For regulars at the Sunday service of Fort Lauderdale's New Mount Olive Baptist Church, the spiritual journey of Pastor Mack King Carter is as familiar as that of any biblical figure.
Courtesy of Nathaniel Green/New Mount Olive Tape Ministry
Dr. Mack King Carter's explosive sermons galvanize Mount Olive members, but he hurls his hottest invective at former trustees.
Courtesy of Nathaniel Green/New Mount Olive Tape Ministry
It begins in Ocala, Florida, in 1953, when, at the age of five, Carter says he became "a slave for Jesus Christ."
At Belleview-Santos, a segregated school in Ocala, the future ecclesiastic was an eager, attentive student intent on making his teachers proud. In the decades to follow he would remember their names and repeat their aphorisms for the New Mount Olive congregation.
To hear Carter rhapsodize about Ocala in those sermons today, it seems he wants to return to the city — not modern-day Ocala so much as the Ocala of his youth. Or of his parents' youth, when all the businesses on West Broadway, from Magnolia to 16th avenues, were owned by black families. It was home to the best black hotel in the state and one of the few black banks in the South. The black preachers bought their suits, hats, and shoes from Crompton's Dry Goods Store, until its black owner, Gibbs Crompton, died in 1959.
Carter had to leave Ocala to know how rare his experience there was. He studied at the University of Florida, delighting in classes like philosophy where he debated with prejudiced white classmates. He earned his doctorate of ministry degree at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and served as pastor at Green Castle Baptist Church in nearby Prospect, Kentucky. By 1980, it seems, Carter longed for a return to Florida. Judging by his writings, Carter had discovered an aching nostalgia for Ocala — a close-knit black community empowered by faith — at the same time he discerned disenfranchisement, self-hatred, and a lack of faith in the black communities he'd observed since leaving his hometown.
Watch a clip from one of Pastor Mack King Carter's sermons
He's long said it was "God's call," but maybe it was also Carter's hope to recreate an Ocala-like harmony that led him to Fort Lauderdale and New Mount Olive in 1981. The congregation, which since 1918 has gathered around NW 9th Avenue, just south of Sistrunk Boulevard, was the spiritual anchor for the African-American community, due in part to the steady hand of its senior pastor, Rev. George Weaver. In 1982, Weaver named Carter his successor. "For him to choose Pastor Carter was instant credibility," says Kenneth Mullins, a long-time New Mount Olive member. "We all accepted him instantly."
Carter's bombastic style was in marked contrast to the plain-speaking Weaver, and under Carter the congregation surged. It attracted new members, growing to around 9,000, making it the state's biggest black church, one with the resources to practice community activism in a low-income, crime-ridden section of the city. Carter's sermons would be telecast locally and internationally. With that high profile came political power, as well as the admiration of such celebrated figures as Aretha Franklin. She's been known to phone Carter and request a video of his sermons.
But along the way, Carter lost the faith of several of the church's most active members, a group of trustees who suspected him of violating church bylaws — possibly, taking more than his fair share of church funds. When in the summer of 2006 the trustees tried to investigate their suspicions, they say Carter suspended their activities and revised the church's constitution to give himself more power. Carter accused the group of doing the Devil's work.
With their conflict now spilling into Broward Circuit Court, things are bound to get uglier in the new year. The thousands who flock to New Mount Olive on Sunday mornings likely will have to choose sides. And no matter the outcome of the pending litigation, Carter's vision of a community bound together and strengthened by faith now seems further away than ever.
Dr. Mack King Carter is the most visible, powerful member of the New Mount Olive congregation, but the church's original bylaws sought a separation of power, giving the church's 25-member board of trustees something like a congressional function. The trustees would oversee the spending of church funds and, in theory, could block initiatives by the pastor that the board thought were not in the church's financial interests.
Kenneth Mullins' path to the New Mount Olive trustee board was typical. He started as a Sunday school teacher. "To see the faith of these children, that made me love church," says Mullins. "Then Dr. Carter told me, 'I'm going to recommend you to the trustee board.' I said, 'What's the trustee board?' "
He learned the board was made up of people like him — active church members willing to accept trustee chores on top of their full-time jobs. A professional then employed with a state utility, Mullins knew about dealing with bureaucracy. He would serve on a board that also had a county employee, a cop, a social service worker, and small business owners, who each brought their own expertise.
Tony Franklin owns a window treatment company in Oakland Park. He went from New Mount Olive Sunday school teacher to trustee beginning in 1995. His new role in the church, Franklin says, led him to see Carter in a new light. "Whenever there was a power struggle, it came about because the trustees disagreed about what the pastor wanted to do with the management of the church's assets."
Was it worth tearing up a church and hurting the souls that need to hear the word? You can be so right, and in an effort to win an argument, you do the wrong thing. Is God going to be mocked by the actions of any? How do you count the souls that are being affected by this terrible public display? Has God's Word been Glorified by the actions of the trustees? Did the trustees play into satan's hand by not counting the souls that are and could be won though the ministry? Was destroying the church worth it? Did the trustee's understand the magnitude of their actions? How can they fix the church after they stood so against it? After working and seeing so much in the church, I feel sorry for those who stand so violently against the church. This was a powerful ministry, and amazing teaching tool for God. We have to be very careful even when we think we have a valid point. I see this drama seems to be more about soul loosing than anything. So sad.
Rev. Theresa Mercer 08/23/2010 11:47:00 PM
Was it worth tearing up a church and hurting the souls that need to hear the word? You can be so right, and in an effort to win an argument, you do the wrong thing. Is God going to be mocked by the actions of any? How do you count the souls that are being affected by this terrible public display? Has God's Word been Glorified by the actions of the trustees? Did the trustees play into satan's hand by not counting the souls that are and could be won though the ministry? Was destroying the church worth it? Did the trustee's understand the magnitude of their actions? How can they fix the church after they stood so against it? After working and seeing so much in the church, I feel sorry for those who stand so violently against the church. This was a powerful ministry, and amazing teaching tool for God. We have to be very careful even when we think we have a valid point. I see this drama seems to be more about soul loosing than anything. So sad.
Copy Cat 01/04/2008 4:08:00 PM
Why is Dr. Carter taking someones else dream and trying to make it is own. You are not Dr. Cosby .
CEE CEE 01/04/2008 3:58:00 PM
Well ! This story is right about doctor Carter, It is time for a new leader. How can you be a leader for God first of all, standing in the pulpit calling people of christ a bunch of unsaved names, a true man of God do not address god people like that. Look back at you tub the first thing you see is two lawyers Husband and wife laughing like what he is saying is so funny, when in fact the way he has handled this whole thing is not of God. A real man of God would be taking the bitter with the sweet. And you wounder why the court house is so corrupted, Dr. Carter looked like a fool next to ken Jenne, Trying to stand up for a common crook on TV. Some one needs to beat him with the Holy Bible over his big word talking head. God has a away of showing you who is his child and who is not. Dr. Carter NOT. His wife pocket that money they think they are the King and Queen that they don't Have to answer to the members of this church, but they do. The church should split. There are a lot of Lawyers from the court house along with judges mainly two sitting judges lol on You Tub The Robinsons. These are what our children have to look up to. We sure do have a lot in the Black community to look up to, or do we?
Truthspeaks 12/30/2007 7:35:00 AM
In regards to Fred's reply, he never attended any of the meetings dealing with finance or the overall administration of the institution. He has basically inplied his uneducated thoughts, can he explain why the church is in a financial deficit, and why was the church overall budget cut by 6 percent and rolled back to its previous years budget in 2006, because the same leaders on the boards in question saw wasteful spending and unaccounted for misappropriation of funds. If African America will not allow a caucasian to use the N word then what makes Mack King Carter so above reproach with his childish antics and unsavory behavior from the pulpit.
Who will lead this institution to the next level or who will run it into the ground it sure is not those Trustees and Council members who were not compensated for doing what was right.
By the way FRED the Article in the new Times is well researched full of true facts and reflective of the inner workings of unauthorized actions and activities that for so long had plagued this Church. New Times Great Job in Accurate Reporting. PS Fred how much is your salary, and how much have you been paid over the last 4 years wouldnt the membership really like to know about those figures in excess of 200,000.00 dolled out to the media ministry and those who are paid to work in Gods house but receive lucrative salaries instead of volunteering for the service of Ministry. DA
Doc 12/26/2007 5:45:00 PM
If there is mismanagement then let it be told and rooted out. This is disgraceful actions on the part of the church's leadership if it is true. Sean Davis and Eugene Pettis know how to find out if this is true. If they choose to sweep it under the rug then you know it is damage control. But now the truth must be known, the speculation cannot be tolerated. God is not a fraudulent money laundering corporation, God is a being and a place for all to help all in need, not all in greed.
Doc 12/26/2007 5:44:00 PM
If there is mismanagement then let it be told and rooted out. This is disgraceful actions on the part of the church's leadership if it is true. Sean Davis and Eugene Pettis know how to find out if this is true. If they choose to sweep it under the rug then you know it is damage control. But now the truth must be known, the speculation cannot be tolerated. God is not a fraudulent money laundering corporation, God is a being and a place for all to help all in need, not all in greed.
Fred 12/22/2007 2:22:00 AM
Sensationalist article replete with inaccuracies�Dr. Carter did not deliver the sermon as erroneously cited, nor did he attempt to wrest control of the church. The bylaws had been rewritten several years before any of this had taken place to allow for greater involvement by the congregation as a whole. They were adopted, after having reviewed the proposed changes for an additional two months, by a MAJORITY vote of the same congregation.
This is nothing more than a red herring to exploit the economic challenges facing many of the area religious institutions and brazen effort by 5 or 6 of the several-THOUSAND-member congregation, simply seeking to settle a score or garner their �15 minutes of fame�. Why would not that minority of �members� either start a church, or attend one where they are in greater agreement with the leadership and majority membership. Essentially, �We love you, but WORSHIP SOMEWHERE ELSE!�
All of this balderdash over �possibly� $17K??...upon the �best recollection� of an eighty plus year-old volunteer � even if under oath?! Makes little sense.
It is entertaining to find fault with the �House of God��for unbelievers and believers alike; why else link a 6 year-old video, edited out of context, as indicative of the presence of mind of this church�s leader?
Sensationalism � but this IS the New Times.
