Bishop Emmanuel M. Wilson
It is no accident that our church bears the name of its first pastor, Bishop Emanuel Wilson. Born on July 29, 1886 in Jacksonville, Texas, Bishop Wilson married Mary Forrest in 1906. In 1911, he was called and licensed as a minister in the Baptist church. His wife, Mary, visited a “holiness” church on several occasions, contrary to Bishop Wilson’s wishes. He once said, “I was as much an enemy of the church as Paul was, but God showed me that I was wrong.” After additional visits to that holiness church, Ms. Wilson was saved.
In 1912, Bishop Wilson was filled with the Holy Ghost and accepted into the ministry of the Church Of God In Christ in Whitehouse, Texas.
In March 1915, Bishop Wilson was ordained as an Elder by Bishop E.M. Page and sent to Waco, Texas, to pastor a church. A natural church builder, Bishop Wilson founded Hillsborough Holiness School and the 1st Holiness Church, financing much of the work with his own personal funds. The school was accredited by the Hillsborough City School System and three teachers were employed and paid by the church. Between 1916 and 1924, Bishop Wilson founded multiple churches and was appointed Assistant Overseer of the Church Of God In Christ in the State of Texas. Able and resourceful is the quality and caliber of the man God called to found and forge his work in Los Angeles.
Bishop Wilson moved to California in 1924 and was appointed the second Overseer of the Church Of God In Christ in the State of California by Bishop E. R. Driver. Under his leadership, churches were established in Los Angeles, Monrovia, Furlough Tract, Mountain View, and San Diego.
In 1925, a small group of saints assembled together in Los Angeles at a vacant lot located at 29th and Compton Avenue. Endeavoring to conduct a revival, and though on the “other side of the tracks,” they erected a small tent in which to worship the Lord. In the summer of 1926, one of Emmanuel’s first members, Sis. Willie Belle Lewis, recalls worshiping in the tent.”
In 1926, the Lord inspired a benefactor, Sis. Emma Galbraith, to contribute a significant sum of money to purchase a vacant lot, a few blocks away, at 33rd and Compton. Bishop Wilson built an edifice on the lot purchased at the corner of 33rd and Compton and christened it as his namesake, Emmanuel Church Of God In Christ – meaning “The Lord is with us.”