Faithful thousands expected at gathering
Some 12,000 expected at 100th International Assembly of the Church of God of Prophecy
When Catherine Payne talks about the upcoming 100th International Assembly of the Church of God of Prophecy, she gets so passionate she cries.
She tells the story of how some 12,000 people from 135 countries will come together to worship.
She cries because she knows that many of those people come from countries at war with each other. But when they gather for the assembly, the people attending will be at peace.
Egyptians and Israelis will sit together. Russians and Georgians will be side by side translating for one another.
“That doesn’t happen anywhere in the world,” says Payne, who coordinates Global Missions Ministries from the International Offices of the Church of God of Prophecy, headquartered in Cleveland, Tennessee.
“You’d think it would be chaotic. But it certainly does not feel chaotic,” says Payne. “It feels like a huge family reunion.”
The historic 100th Assembly of the Church of God of Prophecy comes to Chattanooga next week. The five-day gathering at the Chattanooga Convention Center starts Wednesday and ends July 22. Events are free and open to the public. They include nightly worship services as well as workshops and special activities targeted to children, teens, mission workers, pastors and members.
Daily programming will highlight the denomination’s diversity, which the Encyclopedia of Religion in the South
has called the “most racially inclusive at the leadership level in the USA.”
Officials of the faith describe it as a Pentecostal movement that preaches the “whole Bible.”
Countries represented at the assembly will include Australia, Finland, South Korea, Dominican Republic, Nigeria, Egypt, Nepal and the Bahamas. Nearly 90 percent of the church’s global membership is outside North America.
“This is a great time of fellowship,” says Bishop Sam Clements, general overseer since 2014. “But also a great time of seeking.”
The Church of God of Prophecy was formally organized as the Church of God in 1903 in Cleveland. The two are now separate denominations, the result of a split over issues of finance and governance in 1923, according to online histories. After years of litigation over rights to the name, a Bradley County court ruled that the smaller group would add “of Prophecy” to its name.
An opening drama will reenact the church’s history. Twenty-one people attended the first Assembly in 1906, held outside of Murphy, North Carolina. This year’s meeting marks the first time the Assembly has returned to the Chattanooga area since it was last held in Cleveland in 1991.
Now held every two years, the International Assembly produces a fervor among attendees. People come with the enthusiasm of being at a football game, says Paul Holt, executive director of finance and administration.
He says he’s spent two years working with others to plan this event.
“Hands lifted. We can be boisterous in our praise. We’re also reverent. Certainly we’re in awe,” says Holt.
With several denominations reporting a decline in membership, the Church of God of Prophecy says its congregation is increasing. It plans to announce churches that formed in four new nations at the Assembly. The church has about 1.5 million members, according to its website, cogop. org.
“It has to be God that makes things like that happen,” says Clements.
Contact Yolanda Putman at yputman@ timesfreepress.com or 423757-6431.