers.
The church has embraced them warmly, said Arnold, a 57- year-old repair and rental shop owner. The pastor has bent over backwards to acknowledge them.
Hicks, the church elder, said he has been to a lot of churches in his 77 years, a lot of traditional churches. St. Matthew's is not traditional, the Sicklerville resident said and he's so glad it's not.
It's centered around the Bible. There is no dissension, no bickering among the leaders. That's because God is leading the church, he said.
"It's the best church in the world," he said.
National Baptist Convention, U.S.A.
Based: World headquarters in Nashville, Tenn. President is the Rev.
Dr. William J. Shaw, pastor of White Rock Baptist Church in Philadephia.
Members: No estimate available
Basic beliefs: Baptists are a group of Protestant Christians who
hold that only believers should be baptized and it must be done by
immersion.
History: The first Baptist church in the United States was established in Providence, R.I., in 1639 after its leader, Roger
Williams, was banished by the Puritans from Massachusetts Bay.
Philadelphia became the center of Baptist life in colonial America.
Growth was spurred by the Great Awakening of the mid-1700s, especially in the southern colonies.
Baptist churches united in 1814 to support foreign missions. In
1845, the General Convention split over the slavery issue into the
Southern Baptist Convention and the Northern Baptist Convention (now
American).
African Baptist churches were organized by freed slaves after the
Civil War and often became the social and spiritual centers of the
black community.
The National Baptist Convention was founded in 1895 by Southern
blacks, who broke away from the segregated Southern Baptist Convention.
Notable: Each church is governed by its congregation, which are
voluntarily linked into state, regional and national organizations
to support missions and education.
Source: 'Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions,' www.nationalbaptist.com
St. Matthew's Baptist Church
Based: Route 322 and Glassboro Road, Williamstown
Phone: (856) 629-4614
Members: More than 7,000
Staff: 25 associate pastors, 42 paid staff
History: Established in 1924 with the Rev. James Russell as
founding pastor. Original church site purchased in 1947 and groundbreaking began the following year for new church. The Rev. Dr.
Raymond M. Gordon was installed as pastor in November 1987. The
church had about 150 members.
In 1994, a new church was built on eight acres of ground, across
the street from the original building. The sanctuary seats 2,000. In
1998, the church added a family life center, including a gym,
recreation center and education wing. The old church was razed to
make room for parking.
Radio: Gordon's radio message can be heard 6:30 to 7 a.m. Monday
through Friday on WTMR-AM (800).
Church's Web site: www.stmatthewsbc.org
Reach Kim Mulford at (856) 845-6521 or kmulford@courierpostonline.com
