Williams Temple Church of God in Christ Gainesville FL

Williams Temple COGIC Family Ministries seeks to strengthen the total man placing a special emphasis on unity, family, and fellowship.

We believe if the total man is healed, then the overall family is successful!

OUR VISION

To be a ministry fully equipped to minister to the total man, placing a special emphasis on Unity, Family and Fellowship!

OUR MISSION

“To change lives through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ; reaching out to families and communities; demonstrating the power of love effectively; and empowering lives for successful Kingdom living.”

OUR MINISTRY

Williams Temple Church of God in Christ is a ministry that always walks in the love of God, that sees one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, that is able to minister to the whole man – spirit, soul, and body – with a God-led outreach program. We are committed to being led by the Spirit of God by providing a place where people can receive deliverance from oppression and possession that teaches people how to enter into a personal, intimate, and lasting relationship with God. Our ministry supports and uplifts the family institution, ministers to the hurting, reaches out to the down-hearted, and implements and supports programs for every need.

 

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http://wtcogicfl.com  

 

 

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HISTORY

The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) is a denomination of the Christian Church. Historically, it is an African American Holiness-Pentecostal church. The church has congregations in nearly 60 countries worldwide. With a membership of over 5 million during 2007, it is the largest African-American and largest Pentecostal church in the United States. ORIGIN

The Church of God in Christ was formed in 1897 by a group of Baptists disassociated from their church, most notably Charles Price Jones (1865-1949) and Charles Harrison Mason (1866-1961). Mason was a licensed preacher for the Baptist Church in Arkansas in the 1890s and was disassociated by the local Baptist association for preaching Holiness. He then became associated with a group of men who would become the early African American leaders of the Holiness Movement late in the 19th century. Many different revivals were conducted leading to the establishment in Jackson, Mississippi of a new church when the first convocation took place in 1897. The group was originally known simply as the “Church of God.” While seeking for a name in order to distinguish this Holiness organization, Mason believed the name Church of God in Christ taken from 1 Thessalonians 2:14 was both divinely revealed and biblically supported. The Church would then be reorganized with Jones as General Overseer, Mason as Overseer of Tennessee, and Jeter as Overseer of Arkansas. PENTECOSTAL BODY

In 1906, Mason, Jeter and D.J. Young were appointed as a committee by Jones in order to investigate reports of a revival in Los Angeles, being conducted by the traveling preacher, William J. Seymour. Mason’s visit to what was known then known as the Azusa Street Revival changed the direction of the newly formed Holiness church. Upon his return to Tennessee from the Azusa Street Revival, Mason started to preach and teach the Pentecostal Holiness message.

In 1907, Jeter and Jones rejected Mason’s teachings about the baptism with the Holy Spirit with “speaking in tongues” as the initial evidence, resulting in a mutual separation. Jones continued leading his adherents as a Holiness church, changing the name in 1915 to the Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A. Mason called a conference in Memphis, Tennessee, known as the Holy Convocation and reorganized the Church of God in Christ as a Pentecostal-Holiness body. The COGIC was the first Pentecostal body to be incorporated and this gave it advantages that other Pentecostal groups did not have.

Pentecostal denominations such as the Assemblies of God USA, the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, and the United Pentecostal Church International did not have such incorporation yet. Because of the COGIC’s incorporated status, this gave its credentials a legal recognition that many Pentecostal ministers desired. By the time the Assemblies of God was sounded in 1914, there were over 350 white ministers licensed through the COGIC.

During World War II, the construction was a benchmark effort by a group of African-Americans during that period. It was the largest Black-owned church auditorium in America during the 1940s. The historic church auditorium was the location of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s final message to the world. He delivered “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” speech from the pulpit of the Mason Temple. RECENT HISTORY

The church has experienced incredible growth since the inception in 1907 comprised of 10 churches. COGIC originally began in the southern states of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. As African Americans migrated north during the Great Migration, converted members began to spread the church north and west. By the time of Bishop Mason’s death in 1961, COGIC had spread to every state in the Union and also many foreign countries with a membership comprising more than 400,000. In 1973, the church claimed a worldwide membership of close to three million. Today the COGIC has a worldwide membership estimated to be more than eight million members in more than sixty nations.

Recently, the COGIC and the Assemblies of God have dedicated themselves to reconciling and healing these two organizations that separated on racial lines in 1914, by working together in common ministries. STRUCTURE

The Church of God in Christ has holds an episcopal form of government, where churches are organized in dioceses called jurisdictions that are each under the authority of a bishop. The administrative and legislative authority of the church are vested in a General Assembly. The General Assembly is composed of ordained and credentialed pastors, elders, evangelists, missionaries, chaplains, and jurisdictional/auxiliary bishops.

The General Assembly elects a 12-person General Board (Presidium) from the college of bishops that serve functionally as apostles. The Presidium oversees all the operations of the international church when the General Assembly is not in session. The Presidium includes a separately elected International Presiding Bishop that serves a term of four years with two appointed assistant presiding bishops. The Presiding Bishop and Chief Apostle currently is Bishop Charles E. Blake. Sr. National officers of the church are chosen at a General Assembly every four years unless special elections are warranted.

In addition to the General Board, there is a Board of Bishops, a National Trustee Board, Judiciary Board, Council of Pastors and Elders, and various departments and auxiliaries united collectively under an umbrella organization known as Auxiliaries in Ministry (AIM).

World headquarters are in Memphis, Tennessee, which is commonly referred to by members as the “Holy City of the Saints of God”, “Jerusalem” or “the Holy Mecca of the Saints of God”. The headquarters are housed in the Mason Temple. Each year, more than 50,000 representatives from COGIC churches will meet there for Holy Convocation.