[1]MIAMI (BP)–Joseph C. Coats, the first African American pastor to align with Florida Southern Baptists in the 20th century, died Saturday, March 2. He was 75 years old.
Coats was pastor of Miami’s Glendale Baptist Church, the first predominately black congregation to join the Florida Baptist Convention since 1900. He served the church for 29-plus years until his retirement Jan. 31, 1997. Funeral services will be held March 11 at the Miami church.
Coats was the first African American pastor to adopt Southern Baptist religious education principles for his Florida church and became influential in leading other African American pastors to follow him in cooperation with the Southern Baptists through the Florida Baptist Convention and Miami Baptist Association.
“He did it at a time when it was not popular for a black pastor to join a white association,” recalled Tommy Watson, retired pastor of First Baptist of Perrine who served concurrently with Coats. “He received criticism from the blacks and snubs from the whites, but he hung in there and did what was right.”
When Coats started the Glendale church, the Perrine church lent him their church busses to pick up his members. Later the Perrine congregation gave him busses. Coats used them as Sunday School classes.
[2]When Watson learned of his fellow pastor’s death, he said his first thought was 2 Samuel 3:38. “David after Abner’s death said, ‘Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day.'”
“Dr. Coats was a genius in church administration,” said Sid Smith, director of the Florida Baptist Convention’s African American ministries department. He led his church to grow from 35 members to more than 4,000 members in three decades, and in the process grew the largest Sunday School in the African American community.”
“Joe Coats was my friend,” said John Sullivan, executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention. “I knew of him before I met him. When I came to Florida, he was one of the first persons I wanted to meet. His legacy was well-known throughout the Southern Baptist Convention.”
“His mark has left its mark on me.”
Coats was a leader among Florida Baptists. He served two terms on the state board of missions, 1978-81 and 1993-96; two terms as a trustee of the Florida Baptist Children’s Homes, 1982-85 and 1985-88; on the Committee on Nominations in 1988 and 1993; and on the Sanctity of Human Life Committee in 1989-90.
A native of Alamo, Ga., Coats graduated from high school in Miami and attended Southern Baptist College in Kansas City, Mo. A largely self educated pastor, he studied in the Southern Baptist seminary extension program.
He is survived by his wife, Katherine, and seven of their eight children.
When he retired as pastor from Glendale, Coats recalled he had always tried to be “humble like a rug. You can’t get lower than a rug and people will walk all over you, but a rug brings comfort to a lot of hurting feet. And when a rug has served its purpose, people just toss it away.
“When Jesus is through with this rug, he is going to roll me up and throw me to heaven.”
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(BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at https://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: JOSEPH C. COATS.