In the office of Pastor Hurley J. Coleman Jr. at World Outreach Campus Church on Bay Street, lacquered wooden letters on the wall over his shoulders spell out a Bible passage.
II Corinthians 4:7 proclaims, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”
Recently, at age 70, he was consecrated in Memphis as a bishop within the Church Of God In Christ.
He thinks first of his father, who years ago received the carvings as a gift tribute from congregants at the original Coleman Temple on Wadsworth.
Bishop Coleman says people view their pastors as “voices of God,” and so clergy always must heed that they are not gods, but imperfect messengers themselves.
That’s the “earthen” aspect. At the same time, a “vessel” always is moving, taking social justice action that goes beyond the church pews. He believes this is not a pastoral choice as much as a duty, inherited from Hurley Sr. and from the matriarch, Martha, who passed away less than two years prior to her husband near the millennium’s turn.
A family of activists
Of his father’s civic leadership, Hurley Jr. says, “He was never on a board, but he was called (for support and advice) by every board.” Examples ranged from OIC job training to the Clergy Coalition Against Crack Cocaine, and partners reached beyond COGIC to include other denominations. At one key point in Saginaw’s history, Hurley Sr. played a lead background role in helping maintain community peace after the Detroit riots/rebellion of 1967, similar to Hurley Jr. after the 2012 police slaying of Milton Hall
Then consider the siblings. Charles is a former City Council member who now presides over the Saginaw Board of Education, along with his own congregation at New Faith Temple COGIC, 2118 Burt. Ronnie, also ordained, was president of the Bridgeport school board prior to planting roots in Kalamazoo, functioning in the rare role of a minister leading the Chamber of Commerce. Hurlette was among the city’s most beloved school teachers until her death in 2002, only age 52. All the offspring have made their marks
Coleman family grandchildren in service begin with Hurley III, director of the Saginaw County Community Action Center, CAC.
Hurley Jr.’s path to the clergy was anything but direct. His lone childhood inclination was singing, in which he continues to engage from the pulpit. His aim was to establish a career in recreation management as he achieved his diplomas from Saginaw High School in 1971, and then four years later at Eastern Michigan University in 1975.
His rise in the profession was rapid, beginning in EMU’s home city, Ypsilanti, and in Detroit during the first years of Coleman Young’s mayoral tenure. He was Saginaw County’s parks and rec director during the first half of the 1980s, and then took the city’s reins during a final portion of the decade. His leadership and advocacy boosted his status statewide, and suddenly in 1989 he received a double-the-salary offer for the top post in Wayne County.
With his wife, Sandra, and their three children, they thrived in Metro Detroit. Then his father died suddenly in summer 2001, and there was no question that he would return home to maintain the “earthen vessel” on course. Expansion to the former Faith Lutheran church and school was transacted a decade later, and tradition continues with mementos from the small northeast setting where it all started, including a pair of Coleman Temple pews squeezed into a small cubbyhole sanctuary for personal prayer and counsel.
Close to famous
Coleman’s parks and rec career sacrifice to return home generally is known, but he also gave up a chance to become a rising political star. He filled time beyond parks and rec as assistant to the Wayne County executive, an appointed post, and he was being pushed to run for the elected top spot. Pastoral service now has dominated his work for nearly a quarter century, but he cannot help but wonder what might have been in that regard.
In his most recent main local venture, he has helped to lead a summer youth employment program through ARPA, the federal American Rescue Plan Act. This took his thoughts back to his former career, when he directed efforts with higher funding levels and more teen participants. He has witnessed how work opportunities can inspire men and women in the age 16-to-25 groups, in some cases turning them around.
During his own youth, he was a student and summer playground regular at Morley Elementary, and then Jones Elementary, also at the former Andersen and Mershon pools. He even recalls attending the YMCA’s Camp Willows, At Saginaw High he played on the same football team as Calvin O’Neal and ran track with Reggie Jones, both local Hall of Famers
Whether he is volunteering with United Way or Saginaw Future or the Community Foundation, Delta College or SVSU, his childhood memories of parks and rec still remain, along with his faith calling at World Outreach, where he intends to continue for two or three more years and then turn over the reins.
“What are we doing for our young people?” Bishop Coleman asks. “Our most criticized population segment also is our most underserved. We can’t have a future without them.”
