It is certainly no overstatement to assert that the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) is “the Church that keeps on giving.” From every angle of its 111-year presence as a household acronym tightly woven into the vibrant fabric of the American experience, COGIC carves out a crystal clear diamond of determination for giving St. Louis something to look forward to each year.
“The Church of God in Christ is one of the oldest Pentecostal denominations in the country,” said COGIC Presiding Bishop Charles E. Blake Sr. “Our annual Holy Convocation, held in St. Louis since 2010, is the largest, singular Christian conference that inspires and encourages hundreds of thousands of believers across the globe.”
Once again this year, COGIC is poised to converge upon the City of St. Louis again to make a tangible economic impact on the St. Louis community. Slating a full agenda of activities commencing on Monday, November 5 from morning until night, the church’s flourishing membership will power-boost the St. Louis economy, leaving no street corner untouched.
Our members arrive at the Convocation fully prepared to invest heavily in local businesses –from its restaurants and clothing outlets to its gift shops and salons. The whole principle of leaving an impact only reinforces our global model of ministry.
Since 2010, COGIC’s impact on the St. Louis regional economy has exceeded $150 million. In 2017, the St. Louis Business Journal ranked the 2017 COGIC Holy Convocation second on its list of St. Louis’s Largest Conventions & Group Events and projects that this year’s Convocation will be the second largest in 2018.
“We want to congratulate Bishop Blake and the entire COGIC family on another successful Convocation here at the America’s Center,” Kathleen “Kitty” Ratcliffe, president of Explore St. Louis, said at the close of last year’s Convocation, “and we eagerly await their return in 2018.” The 2017 Convocation drew more than 25,000 attendees from across the nation, she said, and helped to generate an estimated $18 million in direct economic impact for the St. Louis region.
This inspiration travels far, runs deep and engenders outreach which is both visible and tangible, all within the immediate scope of the downtown area, flowing from the multi-layered initiatives of our COGIC Cares Community Events, including Christmas in November (9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, November 10), job referrals, distribution of free cell phones for those qualified, hot lunches, practical household items, clothing, health screening and free legal advice.
Although the services of the annual Convocation do not directly require the onsite participation of the local population, the Convocation’s mere presence catalyzes economic growth. This is stimulated through the natural instinct of its membership to instantly create new friends with shopkeepers who, in turn, enthusiastically look forward to seeing their annual weeklong customers stop into their favorite establishments daily – collectively offering them a robustly seasoned taste of what it means to be first-hand partakers of COGIC’s purchasing power.
So, on Tuesday, November 6, during your lunch break, stop into Starbucks, Sugarfire Smokehouse, the Marriott Grand St. Louis, The Holiday Inn or The Hilton. From front desk lines two rows deep will emanate a unique, engaging buzz unassumingly drowning out the programming airing from the lobby’s flat screens.
Suffice it to say, then, that Christmas really does come in November for retailers and proprietors in downtown St. Louis. The joy of unwrapping and setting out their welcome mats to COGIC seems almost as rewarding as the warmth that fills the city as the they make St. Louis their home for a full week. Greeted by invigorating billboards and banners that roll out the table for the saints to keep coming, this has become a tradition as recognizable as the Gateway Arch. As long as COGIC keeps coming, it will continue to assert its own unmistakable personality as the church that keeps on giving … and giving.
Bishop Frank White is the financial secretary of the Church of God in Christ.
