Pentecostalism: Encyclopedia II - Pentecostalism - Pentecostal denominations and adherents

Pentecostalism - Pentecostal denominations and adherents

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 Assemblies of God, the Church of God in Christ, Church of God (Cleveland) and the United Pentecostal Church. 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.

Pentecostalism was conservatively estimated to number around 115 million followers worldwide in 2000; other estimates place the figure closer to 400 million. The great majority of Pentecostals are to be found in Third World 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 Christian church in the world is the Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea, a Pentecostal church. Founded and led by David Yonggi Cho since 1958, it had 780,000 members in 2003. The True Jesus Church, an indigenous church founded by Chinese believers on the mainland but whose headquarters is now in Taiwan. The Apostolic Church is the fastest growing church in the world.

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." [2]. 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.

Pentecostalism - Statistics

From the List of Christian denominations by number of members there are 105 million Pentecostals with the largest Pentecostal denominations (with 2 million or more adherents being:

• Assemblies of God - 15 million
• New Apostolic Church - 11 million
• Kimbanguist Church - 8 million
• Church of God in Christ - 7 million
• Church of God (Cleveland) - 5 million
• Christian Congregation of Brazil- 2.5 million
• Zion Christian Church - 2.5 million
• Church of the Lord Aladura - 2.5 million
• International Church of the Foursquare Gospel 2 million
• Universal Church of the Kingdom of God - 2 million

Geographical distribution

• Africa: 41.1 million
  • Nigeria: 12.1 million
  • Kenya: 4.1 million
  • South Africa: 3.4 million
  • Ethiopia: 2.6 million
• South America: 32.4 million
  • Brazil: 13.5 million
  • Argentina: 3.5 million
  • Chile: 1.8 million
• North America: 21.5 million
  • United States: 20.2 million
  • Mexico: 2.7 million
  • Guatemala: 2.0 million
  • Canada: 1.3 million
• Asia: 15.3 million
  • China: unknown; believed to be several million
  • Indonesia: 5.0 million
  • India: 3.9 million
  • South Korea: 1.7 million
• Europe: 4.3 million
  • Sweden: 0.1 million
  • United Kingdom: 0.9 million
• Oceania: 3.3 million
  • Papua New Guinea: 0.4 million
  • Australia: 0.4 million

Source: Operation World by Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk, 2000, unless otherwise indicated.

Pentecostalism - Pentecostalism outside the English speaking world

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.

On November 9, 2003, St. Petersburg Times writer Sharon Tubbs stated in a article entitled Fiery Pentecostal Spirit Spreads into Mainstream Christianity that Pentecostalism is the world's fastest-growing Christian movement.

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. 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, New Testament Church of India, Open Bible Church of God, Pentecostal Free Will Baptist Church, Pentecostal Holiness Church, Pentecostal Mission andUnited Pentecostal Church in India, and the largest, indigenous, Pentecostal movement in India, India Pentecostal Church of God.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Pentecostal denominations and adherents", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki