DOWN MEMORY LANE

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Go down memory lane, just click on the songs below.  It will make you remember those wonderful days and shouting nights!  We would sing until Heaven open it's doors.  There was so much joy that we forgot the lateness of the hour.

Supt. Cooper would pick up his guitar and sing one of his favorite songs, This Train is a Clean Train.

This Train

One of Missionary Cooper's favorite songs was What could I do if it wasnt for the Lord.

What Could I Do

The choir often sung I'm on my way to Heaven, "Trouble in my Way, God's Not Dead, etc.!

I'm On My Way to Heaven

Look What God's Done--I Got It--God's not Dead!

Old time religion

Bless that Wonderful Name Jesus

State Mother Emma F. Barron said this about Supt. Cooper:  "If you wanna have some good church, get with Cooper!"

Shouting and Praising

Yes Lord (COGIC Battle Cry)

COGIC theme

Someone would sing a fiery congregational song, I'm a soldier in God's Army; if I die, let me die in the Army of the Lord! or "Let's Go Back to that Old Landmark", or Higher Lord and all would join in with one accord and sing until the victory.  This was one of the secrets to blessings and deliverance. 

I'm a Soldier

Let's Go Back to the Old Landmark

These songs were favorites sung on Sunday morning especially before Sunday School.

Do Lord, Remember Me

Praise Him

Jesus I'll Never Forget

Pastor Cooper loves to sing certain songs while taking up the offerings to keep our minds on God.

He's sweet I know

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST
 

Pentecostal pioneers who had been Methodists included Charles Fox Parham, the formulator of the "initial evidence" theology; William J. Seymour, the pastor of the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles who spread the movement to the nations of the world; J.H. King of the Pentecostal Holiness Church, who led his denomination into the Pentecostal movement in 1907-08; and Thomas Ball Barratt, the father of European Pentecostalism. All of these men retained most of the Wesleyan teaching on entire sanctification as a part of their theological systems. In essence, their position was that a sanctified "clean heart" was a necessary prerequisite to the baptism in the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues.

Other early Pentecostal pioneers from non-Methodist backgrounds accepted the premise of second blessing holiness prior to becoming Pentecostals. For the most part, they were as much immersed in holiness experience and theology as their Methodist brothers. These included C. H. Mason (Baptist), of the Church of God in Christ, A.J. Tomlinson (Quaker), of the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), B.H. Irwin (Baptist) of the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church, and N.J. Holmes (Presbyterian) of the Tabernacle Pentecostal Church. In the light of the foregoing information, it would not be an overstatement to say that Pentecostalism, at least in America, was born in a holiness cradle.

It was not until 1906, however, that Pentecostalism achieved worldwide attention through the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles led by the African-American preacher William Joseph Seymour. He learned about the tongues-attested baptism in a Bible school that Parham conducted in Houston, Texas in 1905. Invited to pastor a black holiness church in Los Angeles in 1906, Seymour opened the historic meeting in April, 1906 in a former African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church building at 312 Azusa Street in downtown Los Angeles.

What happened at Azusa Street has fascinated church historians for decades and has yet to be fully understood and explained. For over three years, the Azusa Street "Apostolic Faith Mission" conducted three services a day, seven days a week, where thousands of seekers received the tongues baptism. Word of the revival was spread abroad through The Apostolic Faith, a paper that Seymour sent free of charge to some 50,000 subscribers. From Azusa Street Pentecostalism spread rapidly around the world and began its advance toward becoming a major force in Christendom.

The Azusa Street movement seems to have been a merger of white American holiness religion with worship styles derived from the African-American Christian tradition which had developed since the days of chattel slavery in the South. The expressive worship and praise at Azusa Street, which included shouting and dancing, had been common among Appalachian whites as well as Southern blacks. The admixture of tongues and other charisms with black music and worship styles created a new and indigenous form of Pentecostalism that was to prove extremely attractive to disinherited and deprived people, both in America and other nations of the world.

American Pentecostal pioneers who received tongues at Azusa Street went back to their homes to spread the movement among their own people, at times against great opposition. One of the first was Gaston Barnabas Cashwell of North Carolina, who spoke in tongues in 1906. His six-month preaching tour of the South in 1907 resulted in major inroads among southern holiness folk. Under his ministry, Cashwell saw several holiness denominations swept into the new movement, including the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), the Pentecostal Holiness Church, the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church, and the Pentecostal Free-Will Baptist Church.

Also in 1906, Charles Harrison Mason journeyed to Azusa Street and returned to Memphis, Tennessee to spread the Pentecostal fire in the Church of God in Christ. Mason and the church he founded were made up of African-Americans only one generation removed from slavery. (The parents of both Seymour and Mason had been born as southern slaves). Although tongues caused a split in the church in 1907, the Church of God in Christ experienced such explosive growth that by 1993, it was by far the largest Pentecostal denomination in North America, claiming some 5,500,000 members in 15,300 local churches. Another Azusa pilgrim was William H. Durham of Chicago. After receiving his tongues experience at Azusa Street in 1907, he returned to Chicago, where he led thousands of mid-western Americans and Canadians into the Pentecostal movement. His "finished work" theology of gradual progressive sanctification, which he announced in 1910, led to the formation of the Assemblies of God in 1914. Since many white pastors had formerly been part of Mason's church, the beginnings of the Assemblies of God was also partially a racial separation. In time the Assemblies of God church was destined to become the largest Pentecostal denominational church in the world, claiming by 1993 over 2,000,000 members in the U.S. and some 25,000,000 adherents in 150 nations of the world.

In addition to the ministers who received their Pentecostal experience at Azusa Street, there were thousands of others who were indirectly influenced by the revival in Los Angeles. Among these was Thomas Ball Barratt of Norway, a Methodist pastor later to be known as the Pentecostal apostle to northern and western Europe.

In addition to the ministers who received their Pentecostal experience at Azusa Street, there were thousands of others who were indirectly influenced by the revival in Los Angeles. Among these was Thomas Ball Barratt of Norway, a Methodist pastor later to be known as the Pentecostal apostle to northern and western Europe.

From Chicago, through the influence of William Durham, the movement spread quickly to Italy and South America.

African Pentecostalism owed its origins to the work of John Graham Lake (1870-1935), who began his ministry as a Methodist preacher but who later prospered in the business world as an insurance executive.

In summary, all these movements, both Pentecostal and charismatic, have come to constitute a major force in Christendom throughout the world with explosive growth rates not seen before in modern times. By 1990, The Pentecostals and their charismatic brothers and sisters in the mainline Protestant and Catholic churches were turning their attention toward world evangelization. Only time will reveal the ultimate results of this movement which has greatly impacted the world during the Twentieth Century.

Praise the Lord!

Praise God in His sanctuary;  Praise Him in His mighty firmament!  Praise Him for His mighty acts;  Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!  Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;  Praise Him with the lute and harp!  Praise Him withe the timbrel and dance;  Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!  Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals!  Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord!  PSALM 150

 

SUPT. AND MISSIONARY COOPER

We praised God with all we had.  It did not matter how late in the night.  It did not matter that we had work or school.  We always let God have His way.  Because of this, we were not sick, tired, hungry or without.  Let's Go Back To the Old Landmark so that the sick can get healed, the sinner can get saved, and the backsliding can get restored. 

Copyright © 1998-2011, Cooper Ministries Publishing (CMP). All rights reserved.

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