“Tell your neighbor we are going to shake the world for Jesus Christ,” Church of God in Christ Presiding Bishop Charles E. Blake Sr. told a packed audience inside the Edward Jones Dome in downtown St. Louis on Sunday. “We must make sure the Church of God of Christ is impacting not only the church, not only the children, but the entire global community.”
Tens of thousands of saints returned on what has become an annual pilgrimage to St. Louis for COGIC’s 105th Holy Convocation. There was the usual praise, prayer and worship from the rising of the sun and extending to the threat of meeting a new sunrise the next day. The annual Friday midnight musical explosion had a performance roster that read like a WOW Gospel Hits compilation and an overall energy of God’s people coming together for a greater good.
But there also was something new as they praised and worshiped under the theme of “Seeking God’s ways for us and our succeeding generations through obedience, prayer and the word.” Perhaps they should have added “the universe” within their mission for Convocation 105.
Though COGIC is immersed in the African-American experience, the faith has a global reach and impact with more than 6 million members worldwide.
“Bishop Blake is the most globally traveled Presiding Bishop in the history of the Church of God in Christ,” said Rev. Phillip Aquilla Brooks II, First Assistant Presiding Bishop and Prelate, Michigan Northeast.
“In five years he has ministered in nearly 24 nations and inspired thousands of COGIC parishioners who had never laid eyes on a Presiding Bishop – and they have been able to do so in Asia, Africa, South America, the Caribbean, Europe and just about every state in these United States.”
‘Daniels in Africa’
Brooks’ words echoed the teachings and testimony of Thursday afternoon speaker Bishop Dr. Francis M. Kamau, senior pastor of Cornerstone Nairobi, which has planted more than 45 Faith Assembly Churches throughout the nation of Kenya.
“Please apologize for your neighbor for me because I speak with a Kenyan African accent,” Kamau said. “I wish I could imitate and speak the way some of the great speakers who have already spoken – but I will speak the way my mama taught me.”
Calm and reserved, his preaching style bore little resemblance to the down-home whoops and melodic shouts that COGIC has become known for since being founded by Bishop Charles H. Mason in the late 19th Century.
As he used statistics of waning faith around the world, he quietly assured the audience of the promises that lie within the Church of God in Christ by dipping into his faith and his homeland. He used the example of the global reach of the music of COGIC – even citing St. Louis’ own O’Neal Twins.
Kamau reflected on an incident of a lion breaking into his village and killing cows and the beast’s subsequent capture.
“The devil is already in a cage,” Kamau said. “We just have to shut the gate. We have to shut the gate of poverty from this country and the world – and we have to shut the gate of personal and corporate moral decay.”
The thought of Satan in captivity brought on praise that shook the room.
Praise from the motherland by way of COGIC’s Holy Convocation continued Friday night, but this time from further down the continent.
Bishop Tudor Bismark, who serves as the senior pastor of New Life Covenant Church in Harare, Zimbabwe (and a ministry that reaches 27 nations across the world), delivered fiery words more in line with what COGIC is used to.
“We would be extremely naïve to think that gatherings like this alone will change the trajectory of our world. There is going to have to be brazen courage and brazen decisions that will position the body of Christ for what we believe is an in-time thrust and move of the Holy Spirit,” Bismark said.
“It seems like the body of Christ is under duress, like we are retreating in so many ways. If we do not understand where we are, we could have been delivered but we walk around as slaves unnecessarily. Thank you for all that you have done, and thank you for 105 years. But now we’ve come full circle. We want our schools back. We want our power back. We want the Holy Ghost to empower what has never been empowered before.”
He spoke with prophetic flair, in reference to the biblical prophet Daniel.
“God is about to anoint Daniels all over this room – Daniels in Africa that will speak as God has said,” Bismark said.
“Africa is not for sale. Our families are not for sale. Slavery is a thing of the past. We must mobilize our numbers and our thoughts – a flood is a drop of rain put together.”
‘Healing is in this place’
“Any of y’all believe healing is in this place right now?” asked Mark Gilkey, Superintendent of the Kansas Southwest Region. “If you believe healing is in this place, look at your neighbor and say, ‘Healing is in this place right now.’”
He started out delivering the invocation on Thursday, but ended up sharing a praise report about being healed from diabetes since the last time COGIC met in St. Louis.
“I said if, ‘I could just get to the Holy Convocation – if I could go where the saints are, where the prayer warriors are,’” Gilkey said. “I’m here to let you know that whatever you came to the Convocation for, if you believe, leave it here and go home healed.”
On Saturday afternoon at the World Youth Day celebration, a praise break lasted longer than the keynote address as people shouted in thanksgiving for everything from student loan relief to a new car. As they counted their blessings, Bishop Blake reminded his church to be mindful of the bigger picture.
“We should be ashamed that we think so small when our God is so great,” Bishop Blake said as he delivered the Official Day message. “We should be ashamed that we are not shaking cities and impacting nations for our God. Let’s lift up our hands and call on our God to impact nations. Our cities are being destroyed. They are decaying. Lift up your hands and say, ‘God, help me win my city.’”
COGIC is working to do so through its Urban Initiatives, which focuses on education, economic development, crime reduction, family enhancement and financial literacy.
“The Bible says my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Unless we do something dramatic, something out of the norm, something aggressive, the future will indeed be bleak,” Bishop Blake said in a video presentation on Friday.
“We need to take action. We need to use our God-ordained positions of influence to advocate for changes in the schools, the home and in the community – with the support of government and businesses.”
He looked toward the future.
“We cannot stand by and wait for others to take the lead,” Bishop Blake said.
“All that we work for will one day be in the hands of our children. We leave them an ecologically devastated world. We leave them a trouble world – a world torn by war and conflict and a nation reeling from the impact of slavery and racism.”
Blake’s messages fell directly in line with Bismark’s live presentation later that day from the perspective of the other side of the world.
“So what we have to do is get those children singing ‘God Bless America’ and start pouring into them that ‘you will 30 years from now be the leaders,’” Bismark said.
“We have the power to put them there.”
