Celebrations mark church’s centennial
Members of the nation’s largest predominantly Black Pentecostal denomination will gather in North Little Rock in the coming days to celebrate the centennial of one of its pioneer congregations — New Calvary Temple Church of God in Christ.
The house of worship was started by some of the movement’s early fathers.
“Calvary Temple is one of the oldest churches of ours in Arkansas,” said Bishop Donnie Lee Lindsey, its 99-yearold former pastor and leader for decades of the Second Arkansas Jurisdiction of the Church of God in Christ.
The congregation “has been very instrumental in sending strong leaders east, west and north from Arkansas,” he said, calling it “kind of an incubator” for pastors, bishops and others in ministry.
Elder Timothy Hopson, the current pastor, says his church is a “training ground” for ministry.
“We train up leaders and then they go out and make disciples of others,” he said.
Congregants are hosting a community festival from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today. Services celebrating the centennial will also be held daily next week at 7 p.m. Wednesday through Sept. 2.
A love feast will be held at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 2, followed by a worship finale at noon Sept. 3.
The denomination’s founder, Charles Harrison Mason, was ordained to preach by a Baptist church in Faulkner County and attended Arkansas Baptist College briefly.
His emphasis on holiness, sanctification, speaking in tongues and the baptism in the Holy Ghost differed from traditional Baptist doctrine, so he started a religious body of his own, with its headquarters in Memphis.
As its general overseer and chief apostle, he would remain at the helm until his death in 1961.
Mason said God had given him the name for the new denomination, as he was walking in Little Rock. (1 Thessalonians 2:14 refers to the “churches of God … in Christ Jesus.”) In 1919, Mason preached to sizeable enough crowds in the city that the meetings were noted in the Arkansas Gazette.
Four years later, the North Little Rock church opened its doors.
Since then, it has grown and flourished.
Average attendance these days is about 150, Hopson said.
One of Calvary Temple’s most successful pastors, a southern Arkansas native named Junious Augustus “J.A.” Blake, became a bishop and also led a prominent San Diego congregation.
Two of his sons, J.A. Blake Jr. and Charles Edward Blake Sr. became bishops themselves. After building one of Southern California’s largest and most influential megachurches — West Angeles Church of God in Christ — Charles Blake would go on to serve as the denomination’s presiding bishop from 2007 to 2021.
Charles Blake’s son, Elder Lawrence Champion Blake, is now West Angeles’ young adults pastor. He is scheduled to address worshippers at New Calvary Temple on Sept. 3, the final day of the anniversary celebration.
“To see them thriving at 100 years, and celebrating it, it lets me know that they’re doing quite all right and they’re moving forward,” he said.
His theme, at this point, is “remembering God gives hope for the future,” he said.
A hundred years ago, Pentecostals were often mocked and marginalized. During World War I, they were accused of having pro-German sympathies.
Pentecostal ministers, with their enthusiastic and exuberant worship styles, were sometimes arrested for “disturbing the peace.”
“We were jailed and our services were disrupted,” Lindsey said.
Lindsey grew up Baptist but says he was “put out” of the denomination after embracing the Pentecostal movement.
“Now it’s different,” he said. “Baptists are receiving the Holy Ghost. Methodists, Presbyterian … It’s something that’s now being accepted.”
If you go: New Calvary Temple Church of God in Christ, 1120 Bishop Lindsey Ave., North Little Rock, is celebrating its 100th anniversary today through Sept. 3. More information is available at newcalvarytemple.com.