MUST READ: Dallas author Evangelist Glenda Williams Goodson’s featured book salutes women trailblazers in tradition-rich COGIC
Andre Johnson 
She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard; She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. (Proverbs 31:16-17 NIV)
GOD’S HISTORIAN
DALLAS — Just under Evangelist Glenda Williams Goodson’s name on her website reads three rather riveting words:
Dreamer. Visionary. Leader.
To grasp a thorough concept of why the name of this devout woman of faith is accompanied by a trio of compelling descriptive nouns, look no further than her immeasurable track record in the Body of Christ, most notably as an accomplished author.
A native of Dallas, Goodson has witnessed her authorship repertoire come full circle with the release of a gallery of books.
Her most preserved and enshrined written work: Royalty Unveiled: Women Trailblazers In The Church of God In Christ International Missions: 1920 -1970.
BUY EVANGELIST GOODSON’S BOOK: https://www.caachr.org/shop
A book that made its ceremonious debut in September 2011, Goodson deems Royalty Unveiled: Women Trailblazers In The Church of God In Christ International Missions: 1920 -1970 arguably her best authorship project to date.
“The book is a part of the assignment God gave to me in the mid-1980’s to gather material, documents and memorabilia of Church Of God In Christ historical accomplishments,” Goodson told Making Headline News this week.
An awe-inspiring book that’s comprised of 350 pages in length, Goodson’s Royalty Unveiled: Women Trailblazers In The Church of God In Christ International Missions: 1920 -1970 is the first book of its kind to fervently explore the work of international missionaries in the Church of God in Christ, the largest Pentecostal church and the fifth largest Christian church in the U. S., which can be found in more than 100 countries.
Interestingly, its worldwide membership is comprised of somewhere in the neighborhood of six-to-eight million members.
As mentioned in a detailed synopsis of Goodson’s Royalty Unveiled: Women Trailblazers In The Church of God In Christ International Missions: 1920 -1970 at Amazon.com, COGIC’s exponential growth in emerging countries can be traced to the work of what this Christian-based author describes as “brave women” who left the United States beginning in the 1920’s to board ships to Africa, Haiti, the Philippines and around the world during which they subsequently took the message of Pentecost.
“Royalty Unveiled begins with an overview of American missions in the western United States and moves into black participation in foreign missions and subsequently Pentecostal missions,” a spokesperson for Goodson’s Royalty Unveiled: Women Trailblazers In The Church of God In Christ International Missions: 1920 -1970 said. “Using personal interviews with women and men now in their 80s and 90s who recall their service for Christ provide details about their work in raw fields. The children, grandchildren, and caretakers weigh in along with former students, some who recall entering kindergarten at the age of 15.”
As Goodson recalls, she spent approximately five years researching and writing stories on women in the national church, chronicling specifically how God strategically used them — sometimes in dangerous and hostile establishments — to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“The women of the Church Of God In Christ were empowered by God and sent out by Bishop Charles Harrison Mason and the Department of Women beginning in the 1920s to accomplish great feats around the country and throughout the world,” Goodson explained. “Around 2004, after my late husband and I completed an 80-minute documentary on the women of the Church Of God In Christ, names such as Dorothy Webster Exume, Martha Barber, Beatrice Lott, Pearl Page Brown, Mary Beth Kennedy and others kept coming up in personal interviews with pioneers. I found that there was so much I didn’t know about the depth and breadth of their work. I decided to write Royalty.”
And the rest, as they say, was history.
Two years removed from having completed the nearly hour-and-a-half-long documentary, Goodson traveled from the South, to the West Coast, to the East Coast, and down the middle of America during which she engaged in extensive researching and interviewing.
“I began actually writing it (her featured book) in 2009,” said Goodson of Royalty Unveiled: Women Trailblazers In The Church of God In Christ International Missions: 1920 -1970, which took roughly two years to complete.
To her credit, Goodson has authored other fascinating books, including:
- I Want My Life To Reach Out And Touch Somebody, released in 2014
- It’s Been A Good Life: Charles And Mary Beth Kennedy: Missionaries To The World, released in 2015
- Rediscovering An American Classic: Essays On The Life Of American Educator Arenia Conelia Mallory, released in 2016) (It has been chosen as the November 2020 Book of the Month by the C.O.G.I.C. International Department of Women
- I’m So Glad I’m Sanctified: Wisdom Quotes and Treasures From Church of God In Christ Pioneering Women 1911-1975, a third edition that was released in 2018 and,
- Bishop Mason And Those Sanctified Women, a second edition that was released in 2019
Interestingly, Goodson’s Rediscovering An American Classic: Essays On The Life Of American Educator Arenia Conelia Mallory has been suitably dubbed Book of the Month by the COGIC’s International Department of Women for November 2020.
LEAST WE FORGET
As for the divine message she aspires to send to her reading audience through her featured published work, Goodson said: “Our Savior gave us a tremendous challenge in His Matthew 28:19 command. I want women today to understand that we can have confidence — as our foremothers demonstrated — that there is nothing too hard for us with God’s help. The women featured in Royalty sacrificed much to make better homes, better schools, better communities, and a better world.
“They built mission towns, founded churches, established clinics, built schools and shaped lives in far flung locales. While we may not leave America to keep that command, we have that same responsibility to go into the everywhere in whatever region we are in to make disciples.”
Much to her delight, Goodson has become the beneficiary of an array of favorable reviews and feedback since the much-anticipated release of Royalty Unveiled: Women Trailblazers In The Church of God In Christ International Missions: 1920 -1970.
“One pastor’s wife in another part of the Body of Christ told me recently that she has read and re-read Royalty from cover to cover, because she is fascinated by what these women accomplished,” Goodson said. “Another DD candidate said she was proud to be able to have documented evidence to set the record straight with a professor who stated that the COGIC did not enter foreign missions until after the civil rights movement was underway.
“After Bishop Vincent Mathews (COGIC World Missions President) read it on a flight to South Africa, upon his return, he ordered many books for his directors and regional directors, making it a mandatory reading so that in their work they would build upon a solid foundation.”
The founder of The Center for African American Church History and Research, Inc. — her credible nonprofit organization that depicts the history of the COGIC — Goodson said COGIC’s Department of Women Supervisors are using Royalty for their licensing classes.
For more information about Dallas/Fort Worth Author/Businesswoman Evangelist Glenda Williams Goodson, to inquire about her books or a speaking engagement or book signing, call 214.934.1225 or connect with her via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Center-for-African-American-Church-History-Research-2059130407650530/; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sis-glenda-9891a09/. Send email to: [email protected].
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Andre Johnson is the award-winning Founder and Publisher for Making Headline News. A 2000 graduate of the University of Memphis School of Journalism and a former staff reporter of sports for 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 or Instagram at @makingheadlinenews.
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