Mount Olive Baptist pastor is honored

Follower of King strives to keep the dream alive

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Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream, one that the Rev. Kent Edmonston said he is committed to keeping alive. His leadership as pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church, and his support for the community, led the Town of Oyster Bay to honor him on Jan. 11 with the Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service Award, for his “inspirational efforts to better the community.”

Edmonston, 65, said he was honored and humbled to receive the award. He is no stranger to the Town Council or Supervisor Joseph Saladino. Edmonston often offers the opening prayer at the first meeting in January, and in February, for Black History Month. And Saladino has played the drums at Mount Olive on occasion. Edmonston said the supervisor is a friend.

The award, Saladino said, is presented to noteworthy area residents who adhere to the principals of a just society and support King’s dream. “Our diversity is our strength,” Saladino said, “and this prestigious recognition reflects upon the incredible leadership and courage of Martin Luther King Jr., and also on the local contributions being made every day in our community by extraordinary people.”

Edmonston’s wife of 37 years, Sharon, a science, technology, engineering, art and math teacher at Rhodes Academy, described her husband as kind, compassionate, empathetic and focused. He believes that someone seeking help has been guided to him by God, she said.

“There were two women living in their car, and Kent took money out of his pocket and put them in a hotel,” Sharon recounted. “He always helps strangers who come to our church that need help. And he won’t charge a fee for funerals, which is unusual. He believes that if the person has it in their heart to give, they will.”

Edmonston’s involvement in the community is evident even in the most unlikely places. Sharon said everyone at the Oyster Bay Stop & Shop knows her husband by name. The family of one of the cashiers asked that he speak at her wake when she died. “He had established a relationship with her, knowing her from Stop & Shop,” Sharon said. “Everyone says how kind he is.”

When King marched in a parade in Hempstead in 1965, Edmonston, who was 9, was there. It remains his fondest memories.

“He was an amazing man,” he said. “How do you accomplish that kind of awesome leadership? It is the leadership I inspire to. King is the legend.”

Edmonston, the father of three grown children, has been the pastor at Mount Olive for over 20 years, since he moved to Oyster Bay. Originally from Hempstead, he said he has loved living in Oyster Bay. “It’s like night and day,” he said of the disparate areas. “I used to hate coming this way. Now I hate going that way.”

His church once had 150 members, but some have died or moved. He isn’t certain how many there are now, because the coronavirus has kept many of them away. The pandemic has also changed how the church operates. People tell him, Edmonston said, that they are never coming back to church.

“I guess the Lord shut us down because we weren’t doing what we were supposed to do,” he said. “He said to go out, not sit in the church. Covid impacted lots of places, businesses. Everyone is feeling it, including the church.”

It has been an adjustment for him, because Edmonston is a people person. He continues to call his congregants to comfort them, or just to see how they’re doing.

Because the church is also a business, he said he was concerned early in the pandemic that the absence of worshippers would have financial consequences. But, like other churches, Mount Olive began livestreaming services on Facebook. The outcome was the opposite: People sent more money than ever before.

“People are not here in the building, but they are here,” Edmonston said. “It’s a little strange, because I’m used to seeing people. You expect something like this to happen somewhere else, in some other time. To live through this is interesting.”

Edmonston was “saved” — proclaiming his faith publicly by being baptized — in 1990, at Emanuel Baptist Church in Elmont. He became very involved in the church, but never planned to become a pastor. When he had attended William Penn College, where he also played football, he wanted to become an FBI agent, but after he graduated in 1978, with a degree in sociology and human psychology and having minored in criminal justice, he realized, he said, that he couldn’t imagine pulling a gun.

He came home to Hempstead and worked in sales for a variety of companies. He moved on to the personnel department at All State insurance; was an accounts and regional manager for First American Metropolitan Realty Tax Company in Uniondale; founded a one-hour photo and printing shop called Market Plus in Hempstead; and worked as a teaching assistant at Elmont High School, in the Franklin Square School District and at Hempstead High.

Attending Touro College night school at Hempstead High, Edmonston earned a master’s in special education in 2005, and became a ninth-grade special education and general science teacher. The following year, he completed a second master’s in divinity with the Virginia University of Lynchburg, taking part in a satellite program at Antioch Church in Hempstead, and is now working on a doctorate at the New York Theological Seminary.

While he was teaching, his pastor at Emanuel Baptist, the Rev. H. David Parker, asked him to contact the search committee at Mount Olive. Parker thought Edmonston would be a good fit as pastor there. Edmonston was nervous when he initially preached at Mount Olive, but, he said, “I was told that if you’re not nervous to stand before God and say what God said, you’re in trouble. I was excited, and wondered if I was ready to be a pastor. If someone had asked me to be a preacher before this, I would have said, ‘You’ve got the wrong guy.’”

Accepting the job in January 2002, he said, was like committing to a marriage. He added that he has enjoyed every minute.

“Shepherding people should always be a joy,” he said, “and to know people have put their lives in your hands to guide, direct and put them on a right path, to help them in any way, has become a major joy for me.”

City Councilwoman Michele Johnson said that the community depends on the leadership of people like Edmonston. “This prestigious recognition,” Johnson said of the Distinguished Service Award, “reflects upon the incredible leadership and courage of Martin Luther King Jr., and also on the local contributions being made every day in our community by extraordinary people like Reverend Edmonston.”