Saturday

May 5th

11:00 am

First Jurisdiction Illinois Woman of the Year Luncheon

@ Oak Lawn Hilton Hotel

9333 S. Cicero Ave.

Oak Lawn, IL

Donation $35.00

Sunday, May 6th

9:00 am

1st Sunday Pastoral Prayer

Monday, May 7th 

7:00 pm

State Fellowship Meeting

@ Greater St. James Temple COGIC

2131 Wright Ave.

North Chicago, IL

Supt. Torrance Markham, Host

Friday, May 11th - 7:30 PM

Greater Holy Temple Church Anniversary

@ 246 North California - Chicago, IL
Pastor Lemont Lenox, Host

Pastor Michael Richardson will be the guest speaker

Sunday, May 13th

Mother's Day

Special Blessing to our Church Mother 

Mother Ophelia Turner   

Monday

May 14th

7:30 PM

D. A. Reed Sr. District Pre-Musical

@ Reed Temple COGIC

1300 North Broad

Griffith, IN

Supt. David Reed, Host & Pastor

Sunday, May 15th - Friday, May 18th

7:30 PM Nightly

D. A. Reed Sr. Annual District Meeting

@ Reed Temple COGIC

1300 N. Broad

Griffith, IN

(click to view flyer)

Saturday

May 19th - Noon
State Ministers Wives Alliance Meeting

@ TBA

Sunday, May 27th

Pentecost Sunday

Monday

May 28th

Memorial Day 

Sunday, May 28- Friday, June 1st

National Women's Convention & Conference

Atalanta, GA

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who has blessed us to sit in Heavenly Places in Him. I trust that you and your family are doing well and that God's choice blessings are abundant in your lives.

Our ministry theme for the month of May is Breakthrough. When we think of a breakthrough, we think of something that breaks through the norm. According to the dictionary a breakthrough is a military movement or advance all the way through and beyond an enemy's front-line defense. It is an act or instance of removing or surpassing an obstruction or restriction; the overcoming of a stalemate. It is any significant or sudden advance, development, achievement, or increase, as in scientific knowledge or diplomacy that removes a barrier to progress.

In summary, a breakthrough is advancement beyond the enemy's lines, or removing or surpassing an obstruction or restriction or a barrier to progress.

As we ponder over the definition of this powerful word, I believe we can all think of areas in our lives, where we can use a breakthrough.   There are some things that are beyond our physical reach and ability and we need God to give us a breakthrough to make progress, to move forward and to overcome.

In the book of 2 Samuel 5:17-21 (and also in 1 Chronicles 14:1), King David provides us with another perspective of a Breakthrough that he experienced in a military battle. It reads "17 Now when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. And David heard of it and went down to the stronghold. 18 The Philistines also went and deployed themselves in the Valley of Rephaim. 19 So David inquired of the Lord, saying, "Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?" And the Lord said to David, "Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand." 20 So David went to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there; and he said, "The Lord has broken through my enemies before me, like a breakthrough of water." Therefore he called the name of that place Baal Perazim.* 21 And they left their images there, and David and his men carried them away". (NKJV)

It is interesting that the Philistines, David's enemy, were deployed in the Valley of Rephaim, which means "Valley or House of Giants". However, David renames it Baal....CLICK TO READ MORE. 

Sunday, May 13th is the day that we honor our Mothers, but it also a very special day for the Emanuel Family where we show special love to the GREATEST CHURCH MOTHER, Mother Ophelia Turner. Mother Turner is a faithful, loyal, and dedicated member of Emanuel Church of God in Christ. She is always represented and gives her support in whatever project we have going on at the church. Mother Turner has served as church mother of Emanuel for over 50 years. Please join us as we celebrate and honor this great woman of God, on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 13th during our morning worship at 11:00 a.m.

To the greatest Women's Department you can find anywhere - the women of the Emanuel Church of God in Christ. A very special thanks goes out to each of them for honoring yours truly on Sunday, April 15. The Women of Emanuel got together and decided that since the world celebrated First Lady Michelle Obama, they thought that it would be most befitting to honor and celebrate my birthday as the First Lady of Emanuel. To create an atmosphere of unity, the suggestion was made for all of the ladies to wear all black attire with a string of pearls. What a great surprise, even the babies had their black and pearls on!!!! (see picture below).   To add to the surprise, it just so happened that I also wore a black dress and guess what, I had my pearls on too!   This was simply a confirmation, because I did not know that the women were going to be dressed in their black and pearls.

During the service Sis. Guadalupe Owens spoke about how important it was to recognize and celebrate the First Lady. She talked about how many people are unaware of what a pastor's wife encounters on a daily basis. She stated that many believe that all First Ladies have to do is ..CLICK TO READ MORE. 

Click link to view picture

The First Jurisdiction IL 10th Annual Evangelist Symposium was a tremendous success. The event took place Saturday April 14th at the Historical St. Paul Church of God in Christ where the honorable Bishop Charles Ford is pastor. President Leslie Bullock and Elect Lady Angelique Flucker presented one of the Evangelist Department's best symposiums ever. Their theme based on 2Cor 5:17-18 was Reconciled, Revive, & Restore. The first Workshop Presenter was Evangelist Vicky Taylor from the Peoples Church of the Harvest. Evangelist Taylor did an excellent job of addressing the theme of the symposium. The Keynote Speaker for the event was Elder Stephan Henderson from the Tabernacle Church of God. Elder Henderson came ready to preach and he delivered a powerful and motivating must hear message from the Great Commission in Matthew 28th entitled "You Take if from Here".

Click here is hear audio and to view pictures 

Just before our Easter Sunday celebration we always have our Good Friday Services. I normally attend two services: our jurisdiction's and the one at our local church. It's always a blessing to attend both of them and to hear the seven last words of Jesus on the cross.

The jurisdictional service is always held at St. John COGIC, where Administrative Assistant Supt Glover is pastor. This service is always uplifting. The atmosphere is charged with the presence of God as we bask in the melodies of inspiring songs and wait with great anticipation to hear the speakers that have been selected by our Prelate, Bishop Ocie Booker. All of the speakers were outstanding. Each of them gave us some in depth in-formation and revelation on each of the seven last words. After the messages Holy Communion was administered by our Bishop. We were truly edified and blessed by this service.

Our local service was conducted on the same format as our Jurisdiction's. Pastor Richardson always tries to get a mixture of auxiliaries to be represented in this service. The congregation is usually in their red to .....CLICK TO READ MORE. 

Click to Hear Jurisdictional Audio and to view Picture

Click to Hear Emanuel Audio and to View Pictures

On Sunday April 15, 2012 The D.A. Reed Sr. District held its April District Meeting Hosted by Thee Emanuel Church of God in Christ at Zion Temple Church of God in Christ at 5:00pm. First Lady Sherry Swan was the emcee for the evening which went to aid the tone of the service as she's a natural fireball praiser. The choir sang until the glory of the Lord fell from heaven under the leadership of First Lady Klista Hill and Sis. Keeya Thomas. From there everyone was given a passport to praise which would allow them to see past their problems, circumstances and cares which unfortunately included the enemy trying to do so much as bust car windows during service to intercept the blessings to come; but the people of God would not be stopped. We boarded the Glory Train destined for high holy praise and sent the praises up so high we did not want to come back down.

This train was conducted by our very own First Lady, Missionary Anastasia Richardson who referred all passengers to the information pamphlets hidden in our hearts in case we encountered any issues in our daily travels. She directed us to Psalm 34 where David proclaimed his adamant praise come what may. She admonished us to live our lives the same way. This train was headed full force to glory but we hadn't arrived just yet. Our most capable conductor then told us that there are 3 kinds of praisers: The Because of Praiser, The In Spite of Praiser, and The Crazy Praiser before adding the query, what kind of praiser are you? In case there was any confusion she explained each as follows :...CLICK TO READ MORE and HEAR AUDIO;