Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism is a vibrant movement within Christianity that emphasizes the active role of the Holy Spirit in believers' lives, underscoring the importance of personal experiences and a direct relationship with God. Emerging in the early 20th century, specifically from a revival led by William Seymour at Azusa Street in Los Angeles, Pentecostalism is characterized by practices such as speaking in tongues and the belief in a "second blessing" that enhances one's spiritual life. This movement is not confined to a single denomination, but spans across various branches of Christianity, including Protestant and Catholic traditions.
Rooted in earlier holiness teachings, Pentecostalism gained momentum through its missionary efforts, spreading rapidly across the United States and internationally. The movement has been particularly influential in less developed countries and has led to the establishment of many large congregations, such as the Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea. By the early 21st century, it was estimated that around 279 million people worldwide identified with Pentecostalism, representing a significant segment of the global Christian population. Additionally, related movements, like the Charismatic movement, have emerged within mainline churches, further expanding the reach and impact of Pentecostal beliefs. Overall, Pentecostalism continues to shape contemporary Christian worship and community life across diverse cultural contexts.
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Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism is a form of Christianity that emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit in an individual believer's life and places great importance on the individual's relationship with God. According to Christian belief, the Holy Spirit is the third person of God in the Holy Trinity. Pentecostalism is not a separate denomination of Christianity but is a movement within nearly every branch of the Christian faith. It began in a small church in Kansas at the beginning of the twentieth century, and its followers have grown in number to become among the largest groups of Christians in the twenty-first century.
Background
During the nineteenth century, followers of John Wesley in the Methodist tradition expanded on Wesley's notion that a "second work of grace" brought increased holiness to the believer. This grace came to individuals at some point later in their lives after the first blessing—salvation—and was a gift from God through the Holy Spirit. It was thought to allow persons who received it to live a holier life, with less chance of willfully committing sin, and to become closer to God. This came to be known as "the second blessing." Followers of this doctrine were part of the Holiness movement.
Charles Fox Parham, an evangelist for the Holiness movement, opened a Bible college in Topeka, Kansas, in 1900. Parham believed that Wesley's second blessing included the gift of speaking in tongues. According to the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Bible, after Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit to guide his followers on Earth. When the first apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit, they were able to speak in languages other than their native language, and those around them each heard them speaking in the language of their own homeland (Acts 2:1–13). In the Christian tradition, this day is referred to as Pentecost. Drawing on this biblical account, Parham taught his followers that those who received the second blessing would also be able to speak in tongues.
On January 1, 1901, one of Parham's students, Agnes Ozman, began speaking in tongues after receiving "baptism in the Holy Spirit," or the second blessing. This convinced a number of Parham's other students that they would be able to speak other languages when necessary, too, and they became missionaries to countries around the world. They also carried Parham's teachings to other parts of the United States. On April 9, 1906, a Black American student of Parham's named William J. Seymour shared Parham's beliefs about the second blessing at the Apostolic Faith Gospel Mission at 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles.
This was followed by a burst of religious fervor that led to the church holding three services a day, every day, for more than three years. Thousands of people received the baptism of the Holy Spirit during these services. Religious scholars are still unable to explain why the Pentecostal movement spurred on by Seymour's sermon began with such intensity or spread so quickly. Within days, people who received the second blessing at Azusa Street were carrying the message to their home churches, and the Pentecostal movement grew rapidly.
Overview
Many of those who visited the church at Azusa Street as pilgrims and experienced what the Pentecostal movement claimed was the ability to speak in tongues went home to churches in the American South. Others went throughout the United States and Canada. In 1910, William H. Durham formed the Assemblies of God Church based on the Pentecostal movement. By the 1990s, this church was the largest in the Pentecostal movement, with more than twenty-five million worshipers around the world.
A number of other adherents to Pentecostalism carried the message of the second blessing overseas, including John Graham Lake. Lake and his family of nine traveled to Africa in 1908. Several churches were formed there in the Pentecostal movement, including the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa, a largely White church, and Zion Christian Church, which had mostly Black members. Other missionaries carried the Pentecostal message to Europe, Russia, the Slavic countries, Asia, and other parts of the world. Eventually, these early evangelists of the Pentecostal movement established approximately eleven thousand churches worldwide.
The idea of being baptized into the Holy Spirit and receiving new grace also began to spread to the mainline Christian churches, such as the existing Protestant churches and the Roman Catholic Church. These newer waves of acceptance of the Pentecostal teachings began to take root in the 1960s when the emphasis was on renewal and revitalization of faith. This new movement, an offshoot of the Pentecostal movement, became known as the Charismatic movement.
The influence of Pentecostalism continued to grow throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. It saw its greatest growth in developing countries but was also strong in the American South and a number of other areas. Many of the largest mega-churches, or churches with more than two thousand people in attendance at weekly services, are Pentecostal churches. These include the Hillsong Church in Australia. Although Hillsong experienced controversy in the 2020s, it remained active with campuses worldwide. The Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea often has between 150,000 and 200,000 people attending worship services each week and is considered one of the largest Pentecostal congregations in the world with a total membership of 580,000.
A 2011 Pew Research Center report stated that according to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, there were 279 million people claiming association with the Pentecostal movement. This represents 4 percent of the global population and nearly 13 percent of Christians around the world. Into the mid-2020s, there were approximately 644 million Pentecostal Christians worldwide, accounting for about 8 percent of the global population and nearly 26 percent of all Christians, reflecting the rapid expansion of Pentecostalism. This increased number also reflected the inclusion of hundreds of millions of people who aligned themselves with the Charismatic movement. Although some sources consider the two movements to be separate, others consider the Charismatic movement to be the mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic version of the Pentecostal movement because they share many similarities in beliefs and practices.
Bibliography
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