Clarence Cates

News Obituary Article

CONYERS: Clarence Cates, preacher, mission founder, principal

By KIRSTEN TAGAMI

As long as somebody was there to hear the word of God, the Rev. Clarence E. Cates would deliver. He preached in more than 70 countries and was the pastor of a dozen metro Atlanta churches over the years.

In the mid-1950s, he led an epic revival in Little Five Points that ran seven days a week for more than a year.

The Rev. Cates, 83, died of heart failure Dec. 21 at his home in Conyers. The funeral is 7 p.m. Monday at First Assembly of God Church in McDonough. Horis A. Ward Funeral Home, Rockdale Chapel, is in charge of arrangements.

The Rev. Cates was born and reared in Haralson County. When he was 6 months old, his father, a railroad worker, was killed in an accident, said his daughter, Connie Herring of Ellijay.

"It was Christmastime, and the weather was bad. He was coming home from work and jumped off the train in town, where it wouldn't be as far for him to walk. He fell 20 feet," she said.

The boy, his mother and his only sister managed to get by financially for several years. In the midst of the Great Depression, however, young Clarence had to drop out of the sixth grade and go to work, picking cotton and tobacco, his daughter said.

He began preaching in churches near his home at age 14, she said. During World War II, he was a chaplain's assistant in the Army.

After he was discharged, the Rev. Cates attended a Bible school in Tennessee before becoming a full-time pastor at a church near where he grew up.

He served at several metro Atlanta churches over the next few years, including Avondale Church of God, where he built a new building in 1952. It's now a Chinese church, said his wife, Bettye Cates.

In 1954, the Rev. Cates moved to a theater building on Euclid Avenue in Little Five Points, renaming it Christian Fellowship Church, and held a revival every day for an astonishing 14 months, his wife said.

"There was such an interest in seeking God at the time. We felt we couldn't close it when there was such interest," she said.

Later, he established Worldwide Christian Fellowship Missions, made up of independent churches.

Over the course of his career, the Rev. Cates visited and preached in more than 70 countries, his wife said.

The Rev. Cates earned a bachelor's degree at Oglethorpe University, primarily so that he could be the principal of a private school in Memphis, a job he commuted to from Atlanta for a time in the 1950s. He also recorded sermons for broadcast on local radio and hosted religious TV programs in Atlanta.

He rarely said no to opportunities to preach or teach, his wife said. "If there was a door he could walk through, he would," she said.

The Rev. Cates was a master fund-raiser who would say God told him he needed to raise a certain amount of money in a night --- and would make it happen. "We joked that somebody should take up an offering at his funeral, because it would not have been unusual for him to do that," his daughter said.

Survivors also include two sons, Michael Cates of Ellenwood and Sam Cates of Walnut Grove; seven grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren.

© 2008 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution