Life Center COGIC

CTL-E-5769 · Church · cogic · 1976–present

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07032 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-5769.

Life Center COGIC — the Life Center Church of God in Christ, known to its congregation as the Prayer Palace — is a Pentecostal congregation at 5500 South Indiana Avenue in Chicago's Washington Park neighborhood, led for nearly five decades by Pastor T. L. Barrett. Barrett began pastoring in 1966 and led Mt. Zion Baptist Church, at 5512 South Indiana Avenue, from the late 1960s; after a theological disagreement with that church's elders, he left in 1976 to form his own ministry, the Life Center COGIC church, in the same neighborhood. The congregation is the institutional home of Barrett's youth-focused ministry, the work carried on the records of Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth for Christ Choir, whose 1970s gospel recordings later drew a national audience. Barrett's congregation remained with him through the court-ordered restitution of the 1990s, which he completed, and in April 2024 the church community marked his stepping back from the pulpit with a three-day celebration honoring Barrett and his wife, Cleopatra Barrett, including a gospel concert at Life Center COGIC.

The record

• Also known as: Life Center Church of God in Christ, The Life Center C.O.G.I.C., Life Center Church of Universal Awareness, The Prayer Palace

Notes

STAGED 2026-10-16 (747 Program, Named Remainders & Further Gaps, Batch A) — not merged; awaits founder merge go. Gate A: PASS — no graph record under the name. Projects follow the church-peer combo (CTL-E-5526 Cosmopolitan Church of Prayer: SCI-004/BMI-002/MUSIC-001). Institutional status: ACTIVE congregation (church listing shows operating status active; Final Call documents an April 2024 celebration at the church). Source variance shown, not blended: Barrett's Mt. Zion start is dated 1967 (Numero Group) and 1968 (Wikipedia) — the description carries 'late 1960s'; the Final Call's '56 years' of leadership (2024) spans the Mt. Zion and Life Center pulpits together and is not used as the church's age. The church's IRS corporate record under the name Life Center Church of Universal Awareness carries an August 1987 ruling date — a corporate registration fact, NOT the congregation's founding, and it is not carried as one. Edges staged: CTL-E-5535 (Pastor T.L. Barrett) affiliated_with this church — the unblocking edge named in the brief. Map: FILLED on the sourced street address (see media). Photo: HELD. MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = FILLED (Address-based map spec on a sourced street address.) | visual_assets = HELD: No file-page-level PHOTO-001 license verification completed at staging and no cleared photograph of the church | chart = FILLED (CTL-created timeline built only from this record's sourced facts (the congregation's institutional line, via i) | video = HELD (No CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map catalog (shorts-link-map-2026-10-15.json, 233 entries, searched by name st) | audio = HELD (No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio exists at staging; slot held with reason.)

Referenced by

• Pastor T.L. Barrett — affiliated with → this record

Sources

• Wikipedia, 'T. L. Barrett' — Barrett pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church from 1968; left in 1976 after a theological disagreement to form the Life Center COGIC church in the same (Washington Park) neighborhood; Life Center COGIC address given as 5500 S Indiana Ave, Chicago (place record), accessed 2026-10-16 (build store)
• Numero Group, 'I Shall Wear A Crown' (Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth for Christ Choir box-set essay) — Barrett stepped into the Mt. Zion pulpit at 5512 S. Indiana Avenue in 1967; 'Today, Barrett still leads the Life Center COGIC (Church of God in Christ) on the South Side. The Prayer Palace … sits at 5500 S. Indiana Avenue'; restitution completed, accessed 2026-10-16 (primary source · build store)
• The Final Call, 'Retiring for “refiring”: Pastor T. L. Barrett steps back to leap forward,' May 13, 2024 — Barrett led the Life Center C.O.G.I.C. community; three-day celebration April 26–28, 2024, opening with a gospel concert at Life Center COGIC, honoring Barrett and his wife Cleopatra Barrett, accessed 2026-10-16 (build store)
• Life Center COGIC church listing (lcccogic.org) — 5500 S Indiana Ave, Chicago, IL 60637; Washington Park; active congregation, accessed 2026-10-16 (primary source · build store)

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Record CTL-E-5769 · Combined Graph record U-07032 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 4 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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