Thank You For Using Me
I like to learn new things… things I know nothing about at all. One day while “playing” on the internet and strictly for fun, I googled “greatest gospel singers of all time.” The name list that appeared was quite extensive so I decided to randomly pick someone I knew nothing about. The name I picked and researched: Dorothy Love Coates. This opened up an entirely new world of appreciation for gospel music and historical evangelical singers. Most people today familiar with the gospel music brilliance of Dorothy Love Coates identify her greatest hit (which was actually a spoken sermonette) as “Thank you for using me, Lord.” Of note, the full catalogue of Dorothy’s songs remains readily available through most digital music outlets.
Dorothy’s “Thank You for Using Me, Lord” reminded me of Pastor Drew’s recent teaching on Matthew 28:16-20 where Jesus instructs His apostles to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20) Here is the question: As Christians, we understand that we are to fulfill the Great Commission and to do as charged by Jesus Christ. Can we be so humble… so blessed… as to thank the Lord for the opportunity to spread the word? Dorothy Coates thought so… so much that she sang thanks to God about it.
Dorothy Love Coates (January 30, 1928 to April 9, 2002) was an American gospel singer. Not just a gospel singer, mind you, but an earth-shaking, powerhouse of a gospel singer. Born in Birmingham, Alabama as Dorothy Griff, Dorothy had a challenging childhood and young adulthood. Her father abandoned her mother when Dorothy was only 6-years old. Starting at age 10, little Dorothy played piano in her Baptist Church. As a prelude to her later career as a gospel singer, Dorothy and her siblings sang as a group called the McGriff Singers. Dorothy lived the majority of her life during Jim Crow (legalized segregation). She dropped out of school for employment in what she described as “all the standard Negro jobs” of the 1940s including scrubbing floors and working at laundries and dry cleaners. During this early period, she sang with the Gospel Harmonettes (then called the Gospel Harmoneers). Over time, Dorothy was married to two other gospel greats, namely Willie Love of the Fairfield Four and Carl Coates of the Sensational Nightingales.
In the 1950s, Dorothy’s gospel singing career fully ignited into full stardom. As a member of The Original Harmonettes, Dorothy’s rich, powerful voice and evangelistic fervor demanded attention and adoration. Dorothy’s talents were not limited to singing; she counted among her hits composing “You Can’t Hurry God” (He’s Right on Time), “That’s Enough,” and “Half Won’t Do.” One of her many career highlights was singing with The Gospel Harmonettes at the National Baptist Convention when it assembled in Birmingham in 1940. Dorothy was roundly identified as the “heart and soul” of the group’s success both during live performances and in studio recordings. Dorothy often filled the “dual role” from the stage of gospel singer and preacher/narrator, publicly decrying evils in the church and people’s sinful nature.
Dorothy retired from gospel singing as 1960 drew to a close but continued to wield her evangelistic torch. She was actively involved in the Civil Rights Movement from 1959 to 1961, even working with Martin Luther King, Jr. Describing her acts of protest and civil disobedience as protests, Dorothy regularly told church congregations, “The Lord has blessed our going out and our coming in. He’s blessing our sitting in too.”
Many gospel singers and other artists of the time were reluctant to spearhead political matter head-on. In contrast, Dorothy spoke publicly against the Vietnam War, racism, exploitation of black artists, and other evils in the world. Later in her career, Dorothy made appearances, occasionally singing and appeared in the movies “Beloved” and “The Long Walk Home.” Dorothy Coates, one of Birmingham’s greatest shining stars, passed unto the Lord in April 2002.
Among her best works, “Thank You for Using Me, Lord,” is a sermonette where she thanks God for the opportunity to share the good news of His salvific (meaning “leading to salvation”) love, grace, and what Pastor Drew identified as agape, the highest form of love, charity and the love of God for man and of man for God. Fulfilling the Great Commission is not only required of us as Christians, but also something for which we should all be thankful.
Give yourself a special treat by searching Dorothy Love Coates online and listen to her vigorously delivering gospel greats with love, devotion and a singleness of purpose only a Christian could understand. My favorite? “(You Can’t Hurry God) He’s Right On Time.”
Thank you for using me, Lord.
JG
Informational Sources:
Photo: Unattributed, public domain.
“Dorothy Love Coates, Singer of Gospel Music, Dies at 74”, The New York Times, April 9, 2002.
Tony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times Limelight Editions, 1997.
Horace Clarence Boyer, How Sweet the Sound: The Golden Age of Gospel Elliott and Clark, 1995.