Telley Gadson (@telleygadson)

Bishop L. Jonathan Holston, Resident Bishop of the South Carolina Conference

of The United Methodist Church appointed the Reverend Telley Lynnette Gadson to

serve as the Hartsville District Superintendent, effective July 1, 2021. She has taken

the liberty to affectionately refer to this district as “The HEART-warming

HARTSVILLE District,” and says they are “The WARMEST People in South

Carolina!” Prior to this appointment, Reverend Gadson, affectionately known as

“Pastor T,” served as the Senior Pastor of Saint Mark United Methodist (“THE 9-1-1

of Taylors, SC) on the Greenville District for 8 years; and 14 years as the Pastor of

Saint Mark United Methodist Church (Sumter, SC) on the Hartsville District. In

addition to these appointments, she has also served Saint Matthew (Taylors, SC) and

Mount Zion (Sumter, SC) United Methodist Churches in her 22 years of pastoral

ministry.

Preaching since the age of 18, Pastor T graduated from the University of South

Carolina in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, minoring in

Religious Studies. She is a 1999 graduate of the Candler School of Theology at

Emory University (Atlanta, GA). In the same year, she was commissioned as a

Probationary Elder; and three years later, ordained an Elder in Full Connection in

2002.

In addition to her work in local churches, Pastor T has served on district and

conference committees, including: the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry, the

Greenville District Board of Congregational Development, chairperson of the

Hartsville District Committee on the Superintendency, a mentor for the Hartsville

District Committee on Ordained Ministry, a delegate to the 2012 and 2016 General

and Jurisdictional Conferences, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the South

Carolina United Methodist Advocate. She has also been trained in church leadership

coaching by Discipleship Ministries.

Pastor T was invited by former President Barack and First Lady Michelle

Obama to be a special guest at The White House for the 2010 Easter Prayer Breakfast

and the 2011 Christmas Social. Well known across the Connection and in ecumenical

circles for her prophetic preaching and leadership excellence, she is the daughter of

the Honorable Herbert Gadson, the first black Mayor of Hollywood, South Carolina,

and “Missionary” Linda D. Gadson, former executive director of Rural Mission Inc.

She proudly shares that she is a native of Hollywood, South Carolina and faithfully

lives by the words, “If I can help somebody as I travel along the way, then my living shall not be in vain."