Twins Follow Mom into Ministry

The Rev. Johnsie Cogman is an educator turned pastor who believes that Sunday school is just as important as secondary education when it comes to helping tomorrow's leaders recognize their spiritual gifts. Cogman's 23-year-old sons are following in their mother's footsteps toward serving The United Methodist Church.

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Transcript:

(Locator: Washington, D.C.)

(The Rev. Johnsie W. Cogman leading church service) "God, we thank you for the blue skies today. Amen."

Jacob Cogman: "Watching her has really helped me grow not just in ministry and preaching, but in ministry to others."

The Rev. Johnsie W. Cogman: "As a parent it is every desire of mine to be a role model for my children, for my sons, Jacob, as well has his twin brother James."

The Rev. Johnsie Cogman is lead pastor of 200-year-old Mt. Zion, the oldest African-American United Methodist church in Washington D.C.

The Rev. Johnsie W. Cogman: "I think of the ancestors that came here and praise and magnify a God that brought them through slavery, to come and to worship together to show the world that God is a God of all."

But Cogman's proudest accomplishment is that her twin sons plan to follow her in serving the United Methodist Church.

Jacob Cogman: "Maybe you were like me, broken. But Jesus did an emergency surgery on you…"

Jacob Cogman: "My mother really demonstrated for me growing up what ministry truly is about and really in the sense that it's not about us. Because God called us, we have work to do."

Jacob Cogman and his brother James attended the same schools for 22 years. Both graduated from United Methodist Claflin University, the oldest historically black college in the state of South Carolina.
Jacob now atttends the Candler School of Theology at Emory, while James is studying at Yale Divinity. The brothers have received support along the way from the Black College Fund and United Methodist Student Day scholarships.

Jacob Cogman: "You are investing in the little boys and girls that you taught in Sunday school. You are investing in the boys and girls you helped through confirmation."

The Rev. Johnsie Cogman: "We used to say that students or children were the church of the future. But they really are the church of now. And if we do not take care of them and provide them with all the opportunities for them to get advanced education, then we may not have a church in the future."