Greater Community COGIC’s Marthene Talley Penn to be honored for her immeasurable contributions to Body of Christ

MARIETTA, Georgia — The woman who is widely known as “Tiny Tot” has had a massive, immeasurable impact in the Body of Christ, most notably for Greater Community Church of God In Christ.

For her valiant kingdom-based efforts and contributions, Marthene Talley Penn will be one of two beneficiaries for the Bishop James J. Hinsley Lifetime Achievement Honor during Greater Community COGIC’s Gala on Friday, September 22 during which the church will pay homage to Matthew Brown, TH.D for six years as its Senior Pastor.

Deemed a “Living Legend” honor that was organized by Brown, who installed as GCC’s Pastor in October 2011, the Bishop James J. Hensley Lifetime Achievement Honor was established in recognition of  the older Saints who have gone to great lengths in given their life for the benefit of the church. 

“Bishop Hinsley served God in Georgia with sagacity and Pentecostal piety,” Brown told Making Headline News during a recent interview. “His devoted service, leadership, and love for the people he shepherded are why we deemed it appropriate to honor him and memorialize his work and memory by naming this selective award after him.”

For Penn, 84, her life and contributions to the Body of Christ are amongst the biggest reasons she is graciously deemed by countless believers as a big-hearted, beloved woman of God whose faith has never wavered.

“She always had the support of her family, particularly her sisters,” Brown said of Penn, who was also known as a preacher’s kid — or PK — and a longtime product of the Church of God In Christ.

Interesting, her tireless contributions as a devout woman of faith were once shared between two churches — The Tabernacle COGIC, which was labeled her family’s “church of heritage,” and the Avery Street COGIC, which was housed roughly a block away from her home.

Still famously known today by family and close friends as “Tot,” Penn resided mostly in Douglas and Cobb Counties growing up, in large part because her father was a sharecropper.

As a child, she attended a relatively small school and church along with her siblings in nearby Vining’s, Georgia, where several grades were taught in one single room by the same teacher.

Consequently, as a young adult, Penn met and ultimately married the late Horace “Shag” Penn. Together, they would raise four children — two daughters (Barbara and Evangeline and two sons (Timothy and Micah).

Today, she is now the proud grandmother of seven, all of whom routinely refer to her as her “Mama-Tot.”

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To her credit, the Penns understood the importance of faith and, because of that, she and her husband reared their four children in the historic COGIC.

Moreover, the Penns also knew they wanted a better life for their family, a life beyond the very public housing projects where they once resided and jobs, the very housing projects where they would ultimately garner more promising jobs than those that involved domestic work.

Now under the leadership of Pastor Brown, Mother Penn currently assumes the roles as Assistant Church Mother, a post that mostly involves serving as Sunday School teacher for the Mothers’ Board, as well as a member of the Prayer and Bible Band, Nurses Unit, the Overseer of the Holy Communion and the church historian.

Interesting, Penn is a notable author of a self-published written document entitled, “The Early Years of the Church of God In Christ In North Georgia, a project that is geared more toward the days of the denomination before jurisdictions were formed.

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Andre Johnson is Founder and Publisher for Making Headline News. A 2000 graduate of the University of Memphis School of Journalism and a former staff reporter the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper, Johnson covers the NBA Southwest Division from Dallas, Texas. To reach Johnson, send email to [email protected] or to [email protected]. Also, follow him on Twitter @AJ_Journalist.