Before 8 a.m. Friday morning, thousands were already seated in The Dome at America’s Center for the Annual Women’s Day Worship Service that was part of the Church of God In Christ 111th Annual Holy Convocation programming. Dressed to the nines – some in navy blue, others in white – they showed no signs of fatigue from the morning, noon and night praise and worship festivities that had been carrying on all week throughout America’s Center. For nearly two weeks in early November each year, tens of thousands of saints convene from all over the world in St. Louis to sing, pray, preach, shout and dance while conducting church business.
At convocation, they express the faith of the more than six million in 100 nations that make up the COGIC Church – and serve under the current leadership of Presiding Bishop and Chief Apostle Charles Edward Blake Sr. – just as they have done for more than 110 years.
Even after nearly a decade in St. Louis, the Holy Convocation is a sight to behold. Some of the biggest names in the faith community have visited the city. But as they gathered this year under the theme of “The Church Seasoning The World,” moments within the fellowship, worship and outreach served as a reminder of how the work of COGIC stretches to those Jesus referred to as “the least of these.”
Evangelist Mother Frances Kelley, National Director of COGIC’s Intercessory Prayer Ministry, was charged with delivering the Women’s Day message. As she was introduced, her credentials read as any of the world renowned faith leaders who have addressed COGIC at Convocation over the years.
But the most compelling element of her sermon was the testimony of how she was led to Christ through COGIC. She was married to “the owner of the biggest nightclub in Detroit.” She lived in a mansion and had casually visited a “tiny storefront sanctified church” as she sought spiritual comfort while her marriage was in turmoil.
Late one night, the doorbell rang. She was being served with an eviction order.
“I said ‘when,’” Kelley said. “He said, ‘now.’ It was 39 degrees. I had been to New York and lived on Central Park West. I worked at The Apollo. I opened for Billie Holliday. And there I was being put out in 39 degree weather in Detroit.
And I don’t mean just put out. I mean the furniture outdoors on the ground in that little grassy spot before you get to the house.”
She also had a baby in a crib. Kelley begged the authorities not to put her out on the street with her baby. He was merciful enough to tell her to call someone. A native of Memphis, she had nobody in Detroit to call.
“I couldn’t cry,” Kelley said. “I just stood there in the door watching them take out thousand dollar chairs. I had a 16-room home – and this gambling, numbers running, bookie husband of mine had everything in it that you could want. And I had all of that snatched right out from me.”
She tried to call her husband. She got no answer. He was more than likely with his mistress.
“But let me tell you what God will do,” Kelley exclaimed.
A deacon from that little sanctified storefront church – who lived on the other side of town – just happened to be driving by with his 16-year-old son in a big empty truck as she stood at the door.
He asked her what was happening.
“By then the tears began to come,” Kelley said.
She said she sobbed her way through her story. Her husband got them put out. She had no money, no local family and nowhere to go.
“He said ‘is your phone still on?’
The deacon called his wife and told her that “Sister Kelley has been put out.”
“Sister Kelley, would you and Durango (Kelley’s son) be willing to come sleep up in the attic? It’s two rooms up there,” Kelley said. “I told him, ‘are you kidding me…I would be willing to sleep in the garage rather than on the ground in the snow. I ain’t got nowhere to go’.”
He and his teenage son made three trips to get Kelley and her infant son moved in.
The deacon’s wife had a condition in exchange for her hospitality. A 10 a.m. she would call Kelley down for prayer time.
“That’s how I learned to call on him,” Kelley said, moved to a shout. “I didn’t have church clothes. I had holes in my stockings. My son ate cornflakes three times a day sometimes. But I had to get up and pray in her house. I learned how to call on Jesus.
Then I realized, I could pray by myself.”
A church that gives
Just as the deacon and his wife saved Mother Kelley so many decades ago, Williams Temple Senior Pastor and COGIC General Board member Bishop Lawrence Wooten sat under a tent at the corner of Union and Dr. Martin Luther King Drive in the bitter cold with the warmest smile on his face. He never once shivered as he watched hundreds line up and receive blessings on behalf of COGIC and their Annual Christmas in November event that gifts groceries, toys, new and gently used household items and clothes to families in need.
“Love is giving,” Wooten said. “In the Word it says, ‘God so loved the world, that he gave…’so we give to our community.”
An hour after the event was supposed to be over, volunteers were still handing out care packages that included toys and groceries.
“Jesus met the needs of the people, that’s what it’s all about, “ Wooten said. “We’ve had mothers to stand out here cry, because without this they would have had no Christmas. We just want to be a blessing.”
Wooten said the COGIC ministry is about, meeting their natural needs and their spiritual needs.
“You can’t tell a man ‘I need you to receive the Lord’ and he’s hungry. If you see a brother hungry, feed him,” Wooten said. “We want the people in this community to know as a church that we love them. Jesus said, ‘I must go where the need is.’ And I’m just so glad to be out here helping people get their needs met.
Wooten also pointed out the various resources that are offered during convocation each year.
“We have worship all night and all day, but we also help the people right here in St. Louis,” Wooten said. “We have legal clinics and advice. We have health fairs, we have classes on how to start a business, we have a job fair.”
He also mentioned the COGIC Cares Children’s Charity that helps young people in developing nations and the annual banquet that has raised funds for the initiative.
“We are trying to touch everybody in this region – and in the world.”
This year it was announced that after 11 years in St. Louis, The Holy Convocation will return to COGIC’s international headquarters in Memphis starting in 2021.
The church body voted on Monday that the Holy Convocation would be once again held in the city that served as its host for more than a century. They have committed to remain in Memphis through 2023.
“Memphis has special significance in the spiritual and cultural life of COGIC and we are pleased to return to the place of our origin,” Blake said in a statement.
