It also increasingly stressed high academic standards so that its graduates could go to normal school or college, especially to teach other African Americans. Mason was given authority to lead the new denomination. Remarriage is usually highly discouraged, except in the case of the death of a spouse or former spouse. The church has a tradition of prayer, fasting, praise, and consecration that was once unique to Holiness or Holiness Pentecostal groups. Youth on a Mission (YOAM) a ministry of young people visiting the mission field to serve each summer. Mitchell#, national evangelist, pastor, St. Andrew, Denton, TX, Carlis L. Moody#, foreign missionary, jurisdictional bishop emeritus, Germany Jurisdiction; pastor, Faith Temple, Evanston, IL, Eugene Franklin Rivers, political activist, pastor, Azusa Christian Community, Boston, MA, William Roberts#, jurisdictional bishop, Illinois First Jurisdiction, pastor, Robert's Temple, Chicago, IL, John Drew Sheard, general board member, jurisdictional bishop, Michigan North Central Jurisdiction; pastor, Greater Emmanuel Institutional, Detroit, MI, Nathan Simmons#, national evangelist, pastor, Citadel of Hope Evangelistic, Atlanta, GA, Robert James Ward#, jurisdictional bishop, Eastern Missouri First Jurisdiction; pastor, Historic Kennerly Temple, St. Louis, MO, Wyoming Wells#, jurisdictional bishop, Greater North Carolina Jurisdiction; pastor, Well's Memorial, Greensboro, NC; Well's Chapel, Greenville, NC, Frank Otha White#, General Board Member, Jurisdictional Bishop, New York Eastern Third Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction; Pastor, Zion Cathedral, Freeport, NY, David Lawrence Williams Sr.#, general board member, jurisdictional bishop, Virginia Second Jurisdiction; pastor, Mason Memorial, Norfolk, VA, Levi Edgar Willis#, radio and television personality, jurisdictional bishop, Virginia Third Jurisdiction; pastor, Garden of Prayer Temple, Norfolk, VA, Roy Lawrence Hailey Winbush#, general board member, jurisdictional bishop, Louisiana First Jurisdiction; pastor, Gethsemane, Lafayette, LA, Bishop Richard Mr. The General Secretary is the official keeper of the COGIC seal, Registered Agent for the Church and signatory on all official documents. [10] After testifying to being sanctified, members of the church referred to themselves as "Saints", believing that they were set apart to live a daily life of Christian Holiness in words and deeds.[11]. On June 5, 1951, he selected Bishop A. Mason as General Overseer and Chief Apostle. A Jeter and D. J. In the 1920s, Arizona Dranes, a blind Evangelist Missionary became one of the first gospel artists to bring the musical styles of COGIC to the public in her records for Okeh and performances. ", COGIC teaches that sanctification is a continuous operation of the Holy Spirit, by which he "delivers the justified sinner from the pollution of sin, renews his whole nature in the image of God and enables him to perform good works". C. P. Jones and those Holiness leaders who did not embrace the Azusa Revival experience continued as Holiness churches. Today COGIC has more than 12,000 churches, and several schools, missions, and medical clinics in more than eighty nations, including every inhabited continent. Secretary of the Board of Bishops Bishop William Watson, III. The General Board of the Church of God in Christ, Inc (COGIC) is responsible for establishing and executing policies for the membership, as well as sustaining and perpetuating spiritual order within the Church. As COGIC continued to grow, the various departments began the practice of convening annually to conduct the business unique of their ministries. [29], Bishop Gilbert Earl (G. E.) Patterson began his ministry as co-pastor of the Holy Temple COGIC with his father, Bishop W. A. Patterson. She began women's work on the state level and appointed the first state mothers. The Elders' Council met and organized the first Missions board of the Church of God in Christ. Owens and became known as AIM (Auxiliaries in Ministry). The General Board received a summation of the actions of the National Board of Trustees and updates on national properties since November 2018. As African Americans migrated north and west to industrial cities during the Great Migration, he began to establish COGIC churches in the north and, especially after 1940, in the west. Vice Chairman of the National Judiciary Board Bishop Enoch Perry. They are the largest department in the COGIC. President, International Youth Department Superintendent Nathaniel Green. According to Alex Haley, "He and his wife then received bomb threats at home and at church." As a Pentecostal church, COGIC teaches that when one is baptized in the Holy Spirit, the believer will experience an initial evidence of speaking in tongues (glossolalia) by the will of God. In 2017, Presiding Bishop Charles E. Blake appointed gospel artist and Evangelist Dr. Dorinda Clark Cole of Detroit, Michigan as the Elect Lady. This system HAS BEEN LICENSED FOR USE BY the General Secretary's and Financial Secretary's Offices of the Church Of God In Christ. The Chairman of the Board of Bishops, CC it to both the Board of Bishop's Secretary and the Chairman of the Grievance Committee. Second Vice Chairman of the National Board of Trustees Attorney Amos Smith. Robinson was a staunch advocate for holiness and taught strict guidelines for the women with regard to dress and worldliness. The general assembly meets biannually each year in April and November while the presidium acts as the executive branch of the church, overseeing the day-to-day operation when the general assembly is not in session. The racial climate in the post WWI years, when there was high competition for jobs and housing and violent unrest in many cities in 1919, would not sustain this relationship. COGIC members gathered for praying, fasting, teaching, preaching, fellowship and conducting business related to the national COGIC organization. Jurisdictions are set up similar to the national church in terms of composition, polity, and procedure. All charges against a Pastor or a local Church must be filed with the General Secretary, and the Jurisdictional Secretary. [5] Although an international and multi-ethnic religious organization, it has a predominantly African-American membership based within the United States. We believe the Bible to be the inspired and only infallible written Word of God. He referred in his sermon to gay men as "sissies", "perverted and lost", and said, "If you want to feel like a girl; I wish God would give you the monthly of a girl; I wish He had you bleeding out of your butt. The denomination teaches that God gives life to human beings, biologically and spiritually, through the moment of conception in the womb of the mother, using Jeremiah 1:5, Genesis 1:2627, and Psalms 139:1316 as their scriptural basis for this belief. Each department convened its own convention in various cities through 1975. Mother Dorothy Exume#, foreign missionary, Evangelist Reatha D. Herndon#, first and longest-serving elect Lady, church organizer, national evangelist, Supervisor Deola Wells Johnson, national evangelist, jurisdictional supervisor, Evangelist Maria Gardner Langston, COGIC pastor, national evangelist, former Elect Lady, Mother Elsie Washington Mason#, third and final wife of Bishop Mason, Mother Lelia Washington Mason#, second wife of Bishop Mason. Some pastor's wives have served as pastor of congregations usually after the death of a pastor sometimes serving under the title of "shepherdess, shepherd mother, or church administrator. [50], In July 2016 during their annual Auxiliaries in Ministries convention, COGIC announced their Urban Initiative Outreach ministries and Missions and Charity departments would be partnering up with The Human Coalition, an anti-abortion advocacy group, from 2016 to 2019 for a three-year initiative to encourage COGIC pastors and ministers to encourage anti-abortion advocacy in their local churches. Rev. Young were appointed as a committee by C. P. Jones to investigate reports of a revival in Los Angeles, California that was being led by an itinerant preacher named William J. Seymour. The constitutional convention drafted and approved a new constitution which dissolved both the office of the Senior Bishop and the executive board; it also established the General Assembly, which meets biannually, as the supreme authority over the church to decide matters of faith and practice. Historically, women in ministry in COGIC are known as "Missionaries" and are designated in two categories: Deaconess Missionary, and Evangelist Missionary. This endorsement allows female chaplains who are serving in the military, working in an institution or jails to perform religious services including funerals and weddings. Users should have no expectation of privacy as to any communication on or information stored within the system,
During 1910-1913, two white ministers, Elder H. A. Goss and Elder Leonard P. Adams, were clergy under the authority of C. H. Mason. Many Holiness Christian groups and fellowships forming at the time wanted biblical names for their local churches and fellowships, such as "Church of God, Church of Christ, or Church of the Living God". In addition to the general board, there is a board of bishops that is composed of all jurisdictional and auxiliary bishops, a national trustee board that is composed of 15 members who are elected for a term of four years, the General Council of Pastors and Elders, which is open to any officially recognized pastor and current credentialed ordained elder in the church. Owens outlined a progressive plan to position the COGIC for ministry in the twenty-first century, known as "Vision 2000 and Beyond." After being ejected for accepting these new Pentecostal teachings, Mason called a meeting in Memphis later in the year and reorganized the Church of God in Christ as a Holiness-Pentecostal body. In 1945, Mason dedicated Mason Temple in Memphis as the church's national meeting site. At the 1907 COGIC Convocation held in Jackson, a separation occurred among Jones and other leaders in the church because of such disagreements. According to a 2015 statistical study by the Pew Research Center, the denomination was estimated to have a United States membership of approximately 84% African-Americans, 5% White Americans, 8% Latino-Americans, and roughly 2% Asian-Americans. Email: cogsecgeneral@churchofgod.org. It teaches that sanctification should precede the baptism with the Holy Spirit. [6], In June 1896, Jones held a Holiness convention at Mt. Bishop Blake is the senior pastor of the West Angeles Cathedral COGIC in Los Angeles. Many mainline denominations and countless nondenominational churches that once rejected these beliefs and practices have adopted these distinctions in their worship liturgy and lifestyle practices. COGIC also teaches that all the spiritual gifts are for believers today. The Office of the General Secretary is responsible for developing and maintaining data pertaining to the Church Of God In Christ and oversees the credentialing of those engaged in the ministry of the Church. It was destroyed by fire in 1936. The jurisdictional supervisor is assisted by district missionaries who oversee the women's ministry of the district. A visionary, she spearheaded the establishment of the multi-million dollar Hale Morris Lewis Manor, a senior citizen complex in Los Angeles, CA. According to the Articles of Religion, "We believe that we are not baptized with the Holy Ghost in order to be saved, but that we are baptized with the Holy Ghost because we are saved". We hope you enjoy learning more about the Church leadership and the important role they have in leading God's people. Thereafter, missionaries were sent to Africa and the islands of the Caribbean, Asia, and elsewhere. Forms; Assessments, Records and Credentials Portal; Resolution; General Assembly Minutes; COGIC ARC; OGS Training Registration; Facebook; Contact; Bishop Blake also won a defamation lawsuit in 2016 against Earl Carter, who was ordered to remove all defamatory videos and to cease and desist from further conduct disparaging Bishop Blake. Patterson, who became presiding bishop in 2000 at the age of 60. The Voice of Missions a bimonthly magazine, John Seth Bailey#, general board member, jurisdictional bishop, Michigan Southwest Jurisdiction; pastor, Bailey Cathedral, Detroit, MI, Elmer Elijah Cleveland#, jurisdictional bishop, Northern California Jurisdiction, pastor, Ephesians, Oakland, CA, Bishop David Willard Grayson, Sr#, Jurisdictional Bishop of Maine, Founding Jurisdictional Bishop of Eastern New York Fourth, David Daniels, educator, professor, auxiliary bishop, James Logan Delk#, politician, pastor, First, Hopkinsville, KY, James Louis Felton, auxiliary bishop, pastor, Mount Airy, Philadelphia, PA, James Neaul Haynes#, general board member, jurisdictional bishop, Texas Northeast First Jurisdiction; pastor, Saintsville, Dallas, TX, Roderick Hennings, author, auxiliary bishop, pastor, Zion Dominion Global Ministries, Amherst, NY, William Morgan James#, general board member, jurisdictional bishop, Ohio North First Jurisdiction, pastor, St. James, Toledo, OH and James Temple, Cincinnati, OH, Orzo Thurston Jones Jr.#, general board member, jurisdictional bishop, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Jurisdiction; pastor, Holy Temple, Philadelphia, PA, Otha Miema Kelly#, general board member, jurisdictional bishop, Eastern New York First Jurisdiction; pastor, Kelly Temple, Harlem, NY, Otis Lockett#, church planter, jurisdictional bishop, North Carolina Second Jurisdiction, pastor, Evangel Word Fellowship, Greensboro, NC, George Dallas McKinney#, scholar, general board member, jurisdictional bishop, Southern California Second Jurisdiction; pastor, St. Stephen's Cathedral, San Diego, CA, S.E. Then in 1946, the YPWW Department was combined with the Sunday School Department for joint conventions until 1951 when they were separated once again. [8], In 1897, Elder Mason founded the St. Paul Church in Lexington, Mississippi, as the first church of the new movement. [17][16] The organizers of the meeting in Hot Springs had sent invitations only to white ministers to discuss a new movement. Nevertheless, women are licensed in COGIC to proclaim the gospel as evangelists. G. E. Patterson established the Temple of Deliverance, the Cathedral of Bountiful Blessing which grew to become the largest Pentecostal church in Memphis with over 14,000 members. [29] In 1926, upon the recommendation of Mother Lizzie Roberson, Elder C. G. Brown of Kansas City Missouri, was appointed the first Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Home and Foreign Missions Department by Bishop C. H. Mason. In 1924, the Sunday School was formally organized under "Father" F. C. Christmas (19161944). Pentecostals have been criticized because of their noticeable absence from the official record of activism that has been largely overshadowed by black ministers of other denominations such as Baptists and Methodists; however, there is evidence to verify and document the role and response of COGIC ministers and other Pentecostal denominations to the cause and struggle for Civil Rights in the United States during the 20th Century. She developed the International Women's Convention into a training institute for women in the ministry. In 1984 and 1988 respectively, Rev. Dr. Mattie McGlothen (19751994) the fourth General Supervisor, was a tremendous organizer with great impact on the development of the Women's Department. [61] Finally, she changed the visible presence of women in ministry with the introduction of the ministry "habit".