Myrtle Lee Coleman-Williams

Myrtle was baptized in Jesus’ Name and filled with the Holy Ghost, at the young age of sixteen. That one decision shaped everything that followed; a life dedicated to God and His people.

She was just nineteen years old when she felt the call to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and evangelize. Many lives were changed through her ministry of singing and preaching. She was a dynamic preacher, spreading the gospel to everyone she came in contact with.

After marrying John Wallace Coleman, God called her to begin a ministry in 1965, which shortly thereafter became Faith Temple Apostolic Church in San Bernardino, California. She pastored there for six years before relocating to St Louis, Missouri, to be with her husband who had been transferred to Scott Air Force Base, St Louis, Missouri.

Upon returning to California in 1976, she established and pastored a ministry in a small store front on Park Avenue in Riverside, California, and later moved to the empty church building across the street which became Rehoboth Tabernacle Church. Elder John Coleman and Pastor Coleman were ordained together into the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World in 1977, under the late Bishop Robert W McMurray.

She was one of the secretaries and one of the treasurers for the Valley Pastor’s Alliance; she worked in District #12 with Bishop Morris Dulaney as Treasurer; for the California District Council, she held the position of Pulpit Commission Chair Person, General Council Chaplain, and Missionary Department Chaplain. She also worked on the Licensing Committee, and sat on the Board of Directors under the leadership of the late Bishop Robert W McMurray and the late Bishop Carl W Stewart, Chairperson.

Pastor Coleman and her husband worked diligently in the ministry until his passing in February, 1989. They were married for thirty beautiful years. While pastoring Rehoboth Tabernacle Church of Riverside, California, Pastor Coleman founded Rehoboth Tabernacle Church of Nigeria. In 1992, she visited the church in Nigeria, and took with her, Cheryl Curtis, Bertha Ford Thomas, and Elsie Gaines. Many were baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost. As a result of this missionary journey, seven churches with seven hundred members, came under the Rehoboth Tabernacle Church banner. They were brought into the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World organization at the National Convention in 1992 with Bishop Ephraim.

Pastor Coleman retired from pastoring Rehoboth Tabernacle Church in Riverside, California in 1994, feeling compelled to spend time with her father in Dallas, Texas. As a result, the Lord filled her father with the Holy Ghost, speaking in other tongues, in her arms, on New Year’s Day! He was ninety-one years old.

While in Dallas, Pastor Coleman married her friend, Deacon Sylvester Williams. God spoke to her again, and together, they founded Rehoboth Tabernacle Church of Dallas, Texas. Many souls were blessed by her ministry.

One day, her husband insisted they go right away to California to visit. They were going to go later in the year, but he felt compelled to leave right away. During their stay in California, he passed away. She believed he knew that he did not have much time, and wanted her to be with her family when he went home to be with the Lord. They were married for six wonderful and happy years.

Since being in California, Pastor Myrtle Coleman-Williams returned to college. This was a life-long dream of hers. She began attending Living Waters Theological University under the leadership of the late Bishop Michael Garrett, and received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree.

She also attended Ministerial Training Institute at the satellite location, housed at Rehoboth Tabernacle Church of Riverside, where the professor was Dr. Toya Y Flakes.

Dr. Myrtle Coleman-Williams departed this life peacefully at home, in her sleep. She was an extraordinary woman. She was kind and caring, loving, fearless, committed, yielded, devoted, virtuous, and dedicated to the work of the ministry. She loved people and never met a stranger. Even in her later years, when she went to her doctor’s visits, she smiled and spoke to every person in the room. She enjoyed talking to people from every walk of life. She welcomed the homeless into her home, and fed and clothed many. She helped everyone she could. She visited those in the prisons and the hospitals, and it wasn’t unusual to find her in the basement of the church with a mop and a broom. She spoke and sang about God with a passion and conviction that was contagious. Some of her favorite songs were God Specializes, There’s a Storm Out Over the Ocean, His Eye is on the Sparrow, just to name a few.

Dr. Myrtle Coleman-Williams was preceded in death by her mother, Lizzie Calloway, her father, Hunter Flakes, Her Husband, John Wallace Coleman, and her Husband, Sylvester Williams. She leaves to cherish her memory, her two sons, Sherman Lawrence Flakes, and his wife Toya, and Sydney M Coleman, and his wife Tonya, two daughters, Stefanie Lorraine Blandon and Sydonie Monique Blandon, 17 Grandchildren, Shannon (Lisa), Nicole (Deon), Christopher (Tammy), Miguel (Wanda), Jinika, Stephen (Tina), Marcus (Kellie), Paula, Ashley, Vanessa, Victorya, Devrik, Sidney, Tabitha, Monica, Nicole, Isaiah, 23 Great-Grandchildren, and 11 Great-Great Grandchildren, and a host of family and friends.