When the COGIC was first founded by Bishop Mason in the 1910s, he wanted the denomination to have ecumenical relationships with other predominantly Black Methodist and Baptist churches, but many of them were unwilling to do so at the time because of Mason's controversial history with being expelled from his former Baptist ministry associations and churches in Mississippi for preaching sanctification and Pentecostalism. At the time, because many churches disagreed with the–what was considered at the time–eccentric worship styles and expressions of Pentecostalism such as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues and the laying on of hands, many churches distanced themselves from the COGIC for many years.