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What’s The Story Behind CoF?
Hi, I’m Gia Peppers. Bios always make me a little uncomfortable because I don’t like writing in the third person. So this time, I’m writing from the heart. If you are considering this opportunity to walk with me on the journey of building COF, I want you to hear from me without the fluff.
When God gave me the vision for Creatives of Faith, I was in the middle of a low moment in my career. After several years of hustling as a freelance journalist, host, and on-air talent, working with everyone from the Washington Wizards to BET, Nike, Essence, NBC, and more, I thought God was finally giving me “my big break.”
A major streaming platform was starting a weekly show and I auditioned for months, got the gig, and did the test pilot shoots. I was hyped. After five months of work, promises of Billboards in Times Square and six figure Billboards, the producers stopped responding to my team.
“That’s when I realized the importance and power of who God calls to walk with us: they can make or break our decision to keep going.”
A few weeks later, they decided to drop the show and had us on the phone with lawyers who told us that we also would only be paid $5,000 for our time. At that point, the work me and my co-hosts had done should have been triple that. I was hurt, confused, defeated and embarrassed. I just knew that God said this was “it” for me. I went in to a deep depression and during that time, I had an all out verbal tussle with God in prayer. I yelled, “Why would you play me? I’ve been in my Word. I’ve been kind. I post my scriptures. Me? There are so many other people winning. Why am I always losing?”
In the midst of hot tears and pacing the floor with anger, God led me to read Psalms 23 out loud over and over until it calmed me down. It was said aloud after prayer at every family holiday gathering. “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” I repeated it until my tears dried. I found peace in His Word that night, but I was still heartbroken. My friends and family were the only reason I didn’t give up. They held a mirror up to me, talked me out of giving up, and went to church with me. If I had people who didn’t care about what God was trying to do, I would have completely given up.
“Little by little, God also started showing me that I did not truly consult Him about this “big deal.” I prayed my will and tried to force it to align with His.”
In my career, I loved going to conferences to learn from creatives who were blazing trails I hoped to walk one day. In my personal life, I craved hearing from God on Sundays in church while worshiping and connecting to a community that was doing the same. That’s when God told me that He was asking me to do it all along. Create a space where Creatives who are on the same journey can gather to build their spiritual skillsets and their creative ones, walking together to remain encouraged and focused on the assignment God has for us.
I prayed forceful prayers asking Him to make it happen instead of allowing His will to be done, and allowing my heart to feel peace in knowing that what He has is best for me. I learned to surrender and to open my eyes to where God was trying to take me.
One month after this moment, the world completely shut down as COVID-19 spread. During the shutdown, I enrolled in a business course. The teacher said we should create a brand that solves a problem we can’t stop thinking about.
“Creatives of Faith is a membership community that allows us to build our faith with Bible studies led by brilliant pastors and leaders from all around the world.”
At the same time, I am a Creative who has been nominated for major awards, worked every kind of major event and red carpet you can imagine and interviewed some of the greatest leaders of our time. I have been in the entertainment industry for 15 years, and I am an incredibly talented journalist, TV host, podcaster and all around creative. God gave me those gifts, and allowed me to develop them.
He’s allowed me to see behind the scenes of moments people pray to be a part of. He’s allowed me to interview Kobe Bryant, Stevie Wonder, Kamala Harris, Kelly Rowland, and more. He’s allowed me to host in arenas of 15, 000 to intimate gatherings of 100 women who run the worlds’ top Fortune 500 companies. I know how this industry works, and what I don’t know personally, I can ask someone who does.
It is also a space where I will call on my network of brilliant leaders in entertainment, tech, and creativity to teach MasterClasses about their craft.
My hope is that COF becomes a space where professional and aspiring creatives can gather to learn, pray, and create. A place where a job board posting can lead to someone’s first big break. A place where a set becomes God’s workshop, and every person there met each other in this space.
It’s just beginning and I know that God has so much for all of us. If this sounds like a space you’d like to join, I’d love to have you. I’ve already prayed about you, and I believe that this space is going to be special. With daily prayer chats, and monthly bible studies, masterclasses and more, I’m ready to see all that can happen when we decide to continue to say “Yes” to staying on our paths to serve the Illest Creator of All Time— Our boundless, creative, brilliant, merciful, loving, eternal God.