HE HAD THE QUESTIONS/

GOD HAD THE ANSWERS

By Frederick A. Hurst

What lingers in your mind after an hour and a half discussion with Reverend J. Willard Cofield, Jr. is that you have just talked with a man who is firmly grounded in reality.  Brought up attending Star of Bethlehem Church in Ossining, New York, where his father was pastor for 34 years, he questioned what he would do with his life.  But of one thing he was certain, Rev. Cofield had no intentions of pastoring any church.  He was too familiar with the details and complexities of churches and the conflicts and contradictions characterizing congregations to want any part of extending his father’s legacy.  

But, just as Jonah landed in the belly of the whale in a fruitless effort to escape God’s will, Rev. Cofield spent many years in fruitless avoidance of the pulpit while genuinely servicing people from outside of the pulpit.   But in 1994, he surrendered to his destiny by becoming the pastor of his own church.  He was prepared for the calling because, coincidentally, he had completed seminary and became an ordained minister in 1972.  One suspects that he knew from the beginning that his calling was unavoidable.

The route from seminary to the pulpit was long and circuitous.  After 34 years at the same church in Ossining, Rev. Cofield’s father decided to move to a church in Buffalo, New York.  Rev. Cofield, Jr. could have stayed in Ossining as interim pastor of his father’s old church but the newly-ordained minister declined and began his flight from the ministry.  Instead, he followed his family to Buffalo.  

He remained with his family in Buffalo for ten years before being recruited in 1982 to come to Springfield as the Director of Urban Ministries of the Council of Churches of Greater Springfield where he remained employed for six years.  He then went to work running an employment and training program and serving as Social Service Director of Head Start at the Springfield Action Commission for two years under Buddy Langford until he was recruited to work as Director of a church-based community center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Rev. Cofield must have been going in the wrong direction!  

He may not have felt as badly as Jonah felt in the belly of the whale but his journey to Philadelphia was no picnic.  His man-made plan was to leave his family in Springfield until their house sold and to invest the proceeds in a house in Philly and what lingers in your mind after an hour and a half discussion with Reverend J. Willard Cofield, Jr. is that you have just talked with a man who is firmly grounded in reality.  Brought up attending Star of Bethlehem Church in Ossining, New York, where his father was pastor for 34 years, he questioned what he would do with his life.  But of one thing he was certain, Rev. Cofield had no intentions of pastoring any church.  He was too familiar with the details and complexities of churches and the conflicts and contradictions characterizing congregations to want any part of extending his father’s legacy.  

But, just as Jonah landed in the belly of the whale in a fruitless effort to escape God’s will, Rev. Cofield spent many years in fruitless avoidance of the pulpit while genuinely servicing people from outside of the pulpit.   But in 1994, he surrendered to his destiny by becoming the pastor of his own church.  He was prepared for the calling because, coincidentally, he had completed seminary and became an ordained minister in 1972.  One suspects that he knew from the beginning that his calling was unavoidable.

The route from seminary to the pulpit was long and circuitous.  After 34 years at the same church in Ossining, Rev. Cofield’s father decided to move to a church in Buffalo, New York.  Rev. Cofield, Jr. could have stayed in Ossining as interim pastor of his father’s old church but the newly-ordained minister declined and began his flight from the ministry.  Instead, he followed his family to Buffalo.  

He remained with his family in Buffalo for ten years before being recruited in 1982 to come to Springfield as the Director of Urban Ministries of the Council of Churches of Greater Springfield where he remained employed for six years.  He then went to work running an employment and training program and serving as Social Service Director of Head Start at the Springfield Action Commission for two years under Buddy Langford until he was recruited to work as Director of a church-based community center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Rev. Cofield must have been going in the wrong direction!  

He may not have felt as badly as Jonah felt in the belly of the whale but his journey to Philadelphia was no picnic.  His man-made plan was to leave his family in Springfield until their house sold and to invest the proceeds in a house in Philly and then move his family there.  In the mean time he was renting a place for himself in Philly.  Proof again that man has limited power over earthly circumstances, the bank crises and the high interest rates that it caused destroyed the housing market and Rev. Cofield’s Springfield house simply would not sell.   Burdened for two years with the expense of two homes and the loneliness of family separation, he finally gave in and returned to his apparent destiny in Springfield.  

Upon his return Rev. Cofield worked in the city’s drug and alcohol prevention program at the Health Department, where he worked with Tony Taylor, Darnell Williams, Jean Bass, Delores Williams and many others.  He eventually started working at Brightside as a drug prevention mentor coordinator and at Big Brothers and Big Sisters as a case manager.  But something happened that moved him closer to his destiny.

In 1994 Alden Baptist Church Pastor, Reverend Brandon Marshall, left the church and Rev. Cofield, while continuing in his two jobs, accepted an offer to be Alden’s interim pastor until a replacement could be found.  More than a year later, with the support and encouragement of Elaine Rucks, the Jordans, the Holloways and many other familiar Alden church members, he was voted as the permanent pastor.  He had taken a long, reluctant road but he was finally permanently in the pulpit. But Rev. Cofield had some other tests to pass.  

He experienced physical symptoms that he self-diagnosed as hemorrhoids and ignored for too long.  It turned out he had colon cancer, one of the most deadly forms of cancer found in men.  After an operation, chemotherapy and radiation and all of the associated problems, he recovered.  Two years later he was diagnosed with lung cancer, another of the most deadly forms of cancer, and told he had to have an operation within the week, which was followed by another long period of chemotherapy and radiation.  Again, he survived and has been free of cancer for three years.

In what many would consider typical Rev. Cofield style, when he was diagnosed with colon cancer, he blithely announced it to the congregation that next Sunday.  When his lung cancer was diagnosed, he again went before the congregation to report it at Sunday service.  This time, however, recalling the tearful reactions at the first announcement, as he spoke he held up two rolls of toilet tissue in his hands for the congregation’s tears.  The levity of his gesture brought fewer tears from the congregation and showed why he is a man of unusual courage.  

Although his faith was tested, Rev. Cofield has none of the physical weakness associated with recovery that he once felt would never leave him.  He now exercises regularly, walking and working out at the YMCA and, though his faith remains intact, he is not shy about telling you that he had some tough questions for God.  In the end, however, he will tell you that surviving two of the most deadly cancers and returning to robust physical health and to the pulpit at Alden Baptist Church are proofs of the power of God.  Rev. Cofield believes that he survived because God, simply, was not finished with him.  

Now he counsels other patients through their fears of fighting cancer.  He is also vice chairperson of the Pastor’s Council and hopes to be chairman sometime in the near future.  He also has a vision that one day all of the Baptist congregations in Springfield will merge under one umbrella.  Ministers would rotate responsibilities and the united Black church would not only be the spiritual engine of the Black community but, also, its economic and political engine.  

And he is going on his tenth year as Pastor of Alden Baptist Church.  This man, who tried so hard to avoid the pulpit, has spent more time as the Pastor of Alden Baptist Church than in any other position he has ever held and is enjoying it like he never imagined he could.