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A member of a Pentecostal congregation: “Pentecostals rejected the belief of many fundamentalists that . . . God had ceased to reveal himself to man” (John B. Judis).
Pentecostalism Pen'te·cos'tal·ism n.For more information on Pentecostalism, visit Britannica.com.
“Classical” Pentecostalism
What is sometimes called classical Pentecostalism grew out of the late 19th-century Holiness Movement in the United States. The Holiness preacher Charles Fox Parham began preaching (1901) to his Topeka congregation that speaking in tongues was objective evidence of baptism in the Spirit. After Parham's Los Angeles–based Apostolic Faith mission became the center of a great revival (1906), the movement quickly spread around the world. Over the next two decades the movement split along doctrinal and racial lines. Of the many Pentecostalist denominations in the United States today, the largest are the Church of God in Christ, with about 5.5 million members (2000); the Assemblies of God, with about 2.5 million members (2000); the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, with about 1.5 million members (2000); and the Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.), with about 870,000 members (2000).
The Charismatic Movement
A second form of Pentecostalism arose in the 1960s after many non-Pentecostals became aware of Pentecostalism through an earlier Pentecostal revival organized by faith-healing evangelists (notably Oral Roberts). The formal origin of the new Pentecostalism or charismatic movement, as it is often called, is traced to Dennis Bennett, an Episcopal minister who declared to his congregation in Van Nuys, California (1961) that he was speaking in tongues. Following Bennett's confession the charismatic movement appeared in nearly all the Protestant denominations, the Roman Catholic church, and, to a lesser extent, in Eastern Orthodox communions. With the support of the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International, founded (1951) to provide lay support for faith-healers, the charismatic movement spread throughout the world.
Other Offshoots
A third type of Pentecostalism consists of independent schismatic offshoots of the mission churches and wholly indigenous sects which adopt or tolerate beliefs and practices such as ancestor worship and polygamy. These Pentecostals, mostly nonwhites, abound in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Pentecostalism has attracted the poor, minorities, and the dispossessed, although it is not limited to these groups. It has also afforded a prominent role to women leaders.
Bibliography
See W. J. Hollenweger, The Pentecostals (1972); V. Synan, ed., Aspects of Pentecostal-Charismatic Origins (1975); R. M. Anderson, Vision of the Disinherited (1979); D. W. Dayton, Theological Roots of Pentecostalism (1987); S. M. Burgess and G. B. McGee, ed., Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (1988); H. Cox, Fire from Heaven (1994); G. Wacker, Heaven Below (2001).
The noun has one meaning:
Meaning #1:
any member of a Pentecostal religious body
Synonym: Pentecostalist
Pentecostalism is a movement within Evangelical Christianity that places special emphasis on the direct personal experience of God through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as shown in the Biblical account of the Day of Pentecost. Pentecostalism is similar to the Charismatic movement, but developed earlier and separated from mainstream denominations. Charismatic Christians, at least in the early days of the movement, tended to remain in their respective denominations.
There are two large streams of Pentecostal churches. The majority believe that one must be saved by believing in Jesus as Lord and Savior for the forgiveness of sins and to be made acceptable to God. Pentecostals also typically believe, like most other evangelicals, that the Bible has definitive authority in matters of faith. To this first group, speaking in tongues is the sign of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, but isn't necessary for salvation. The other group emphasize an "Acts 2:38" based salvation message which says that a person needs to repent and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and then receive the Holy Spirit. Receiving the Holy Spirit is necessary for salvation but is not accompanied by speaking in tongues. Of the Acts 2:38 based churches, they fall into four categories of "Jesus Name", "First", "United" or "Oneness" Pentecostals which baptize in Jesus name only, and those that baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit "Matthew 28:19".
Typically, Pentecostals that do not believe speaking in tongues is necessary for salvation--the vast majority-- are from Trinitarian traditions. Those who believe that it is necessary are generally from Oneness churches that teach that Jesus is the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (Colossians 2:9-10). In the very early part of the 20th century, the Pentecostal movement also used the term 'Apostolic'. However, after the rise of the Oneness Pentecostal movement, this title came to be associated with Oneness Pentecostalism in the US. In some parts of Africa, 'Apostolic' is a term used to refer to the Pentecostal movement in general.
Because many Pentecostal denominations are descended from Methodism and the Methodist Holiness Movement, Pentecostal soteriology is generally Arminian rather than Calvinist.
The Pentecostal movement finds its historic roots in the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, California, USA from 1904 to 1906. Several years earlier, in 1901, Bible college students at a school founded by Charles Parham in Topeka Kansas prayed to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues (other languages.) Parham moved to Houston, Texas, where in spite of segregation, William Seymore, a one-eyed African-American preacher was allowed to listen in to the Bible classes. Seymore went to Los Angeles, where his preaching helped spark the fires of the Azusa Street revival. Most Pentecostal demoninations can trace their roots to the Azusa Street revival or were strongly influenced by it.
Oneness Pentecostalism traces its roots to the The World-Wide Apostolic Camp Meeting in April 1913 where one of the preachers started teaching Oneness doctrine.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s Christians from mainline churches in the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world began to accept the teaching that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is available for Christians today. Charismatic movements began to grow in mainline denominations. There were Charismatics Episcopalians, Lutherans, Catholics, and Methodists. During that time period, 'Charismatic' was used to refer to these movements that existed within mainline denominations. Pentecostal was used to refer to those who were a part of the churches and denominations that grew out of the earlier Azusa Street revival. However, in recent decades, many independent Charismatic churches and ministries have formed or have developed their own denominations and church associations. In the 1960s, many Pentecostal churches were still strict with dress codes and forbidding certain forms of entertainment, creating a cultural distinction between Charismatics and Pentecostals. Nowadays, many Pentecostal churches put little emphases on dress and entertainment issues. There is a great deal of overlap now between the Charismatic and Pentecostal movements.
Trinitarian Pentecostals typically believe in water baptism as an outward sign of conversion and that the baptism in the Holy Ghost is a distinct spiritual experience that all who have belief in Jesus should receive. Most classical Pentecostals believe that the baptism in the Holy Ghost is always accompanied initially by the outward evidence of speaking in tongues. It is considered a liberalizing tendency to teach contrary to this historic position. This is another major difference between Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians, who believe that a Christian baptized in the Holy Ghost may exhibit certain supernatural signs, including speaking in tongues, "being slain in the spirit" (where people fall to the ground as if asleep ), prophecy (i.e., a vision or a word of God, spoken or felt in the spirit), miraculous healings, miraculous signs, etc.
Theologically, most Pentecostal denominations are aligned with Evangelicalism in that they emphasize the reliability of the Bible and the need for the transformation of an individual's life with faith in Jesus. Pentecostals also adhere to the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy. Pentecostals differ from fundamentalists by placing less emphasis on personal spiritual experience and more emphasis on the Holy Ghost's work within a person than other Protestants.
One of the most prominent distinguishing characteristics of Pentecostalism from the rest of Evangelicalism is its emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit. Most Pentecostals believe that everyone who is genuinely saved has the Holy Ghost with them. But unlike most other Christians they believe that there is a second work of the Holy Ghost called the baptism of the Holy Spirit, in which the Holy Ghost dwells more fully in them, and which opens a believer up to a closer fellowship with God and empowers them for Christian service. Some Pentecostals have modified the view teaching that Spirit baptism is not considered a second chronological work of grace, but a second aspect of the Holy Ghost's ministry. His first ministry is to save and sanctify the believer by working in them; His second ministry is to empower the believer for service by working through them. Most Pentecostals cite speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, as the normative proof, and evidence of the Holy Ghost baptism. Some Pentecostals have adopted a more liberal view claiming that there are other evidences of Holy Ghost baptism. The doctrine of tongues as the initial evidence of receiving the Holy Ghost is uniquely Pentecostal and is one of the few differences from Charismatic theology which generally claims diverse evidences.
Pentecostals believe it is essential to repent for the remission of sins and believe in Jesus Christ as Savior in order to obtain salvation. Many believe that the baptism of the Holy Ghost is an additional gift that is bestowed on believers, generally subsequent to an intermediary step termed sanctification. Sanctification refers to a work of grace wherein the effects of past sins are ameliorated and the natural tendency toward a sinful nature is likewise set aside through the working of the Holy Ghost. Other Pentecostals believe that Holy Ghost Baptism is a necessary step in God's plan of salvation citing Peter's answer to the crowd on the Day of Pentecost. The crowd asked Peter what they must do to be saved, and Peter told them to repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and that they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:37-8).
Pentecostals vary in their beliefs of the types of speaking in tongues (1 Cor. 12:28). Following are some possible distinctions. First, there is the evidence at the baptism of the Holy Ghost. This is when a believer speaks in tongues when they are baptized with the Holy Ghost. This may or may not be the only time an individual ever speaks in tongues. Secondly, there is the gift of tongues. This is when a person is moved by God to speak in tongues during a church service or other Christian gathering for everyone to hear. The gift of tongues may be exercised anywhere; but many denominations believe that it must only be exercised with a person who has the gift of "interpretation of tongues" present (whether that be another person or the one who gives the tongue). The interpreter may interpret the tongue into the language of the gathered Christians so that they can understand the message (1 Cor. 14:13, 27-28).
Many Pentecostals, particularly after the growth and influence of the Charismatic movement believe that speaking in tongues can be used as a prayer language at any time one chooses, provided he has been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Certain groups of Pentecostals emphasize the idea of speaking in tongues only when the Holy Spirit comes upon an individual, and have a problem with the idea of speaking in tongues 'at will.' God gives a wide variety of spiritual gifts. It may be that these doctrinal differences resulted from certain church leaders taking their own experiences and making doctrines out of them.
Dr. Dale A. Robbins writes in regard to charismatic beliefs that church history argues against the idea that charismatic gifts went away shortly after the apostolic age. Dr. Robbins quotes the early church father Irenaeus (ca. 130-202) as writing, "...we hear many of the brethren in the church who have prophetic gifts, and who speak in tongues through the Spirit, and who also bring to light the secret things of men for their benefit [word of knowledge]...". Dr. Robbins also cites Irenaeus writing, "When God saw it necessary, and the church prayed and fasted much, they did miraculous things, even of bringing back the spirit to a dead man." According to Dr. Robbins, Tertullian (ca. 155–230) reported similar incidents, as did Origen (ca. 182 - 251), Eusebius (ca. 275 – 339), Firmilian (ca. 232-269), and Chrysostom (ca. 347 - 407).[2]
Justin Martyr(100-165), in his Dialogue with Trypho, argues with a non-Christian Jew that the church had prophets, while the Jews no longer had them. The Second Century document The Shepherd of Hermas recounts visions and revelations and affirms the role of the gift of prophecy in the church. The popularity of this book in churches of the second century is strong evidence that the gift of prophecy was still widely accepted as being legitimate.
Some critics of spiritual gifts argue that these spiritual gifts died out and were only claimed by heretical groups. Usually they mention the 'new prophecy' of the Montanists around the turn of the second century to prove their claims. A careful study of history, however, shows that the gift of prophecy was generally accepted by the church in that day. Criticism of the Montanists had initially to deal with the ecstatic manner in which Montanus, Priscilla, Maximilla and others prophesied. After these three had died and prophecy had apparently ceased among the Montanists, Eusebius records a debate between an Orthodox believer and a Montanist. The Orthodox believer pointed out that the Montanists no longer had prophecy, though the apostle (Paul) affirmed that the gift would continue until the Lord returned. (See I Corinthians 1:7.) It is clear that the church accepted the continuing of the gift of prophecy.
The world's largest Pentecostal denomination, the Assemblies of God[citation needed], holds to the belief in Trinitarian theology in accordance with mainstream Protestantism[1] as does the Elim Pentecostal Church, Church of God, the Church of God in Christ, The Apostolic Church, and the Foursquare Church.
Most Pentecostal churches hold the belief that preaching the Gospel to unbelievers is extremely important. "The Great Commission" to spread the "Good News of the Kingdom of God", spoken by Jesus directly before his Ascension, [2] is perceived as one of the most important commands that Jesus gave.
Some Pentecostal churches, however, hold to Oneness theology, which decries the traditional doctrine of the Trinity. Oneness doctrine holds that God is absolutely and indivisibly one and that Jesus was the one God manifested in the flesh (Timothy 3:16, John 1:1-11, John 10:30), the division of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as some of God's manifestations rather than persons; furthermore they are seen as titles to Jesus. This type of teaching is largely associated with the pentecostal church, yet is not based solely on the pentecostal experience.
Therefore, Oneness Pentecostals baptize believers "in Jesus' name" (Acts 2:38,8:5-16, 10:48) rather than what they refer to as the titles: "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The largest Oneness Pentecostal denominations are the United Pentecostal Church International (www.upci.org), Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Apostolic Assembly of the Faith in Christ Jesus, and the Apostolic Church of the Faith in Christ Jesus but there are many smaller Oneness Pentecostal organizations and independent churches such as the Assemblies of the Lord Jesus Christ, the True Jesus Church, the Pentecostal Followers of Jesus Christ International Ministries, Iglesia del Dios Vivo, the Pentecostal Churches of the Apostolic Faith, Bible Way, and independent or nondenominational churches. The majority, if not all, of Oneness Pentecostals also refer to themselves as Apostolics. The major Trinitarian Pentecostal organizations including the Pentecostal World Conference and the Fellowship of Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches of North America, have condemned Oneness theology as a heresy and refuse membership to churches holding this belief. This same holds true for some Oneness Pentecostals towards Trinitarian churches.
Pentecostals trace the history of the movement to the day of Pentecost when a week after Jesus ascended into Heaven (Acts 1), there were 120 believers waiting for the promise of the Father, that is the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2:4, when the Holy Spirit came upon the believers they all spoke in tongues (other languages). That notwithstanding, the practice of speaking in tongues has been reported and documented throughout Christian History; however, the roots of the current movement date back no earlier than the late 1700's. Modern revival movements over the past few hundred years have appeared and are referenced below.
One such revival began with a Prussian Guards officer, Gustav von Below, in 1817. He and his brothers started holding charismatic meetings on his estates in Pomerania. A Lutheran commission sent to investigate was at first suspicious but found the phenomenon to be "of God." This led to a growth in charismatic meetings across Germany which quickly crossed the Atlantic during the great German migrations of the nineteenth century.[citation needed] The Pentecostal movement also became prominent in the Holiness movement, which was the first to begin making numerous references to the term "Pentecostal", such as in 1867 when the movement established The National Camp Meeting Association for the Promotion of Christian Holiness with a notice that said: [We are summoning,] irrespective of denominational tie...those who feel themselves comparatively isolated in their profession of holiness…that all would realize together a Pentecostal baptism of the Holy Ghost....
England and parts of Europe experienced another Charismatic or Pentecostal type movement before the Pentecostal movement started in the United States. In the 1830's, in England, a church under the leadership of Edward Irving began to experience manifestations of tongues and prophecy. Through prophecy, certain men were appointed as apostles. Certain apostles were appointed by these apostles until the number reached 12. Irving passed away, but the movement developed into what would be called the Catholic Apostolic Church, taken from the Nicene Creed. Henry Drummond was, perhaps, the most influential 'apostle' in the movement. He was quite fond of the writings of the so-called 'church fathers', and the movement took on a highly liturgical flair, including influences from Eastern Orthodoxy liturgy. The movement grew to several thousand in England, Germany, and some other parts of Europe. Though a splinter group in Germany did appoint new apostles and continue on, the English group did not. The last official of the Catholic Apostolic Church died in 1901, just a few months after Agnes Ozman spoke in tongues in the United States.
As early as the 1870's, there were Christians known as Gift People or Gift Adventists numbering in the thousands who were known for spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues.* One preacher from the Gift People was influential on A.J. Tomlinson, an early leader in the Church of God (Cleveland, TN), which would become a Pentecostal denomination after the Azusa Street revival.
Although the 1896 Shearer Schoolhouse Revival in Cherokee County, North Carolina may rightfully be regarded as the literal beginning of the modern Pentecostal movement, the remoteness of this region very likely played a role in this event remaining localized for so long.[citation needed] Around 1901, however, Pentecostalism was to stand on a larger stage, as that was when Agnes Ozman began speaking in tongues (glossolalia) during a prayer meeting at Charles Fox Parham's Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas in 1901. Parham, a minister of Methodist background, formulated the doctrine that tongues was the "Bible evidence" of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Further, Pentecostals point to the "upper room" experience of the gathered disciples of Jesus as described in Acts 2:1 and Peter's instructions in Acts 2:38 as justification for their practices.
Parham left Topeka and began a revival meeting ministry. The most significant and controversial is his link to the Azusa Street Revival conducted by his student, the African-American, William J. Seymour. Parham taught W.J. Seymour in his school in Houston, Texas. Since W.J. Seymour was African-American, he was only allowed to sit outside the room to listen to Parham.
Although many instances of glossolalia occurred prior to 1906, The Azusa Street Revival led by William J. Seymour is the watershed of the Pentecostal movement in the U.S. and worldwide. It began on April 9, 1906, in Los Angeles, California, at the home of Edward Lee, who claimed the infilling of the Holy Spirit. William J. Seymour claimed that he was overcome with the Holy Ghost on April 12, 1906. On April 18, 1906, the Los Angeles Times ran a front page story on the revival, "Weird Babel of Tongues, New Sect of fanatics is breaking loose, Wild scene last night on Azusa Street, gurgle of wordless talk by a sister". By the third week in April, 1906, the small but growing congregation rented an abandoned African Methodist Episcopal Church at 312 Azusa Street and subsequently became organized as the Apostolic Faith Mission. Almost all mainline Pentecostal denominations today trace their historical roots to the Azusa Street Revival.
Pentecostalism, like any other major movement, has given birth to a large number of organizations, denominations, churches, sects, para-churches, separatists and even cults with political, social or theological differences. The movement's inception was counter-cultural to the social and political norms of society. Record numbers of African-American men and women, both Black and white were initial leaders. As the Azusa Revival began to wane, doctrinal differences began to surface as well as the pressure from social, cultural and political events of the time. As a result, major divisions, separation, isolationism, sectarianism and even the increase of extremism were apparent. Not wishing to affiliate with the Assemblies of God, formed in 1914, a group of ministers from predominantly white churches formed the Pentecostal Church of God in Chicago, Illinois in 1919. George Went Hensley, a preacher who had left the Church of God, Cleveland Tennessee (the oldest Pentecostal denomination in America) when it finally stopped embracing snake handling, is credited with creating the first church dedicated to this extreme practice in the 1920s. This became widely practiced in poor, rural areas of the Appalachians. In urban African-American communities of the 1940s, there were Father Divine with his Peace Mission and Daddy Grace, both claiming divinity, encouraging their followers to practice the estaticism of Pentecostalism.
The role of African-Americans and women cannot be underestimated in the early Pentecostal movement. The first decade of Pentecostalism was marked by interracial assemblies, "...Whites and blacks mix in a religious frenzy,..." according to a local newspaper account at a time when the Supreme Court of the United States declared in its landmark case, Plessy vs Ferguson of 1896 that government facilities were to remain racially separate, but equal. The decision ushered the Jim Crow practices of apartheid in the United States with racially separate and unequal facilities in the U.S. The forward interracial, gender equality and enthusiasm of the Azusa Revival lasted until 1924, when divisions occurred along racial (see Apostolic Faith Mission), gender and doctrinal lines. Interracial services continued for many years, even in parts of the segregated Southern United States, although after the waning years of the Azusa Revival, the practice of interracial services were nearly non-existent in many white Pentecostal churches. The Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee, prior to the split in 1923, made significant inroads across racial divides, with missionary ministry to the Bahamas and elsewhere. After the 1923 divide, the bulk of the black membership followed Overseer A.J. Tomlinson into the Church of God of Prophecy.
From the late 1950s onwards, the Charismatic movement, which was to a large extent inspired and influenced by Pentecostalism, began to flourish in the mainline Protestant denominations, as well as the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches, fostered in Britain by organizations such as the Fountain Trust, founded by Michael Harper in 1964. Unlike "Classical Pentecostals," who formed strictly Pentecostal congregations or denominations, Charismatics adopted as their motto, "Bloom where God planted you."
Some leaders who chose not to participate in the early 20th Century Pentecostal Movement remained highly respected by Pentecostal leaders of the 20th Century. Albert Benjamin Simpson became closely involved with the growing Pentecostal movement. It was common for Pentecostal pastors and missionaries to receive their training at the Missionary Training Institute that Simpson founded. Because of this, Simpson and the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) (an evangelistic movement that Simpson founded) had a great influence on Pentecostalism, in particular the Assemblies of God and the Foursquare Church. This influence included evangelistic emphasis, C&MA doctrine, Simpson's hymns and books, and the use of the term 'Gospel Tabernacle,' which evolved into Pentecostal churches being known as 'Full Gospel Tabernacles.' Charles Price Jones, the African-American Holiness leader and founder of the Church of Christ is another example. His hymns are widely sung at National Coventions of the Church of God in Christ and many other Pentecostal churches.
In the United Kingdom, the first Pentecostal church to be formed was the Apostolic Church. This was later followed by the Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance, later to be known as the Elim Pentecostal Church, founded in 1914 by George Jeffreys.
In Sweden, the first Pentecostal church was the Filadelfia Church in Stockholm. Pastored by Lewi Pethrus, this congregation, originally Baptist, was expelled from the Baptist Union of Sweden in 1913 for doctrinal differences. [citation needed] Today this congregation has about 7000 members and is the biggest Pentecostal congregation in northern Europe. As of 2005, the Swedish pentecostal movement has approximately 90,000 members in nearly 500 congregations. These congregations are all independent but cooperate on a large scale. Swedish Pentecostals have been very missionary-minded and have established churches in many countries. In Brazil, for example, churches founded by the Swedish Pentecostal mission claim several million members.
The history of Pentecostalism in Australia has been documented by Dr Barry Chant in Heart of Fire (1984, Adelaide: Tabor).
Estimated numbers of Pentecostals vary widely. Christianity Today reported in an article titled World Growth at 19 Million a Year that according to historian Vinson Synan, dean of the Regent University School of Divinity in Virginia Beach, about 25 percent of the world's Christians are Pentecostal or charismatic.
The largest Pentecostal denominations in the United States are the Church of God in Christ, the Assemblies of God, New Testament Church, Church of God (Cleveland), Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Assemblies of the Lord Jesus Christ, the United Pentecostal Church, and the United Gospel Tabernacles. According to a Spring 1998 article in Christian History, there are about 11,000 different Pentecostal or charismatic denominations worldwide.
The size of Pentecostalism in the U.S. is estimated to be more than 20 million including approximately 918,000 (4%) of the Hispanic-American population, counting all unaffiliated congregations, although the numbers are uncertain, in part because some tenets of Pentecostalism are held by members of non-Pentecostal denominations in what has been called the charismatic movement. Toronto Canada, has a large Pentecostal population. The influence of immigrants from Jamaica, Africa, Latin America, Korea and elsewhere have created diverse churches throughout the city.
In Australia, Hillsong (led by Pastor Brian Houston) is the largest church with a membership exceeding 19,000. Many of their songs are sung across the Pentecostal churches. They are a member of Assemblies of God, which is one of the largest Pentecostal organisations in the world.
Pentecostalism was estimated to number around 115 million followers worldwide in 2000; lower estimates place the figure near to 22 million (eg. Cambridge Encyclopedia), while the highest estimates apparently place the figure between 400 and 600 million. The great majority of Pentecostals are to be found in Developing Countries (see the Statistics subsection below), although much of their international leadership is still North American. Pentecostalism is sometimes referred to as the "third force of Christianity." The largest Pentecostal Christian church in the world is the Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea. Founded and led by David Yonggi Cho since 1958, it had 780,000 members in 2003.
According to Christianity Today, Pentecostalism is "a vibrant faith among the poor; it reaches into the daily lives of believers, offering not only hope but a new way of living." [3]. In addition, according to a 1999 U.N. report, "Pentecostal churches have been the most successful at recruiting its members from the poorest of the poor." Brazilian Pentecostals talk of Jesus as someone real and close to them and doing things for them including providing food and shelter. - Krishneel Maharaj from India.
Pentecostal and charismatic church growth is rapid in many parts of the world. Missions expert David Barrett estimated in a Christianity Today article that the Pentecostal and charismatic church is growing by 19 million per year.
Jeffrey K. Hadden at the Department of Sociology at the University of Virginia collected statistics from the various large pentecostal organizations and from the work by David Stoll (David Stoll, "Is Latin American Turning Protestant?" published Berkeley: University of California Press. 1990) demonstrating that the Pentecostals are experiencing very rapid growth as can be seen on his website. In Myanmar, the Assemblies of God of Myanmar is one of the largest Christian denominations. The pentecostal churches Igreja do Evangelho Completo de Deus, Assembleias de Deus, Igrejas de Cristo and the Assembleias Evangelicas de Deus Pentecostales are among the largest denominations of Mozambique.
According to the last census in Brazil 25% are Protestants, most of them are pentecostals or charismatics (Eg. Assemblies of God, Christian Congregation of Brazil, Foursquare Gospel, Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, Charismatics Baptists) the biggest denomination are the Assemblies of God (Assembléia de Deus) - about 10 million members.
Among the Indian charismatic denominations are Apostolic Church of Pentecost, Apostolic Pentecostal Church, Assemblies of Christ Church, Assemblies of God, Bible Pattern Church, Church of God (Full Gospel) in India, Church of God of Prophecy, Church of the Apostolic Faith, Elim Church, Nagaland Christian Revival Church, New Life Fellowship, The Pentecostal Mission, Open Bible Church of God, Pentecostal Free Will Baptist Church, Pentecostal Holiness Church, Pentecostal Mission, United Pentecostal Church in India, India Pentecostal Church of God, Sharon Fellowship Church, Kerala, India (Founded by Pr. Thomachayan) has planted numerous Churches throughout the world.
See List of Christian denominations by number of members. The list indicates there may be 150 million Pentecostals with the largest Pentecostal denominations (claiming 2 million or more adherents) being:
Pentecostal theologians are listed in the article Renewal Theologians.
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