The History of Massie Memorial
In the year 1945, Elder J.P Dabney, who later was elevated to the position of Bishop Dabney within the Church of God in Christ, appointed Elder Edward Massie to found a church in Waynesboro. The First services of the new congregation were held in the home of the late Sister Annie Davis. The congregation moved from home to home for worship until increasing membership enabled it to rent larger facilities. The church was under Superintendent N.B. Wilder.
Founder and Pastor Edward Massie died on February 10,1961. In 1962, Elder Charles H. Brown was appointed as pastor and charged with building the new church on Albemarle Avenue. The congregation named the building Massie Memorial Church of God in Christ after their first pastor.
In 1973, Elder David Mickens Jr. became Pastor. He was truly a man of God, devoted husband, and dedicated family man. The Church was under Bishop L.E. Willis. Mickens was the Superintendent of the Greater Western District. On October 25, 2009, Pastor Mickens passed away. The church suffered a great loss as he was a beloved, anointed, and respected leader.
In 2009, Minister Ronnie L. Holly Sr. was placed as minister in charge. Minister Holly faithfully served under Elder Mickens for 24years. On September 11, 2010, he was installed as Pastor of Massie Memorial. The church is now under the Southwestern District, Superintendent I.L. Ward and The Virginia Fourth Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, Bishop G. Wesley Hardy & State Supervisor, Mother Sheary D. Johnson.
Pastor Charles H. Brown
Pastor David Mickens Jr.
The History of Church of God in Christ
THE CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST is a Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in which the word of God is preached, ordinances are administered and the doctrine of sanctification or holiness is emphasized, as being essential to the salvation of mankind.
Our Church is commonly known as being Holiness or Pentecostal in nature because of the importance ascribed to the events which occurred on the Day of Pentecost, the 50th day after the Passover, or Easter as being necessary for all believers in Christ Jesus to experience.
On the Day of Pentecost, the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day, Supernatural Manifestations descended in marvelous copiousness and power. The gift of the spirit in the fulfillment of the promise of Jesus to clothe those who would wait in Jerusalem with power from on high, was accompanied by three supernatural extraordinary manifestations.
The sudden appearance of the Holy Ghost appealed first to the ear. The disciples heard a “sound” from heaven which rushed with a mighty force into the house and filled it–even as a storm rushes–but there was no wind. It was the sound that filled the house and not a wind, an invisible cause producing audible effects.
Next, the eye was arrested by the appearance of tongues of fire which rested on each of the gathered COMPANY. Finally, there was the impartation of a new strange power to speak in languages they had never learned “as the Spirit gave them Utterance.”
Our Church is also considered to be a member of the great Protestant body though it did not directly evolve from the European or English Reformation but had its origin within the General Association to the Baptist Church.
Elder Charles Harrison Mason, who later became the founder and organizer of the Church of God in Christ, was born September 8,1864, on the Prior Farm near Memphis, Tennessee. His father and mother, Jerry and Eliza Mason, were members of a Missionary Baptist Church, having been converted during the dark crises of American Slavery.
