Our History
The Church of God in Christ missions and evangelism movement began in the 19th century as an effort to evangelize non-believers throughout the country and around the world. Set a blaze by the fire, filled with the Holy Ghost and armed with the teachings of Pentecost, converts of the Azusa Street Revivals were among the Pentecostal trailblazers to impact the early development of Pentecostalism in Africa. These pioneers of the missions movement included Florence Crawford, Elder Searcy and Mother Lizzie Robinson. With roots in the midwest, Crawford and Searcy received their training and later played a key role in the establishment of the COGIC Missions Department. An unsubstantiated report claims that Bishop C.H. Mason sent two white female missionaries to Brazil in 1914. At his home going celebration in 1961, Ida Baker recounts the story when Bishop Mason gave her mother Lizzie Robinson permission to start Home & Foreign Missions. Despite these early attempts the COGIC Home and Foreign Missions Department wasn’t officially established until 1925. Mrs. Mattie McCauley was the first COGIC international missionary under the leadership of Elder Searcy. His group remained with COGIC until June 1926. Determined to continue spreading the gospel and meeting the needs of others, Mother Robinson recommended Elder C.G. Brown as Searcy’s replacement. Under the Women’s Department, missions
continued to forge ahead and revivals exploded throughout the continent of Africa - paving the way for modern day African Pentecostalism. The first COGIC mission in Wissikeh, Liberia, West Africa was planted by former Assemblies of God member Elizabeth White. Established December 2, 1926, the first missions board brought about many new changes and ideas along with a new organizational cast of players: Elder Anderson (President), V.M. Baker (Vice President), Charles Peas (Recording Secretary), C. Range (Corresponding Secretary), and Mother L.M. Cox (Representative). By 1937, the board reorganized and Bishop Samuel Crouch was appointed President of the Department of Home & Foreign Missions. Possessing a purposeful passion for spreading the Word of God, Crouch set out on a worldwide tour to review, inspect, refurbish and rebuild COGIC foreign holdings. After visiting 48 countries, Bishop Crouch instituted the building of orphanages, schools and churches in Africa, Mexico, South America, the Philippines, Japan, China, Korea, Bermuda and Honduras. Crouch maintained a home in California to house missionaries rent-free. Later Bishop Crouch was joined by Bishop Richard L. Fidler who expanded missions efforts across cultural boundaries including Cuba and other Spanish-speaking people of the Americas under the COGIC umbrella. Mission Outlook became the department’s official newspaper during Bishop Fidler’s tenure. Soon the good news spread around the globe about the challenging transformative work going on around the world, churches from near and far clamored to become affiliated with the COGIC missions organization. In 1939, leadership changed hands once more and Overseer A.B. McEwen was appointed Bishop of the foreign fields. As time passed, Elder Joseph St. Juste, a Haitian minister, responsible for curating 96 churches joined the rank of Presidents along with Bishop Esau Courtney, Haitian national Elder Lopez Dautruche (1947). In the years between 1945 - 1975 the organization continued to experience growing pains Bishop C. Please (Liberia), Elder Valentine Brown Republic of Liberia), 1st Holy Convocation in Africa,; In the summer of 1949 Elder O.T. Jones, Jr. (Philadelphia) was sent to Monrovia; Mrs. Francine Wiggins appointed to assist Mother White at the Wissikeh Station later transferring to Monalu Station spearheaded the construction of a church, a school and a mission complex; Elder Charles Kennedy and his wife Mary Beth traveled to Liberia in 1956 to serve at Tugbaken with Mother Martha Baker; 1973 Bishop F. D. Washington (chairman) along with a committee Bishop J.A. Blake, Bishop C.L. Anderson assumed the role of overseeing COGIC missions. In November 1975, with the consent of the General board Elder Carlis L. Moody, Sr. (Evanston, Illinois) one of his first orders of business reorganized the Missions Department and established a new Board including Elder J. W. Denny (President), Mrs. D. M. Patterson (Exec. Secretary), Mr. Oknewa Onwuckewa (Finance Secry), Elder Benjamin Crouch (Chairman of Finance Committee and Elder W.W. Covington (V.P. of Finance Committee). The longest seated Missions President and was responsible for reinstating all COGIC properties in Haiti. This visionary established Youth on a Mission, Student Aid, Touch a Life, Nurses Aid, Sister Church Support and Voice of Missions magazine - a bi-monthly publication highlighting missions activities around the world. Instrumental in changing the lives of men and women around the world and carried the Good News of Jesus to more than 40 countries, Bishop Moody on January 12, 2019. Today, the current Missions President is Dr. Vincent Mathews, Jr.. Bishop Mathews served in World Missions under Bishop Moody as a District Missions President (Great Lakes Jurisdiction) and later as Jurisdictional Missions President (Great Lakes Second Jurisdiction of Michigan). Bishop Mathews and his wife Sharon moved to Johannesburg, South Africa to become full-time missionaries from 2004-2016. Together with their children, Bishop Mathews planted schools, started churches and ministries throughout the Southern African Region. In 2015, after the retirement of Bishop Carlis Moody, Bishop Mathews was appointed as World Missions President. Among one of his first orders of business, Mathews rebranded the Home & Foreign Missions department. With the permission of Presiding Bishop Charles Blake and the General Board, changed the name to COGIC World Missions (CWM). Passionate about fulfilling the Great Commission, Bishop Mathews breathed new life into the All Saints College campus in Lexington, MS, which became World Mission headquarters. Mathews and his team held 72-hour shut-ins on the campus, training retreats and a youth camp to train and develop future missions workers. Bishop Mathews also was instrumental in writing the proposal that secured a donation from the Catholic Church for an old monastery to institute a Women’s Clinic, create a foster child ministry and support troubled youth. Mathews is responsible for many of the innovations currently in operation today in COGIC World Missions. The Awakening missions trip to America for young adults is another innovation that serves over 80 cities each year. As of 2022, CWM has a presence in more than 112 countries since Bishop Mathews took the helm. The deployment of full-time missionaries to other countries is the catalyst to this growth.
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