1895 to today · The churches · Featured Study
The Church of God in Christ
A church founded in Mississippi in the 1890s, with its centre at Memphis, Tennessee.
“It was in March, 1907, when I received Him, Jesus, my Lord, in the Holy Ghost,” Charles H. Mason said of his weeks in Los Angeles.
- Began
- 1895 or 1897 in Mississippi, as Mason's book gives both (probable)
- Bodies
- The Church of God in Christ
Gordon Parks, Members of the congregation of the Church of God in Christ, 1942. Public domain.
For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostility
Summary
The Church of God in Christ is a Holiness church of Black believers that became Pentecostal in 1907. Its own book of 1920 tells its first years in Mason's words.
- Two witnesses date its leader's baptism in the Spirit to the spring of 1907.
- Its leader told of jail for his preaching in the war years.
- It stood among the churches reconciled at Memphis in 1994.
The Texts of the Church's Statement
The texts come from Matthew 28, John 13, Acts 2 and Acts 10.
The church's statement What We Believe draws on three of these texts, and Mason's own book tells of the gift the fourth records.
Baptism and the Trinity
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
The church baptizes in the words of this verse.
The washing of feet
So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.
The church keeps the washing of feet that Jesus gave here.
John 13:14BSB
Tongues after the Spirit falls
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Mason's book tells of his own baptism in the Holy Ghost at Los Angeles in March 1907.
Acts 2:4BSB
For they heard them speaking in tongues and exalting God. Then Peter said,
Tongues followed the Spirit's coming here, the order the church's statement keeps.
Acts 10:46BSB
John 13:14, Acts 2:4, Acts 10:46
The Church's Branch of the Pentecostal Family
Eight dates from Mason's book, the mission's paper and Rodgers.
The Church of God in Christ runs from a Holiness church of the 1890s through Azusa Street to the repentance at Memphis.
1895 or 1897
- The Church of God in Christ organizedMason's book gives both
- The church at Lexington, Mississippi1897, by the same book
1906 to 1907
- The Azusa Street missionLos Angeles, 1906
- Mason's baptism in the SpiritMarch 1907, by his own account
1914 to 1920
- The Assemblies of GodHot Springs, 1914
- Mason before the court at Paris, Texas1918, by his own account
- 345 churches1920, the church's own count
1994
- Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches of North AmericaMemphis, October
Mason's book of 1920 gives both 1895 and 1897, and also 1907, 1918 and 1920; Rodgers gives 1914 and 1994.
The Christian Traditions dates the Pentecostals to 1906, the youngest of the families of the church it sets out.
How the Church Began and Came to Pentecost
Mason's own book and a letter in the Azusa paper.
The History and Life Work of Elder C. H. Mason, compiled by James Courts in 1920, is the church's own book of its leader. It says that “The Church of God in Christ was organized in 1895.” Earlier it says that in 1897 at Lexington, Mississippi, “there was soon established a Church of God in Christ.”
In the same book Mason dates his baptism in the Spirit to March 1907 in Los Angeles. “After five weeks I left Los Angeles, Cal., for Memphis, Tenn., my home,” he says. “The fire had fallen before my arrival.”
A second witness wrote from outside the church. G. B. Cashwell wrote to the Azusa mission's paper from Memphis in May 1907 that he had heard from Mason's church. He had met Mason the week before, he wrote, and found him “filled with the blessed Holy Ghost.”
Who reached Memphis first1 paragraph
Mason's book says a preacher it names as Glem Cook brought the message to Memphis before Mason came home.
The Truth They Keep: Holiness and the Spirit
Holiness and the Spirit in the church's statement.
The church holds the Holiness order of three steps, and it teaches that a believer will speak in a tongue “according to the sovereign will of Christ.”
What We Believe
The church's statement, set beside its forerunner at Azusa Street.
The church's statement keeps the order of the Azusa Street creed and words the place of tongues in its own way.
| The question | The Church of God in Christ | The Azusa Street creed of 1906 |
|---|---|---|
| When the baptism comes | “subsequent to conversion and sanctification” | a gift of power upon the sanctified life |
| Where tongues stand | tongue-speaking is “the consequence” of the baptism | the same evidence as on the Day of Pentecost |
The Church by Its Own Count
A count from Mason's book.
Mason's book of 1920 gives the church's own count: “Number of churches, 345; pastors, evangelists and women workers with the membership of more than 25,000.” It gives no method for the count.
Where the Church's Leader Went
The first council of the Assemblies of God, 1914.
Rodgers writes that Mason was one of the speakers at the first General Council of the Assemblies of God, at Hot Springs, Arkansas, in April 1914.
The Colour Line, the Court at Paris and Memphis
The record of 1914, Mason's jailing in 1918 and the repentance of 1994.
A largely white body of ministers called the Church of God in Christ and in Unity with the Apostolic Faith Movement “appears to have been structurally separate” from Mason's church, Rodgers writes. It began with Parham.
Rodgers writes that a formal relationship between the two bodies “has not been demonstrated due to a lack of historical documentation.”
Mason's own account tells of jail after he had told his hearers not to trust in the power of the nations at war. “In 1918 I was called to appear before the judge of the Kangaroo Court in Paris, Tex.,” he says.
The Assemblies of God adopted in 1939 a policy that refused Black ministers ordination at the national level, Rodgers writes, and rescinded it in 1962.
At Memphis on the morning of 18 October 1994 Leonard Lovett of the Church of God in Christ gave one of four papers. Donald Evans, an Assemblies of God pastor, washed the feet of Bishop Ithiel Clemmons of the church.
The release of 20191 paragraph
A release of the Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches of North America, written by Leilani Haywood in 2019, says Clemmons and Bernard E. Underwood laid the groundwork for Memphis, and that the leaders approved the Racial Reconciliation Manifesto.
Books to Read Next
The History and Life Work of Elder C. H. Mason, Chief Apostle, and His Co-Laborers
compiled by James Courts · 1920
Mason tells his own call, his weeks in Los Angeles and his jailing in 1918.
Free at the Library of CongressThe Apostolic Faith, volume 1, number 8
The Apostolic Faith Mission, Los Angeles · 1907
It prints Cashwell's letter from Memphis on Mason and his church.
Free at the Apostolic Faith ChurchWhat the Church Handed On
The Church of God in Christ joined the Holiness order of a sanctified life to the Pentecost Mason found in Los Angeles, and it carried both from Memphis.
The line through this page
The verse whose work this page shows continuing, then 1 link to other pages, in order of date.
The verse whose work this page shows continuing.
This page
The Church of God in Christ
May 1907
The Church of God in Christ to The Azusa Street Revival
G. B. Cashwell wrote to the Azusa mission's paper from Memphis in May 1907 that he had heard from Mason's church.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible (read 2026)
- James Courts, compiler, The History and Life Work of Elder C. H. Mason, Chief Apostle, and His Co-Laborers (1920), pages 27 to 43 and 63.
- The Apostolic Faith (Los Angeles), volume 1, numbers 1 and 8 (September 1906 and May 1907), in the Apostolic Faith Church's transcriptions.
- The Church of God in Christ, What We Believe (posted December 2014)
- Darrin J. Rodgers, Fully Committed: 100 Years of the Assemblies of God, Assemblies of God Heritage 34 (2014), citing Ithiel C. Clemmons, Bishop C. H. Mason and the Roots of the Church of God in Christ (1996), page 71.
- Darrin J. Rodgers, The Memphis Miracle at 30, Influence (18 September 2024)
- Leilani Haywood, PCCNA to Celebrate Memphis Miracle (11 February 2019), a release of the Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches of North America posted by the International Pentecostal Holiness Church.
Keep Studying
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