The History of COGIC

so let's get started a 100 year journey of the church of god in christ bishop o.t jones jr a dear friend of mine and a great leader once said that if the apostle paul lived in this century and they had to become a part of a church he believed that the apostle paul would join the church of god in christ because the church of god in christ most excellently reflects the doctrines of the bible and the word of god as preached by the apostle paul it is great as it is because the church of god in christ is a praying church it was prayed out by our foundering father the late bishop charles harris and mason now i think that the general population has not heard a great deal regarding bishop mason for the same reason that the church of god in christ is in many ways one of the best kept secrets that exists in uh our society in the world today we are and he was an african-american a black man and historically especially prior to the 50s the affairs and activities of black people really did not come to the fore in terms of the media in any significant way and so we were really off the the charts off the scope off the screen in terms of our development and in terms of our life mason was very thorough and diligent about a very strong prayer life and i believe that really sets him apart from a lot of pentecostals of the day because he spent that time laying groundwork in prayer before anything else occurred c.p jones rejected tongues c h mason accepted the pentecost experience the church split into equal factions today the church of god in christ has 6 million members the largest pentecostal church in america the church of rejected tongues only has one member for every one church that the church of god in christ has less than 20 000 members it doesn't pay to reject the work of the holy spirit so mason went down as one of the great saints of the church one of the giants of pentecostal history and the last one alive never any stain never any scandals he was truly a sanctified brother filled with the holy spirit one of the giants of the pentecostal movement sometimes when he prayed he would actually groan additionally there was an unusual power and anointing upon him in preaching uh as he preached the gospel unbelievers and cynics and agnostics and folk who were full of anger and prejudice would suddenly come under conviction and would repent and receive the lord jesus christ so miracles were a common occurrence in his ministry all over this country he came back to memphis but before he got to memphis he went to virginia many people don't know this to the bicentennial of jamestown and he preached on the streets of norfolk and the people there tell me that 6 000 people were saved while mason preached on the streets of norfolk virginia in 1907. have we not all one father have not one god created all of us god created all of us there's no such thing as a white god our black god according to nelson's figures from 1889 to 1922 3436 people were known victims of lynchings this included 83 women this was an average of two lynchings per week for over 33 years the lynchings took place in 44 of those 48 states and mind you these are just the cases that were reported to be sure at least 33 percent were not reported through peer pressure and other scare tactics those fortunate enough not to totally lose their lives were victims of brandings with acid tarring and feathering brandings and flogging scrubbings and stabbings and numerous other diabolically inflicted acts of brutality during the early days that segregation was the order of the day blacks were not ign admitted or allowed to use accommodations in hotels and motels i can remember that the holy complication lasted 20 days it would start on the 25th of november and go to the 14th of december and rally could you have that and miss thank giving now remember that at that time your convocation started with three days of fasting and prayer so while other people were eating that thanksgiving turkey we were in a three-day pass and so the black people of memphis opened their homes we stayed in houses we didn't stay in hotels we stayed in houses my bishop he wouldn't allow us to stay in a hotel boy that was the worst thing in the world and he let him stay in the house that he was staying in he was in one room and my friend my uh brother in christ he was in another room and i was in another room and so he was protecting us he was keeping us from all danger harm seen and unseen and we enjoyed we didn't think i loved it many nights we spent the night in the in the mason uh temple and of course they wouldn't have to sleep all night because there was worship going on all night there was worship 27 24 during those 20 days and there was uh yesterday special teaching at two o'clock in the morning with bishop s m krause from from los angeles and that was midnight service with utah smith from louisiana that was shouting and dancing and speaking in tongues and just having a hallelujah good time in the law mason seems to be very wiry in some of the pictures that you see but his prayer and fasting life was a life that enabled him to have that that cleansing anointing that power so that when the yearly convocations were held people who were not even church of god in christ would come to memphis because they knew that if mason laid hands on them that they would be healed many miraculous healings came about during mason's ministry it was a wonderful time of the coming together of god's people to worship to praise god to be cleansed and forgiven healed and sent forth to continue the work of ministry from a personal standpoint some of my relatives and my friends and neighbors they thought that i'd lost my mind they called me crazy that i had embarrassed my family by going with those ignorant sanctified folk that was really cute and there was uh discrimination against pentecostal holiness people and my husband didn't understand it and i went through a great deal trying to get him to understand that it was really really real and it took years before my sisters caught a hold to the real truth of it they faced social ostracism uh the pentecostal uh movement was not called the pentecostal movement then it was called the holy roller movement i know as as as a child and the other young people from my community and was true across the nation when the young people came to school from the church of god in christ they behaved differently and were taught not to participate in fighting and cussing and and and stealing and doing stuff that was wrong and that was this focus upon fasting even the children would fast and pray and there was a difference because there was this focus upon holiness and piety and consecration to god and we were ridiculed because of that my first job as a minister with a master's degree paid 75 a week and i ministered and served at that level and that was in the mid 60s and the early 60s and so if i operated at that level you can imagine the sacrifices and the deprivation and the poverty that those leaders who served years before i did endured father magram's father had been shot while preaching in a tent ministry he was preaching one night and oftentimes what would happen to people if you started a pentecostal ministry and people in town did not like it they would send writers by and in this particular meeting where magrum's father was preaching somebody shot into the tent the shot hit him in the chest and he died as a result of this this is a high price to pay for the ministry we don't think about people coming by to shoot and just indiscriminately just because you don't like a message but for many early pentecostals these were the kinds of things that they were subjected to we firmly believe that bishop mason was in prayer and god gave him that affirmation of yes it may have come after we would hear him say hear the groans hear the groans hear the groans lord this is your petition of your people crying out to you for for just relief from this situation hear the groans hear the groans hear the groans but yet god places on us the responsibility of having a part so what should we say yes yes i'll obey yes it was never repetitious every yes was different yes it's yes to your will yes to your way the church of god in christ has shown the world a pattern of freedom in worship it's a freedom that you enjoy that our church has introduced in worship and we really describe many of that as being a spirit-led worship one very big and important thing about mason is how he empowered women i think this is one of the things that he gets out of this azusa street experience and in 1911 he asked a woman mother lizzie robinson to become the first overseer of the women's work of the church of god in christ an organization that is still going strong today our women's department was founded on prayer and the bible when mother robinson organized the women department it was when she found two group of women one praying in one studying the bible she put them together and made the prayer and bible band and it's really amazing to see the kind of ministry she has from that she begins to start to teach throughout the tennessee and arkansas area and when mason sees her he brings her to memphis to speak and she begins to hold bible studies and she has bible studies for men and bible studies for women and mason allows her to teach the men of the denomination but when the men saw her the first time they got up and started walking out in the line out the door but bishop mason was hiding behind one of the poles in the church and he yelled back at him and said every one of you come back and sit down come back and sit down i want you to hear of course you know that the assemblies of god ministers organized the assemblies of god from 1907 until 1913 received church of god in christ credentials and in many ways looked to ch mason as their leader and as their overseer the southern communities were vicious against whites and blacks worshiping together and they made fun of the white passes who were under a black bishop the culture is clearly having an impact the white folk finally walk off and they go to hot springs arkansas on april of 1914 and they form in conjunction with people from azusa street from indianapolis from ohio and so forth and from colorado they formed the assemblies of god after 1924 white and black pentecostas live separate lives separate worlds it was called the miracle of memphis after years of separation in 1994 some of the leaders from the assemblies of god and the church of god in christ were moved to come together reconciliation what took place is not just for two denominations but symbolic for all believers at a subsequent meeting tongues went forth the lord had much to say pastor jack hayford gave the interpretation my sons and my daughters look if you will from the heaven word side of things and see wherever you have been two separate streams but a streams that flood tide nonetheless but now look look for i by my spirit i'm flowing the two streams into one and the two becoming one if you can see from the heavens side of things are being purified so know there is reason for you to rejoice and prepare yourself for there shall be multitudes more than ever before come to this joint surging of my grace among you says the lord i would say the future of the church of god in christ is very bright nevertheless we must remember that we have a unique history out of our unique history grows in unique identity we must never forget who we are we must never forget whose we are and um what has brought us to this point into this day and so as long as we hold to our core beliefs our core doctrines our core convictions and present them in such a way that impacts this contemporary world and in a way that the world can understand and relate to them i think that the future is very very very bright from glory to glory past present and future this is the church of god in christ

Channel: GGCOGIC

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Length: 15min 35sec (935 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 07 2021