Pentecostal Movement in the USA

The United States is home to the modern Pentecostal movement. The birth date of the movement is considered January 1, 1901, when students of the bible school of C.F. Param survived the baptism with the Holy Spirit . A powerful impetus to the development of the Pentecostal movement was given by the assembly at Azusa Street in 1906.

The ensuing decade led to the creation of the first Pentecostal associations: Assemblies of God and Pentecostal Assemblies of the world . At the same time, the doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is accepted by a number of communities and unions of the Holiness Movement . These are the Church of God , founded in 1886, the African American Church of God in Christ (founded in 1897) and the Pentecostal Church of Holiness (founded in 1911).

For a long time, the Pentecostals of America remained isolated from other gospel groups . Only from the beginning of the 40s of the XX century did they gradually come closer to other fundamentalist churches in the USA.

Post-war years, the movement is characterized by the so-called. "The awakening of healing." Mass meetings held by the evangelists W. Branham , O. Roberts , A. Allen, G. Lindsay, T. Osborne largely paved the way for the emergence of the charismatic movement .

In 1948, the largest American Pentecostal alliances created the interdenominational advisory body, the Pentecostal Brotherhood of North America . The Union took an active part in the preparation of the World Pentecostal Conferences . In October 1994, the organization was reformed into the Pentecostal / Charismatic Union of America . Currently, the union unites the majority of Pentecostals and charismatics from the USA and Canada. The main goals of the association are fraternal communication and the promotion of cooperation.

In the second half of the 1990s, American Pentecostals were affected by the so-called The Brownsville Awakening, or The Awakening at Pensacola , which began in 1995 in the local community of the Assemblies of God in Brownsville, ( Pensacola , Florida ).

The exact number of Pentecostals in the United States is difficult to name for various reasons. This is the lack of a single administrative center, and the explosive growth of African-American charismatic churches ^[2] , and the fact that a significant number of urban "white" charismatic churches are not included in any association and often position themselves as "non-denominational churches."

The authors of the Encyclopedia of Religion and Society (1998) indicate a range of 10 to 29 million people ^[1] . According to the Pew Research Center, in 2006, approx. 15 million Pentecostals (or 5% of the population ^[3] ). The highly respected World Christian Encyclopedia counted 16 million Pentecostals and charismatics in 2001, noting the continued growth of communities ^[4] .

A study by Christian Research cites the figure of 20 million believers (2006) ^[5] . The reference publication Operation World contains information on 21.68 million Pentecostals in the USA in 2010 and indicates an annual increase of 1.1% ^[6] .

Over the past two decades, the Pentecostal movement in the United States has increased significantly. Thanks to this, Pentecostals became the third (after Catholics and Baptists ) religious group in America.

According to the Pew Research Center, 56% of American Pentecostals are “ white ”; 20% are African American ; 18% are Hispanic ; 1% - Asians . The remaining 5% of American Pentecostals belong to mixed or other groups ^[7] . Over half of the US Pentecostals (52%) live in the south of the country; 19% - in the Midwest ; 17% in the West and only 12% in the northeast geographic region ^[7] . According to the same study, 56% of Pentecostal churches are women; men make up 44%.

According to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Groups, in 2000 Pentecostals were the largest religious denomination in 8 districts of America - in Asotin, Washington ; in Witland, Montana ; in Josephine, Oregon ; in Eton, Michigan ; in Lynn, Oregon ; at McDowell, West Virginia ; in Shelf, Oregon; and in Wheeler, Oregon. ^[8]

Traditionally, American Pentecostals are divided into classical ( Pentecostal two blessings and Pentecostal three blessings ), Pentecostal Unitarian , radical Pentecostal and charismatic .

The largest Pentecostal denomination in North America remains the African American Church of God in Christ . Founded in 1897, it unites 5.5 million parishioners and 15 thousand local churches. The Assemblies of God report 3 million worshipers in 12,600 churches (2011 ^[9] ). America's oldest Pentecostal Church, the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) brings together nearly 1.1 million believers ^[10] . The international church of the four-sided Gospel has 354 thousand members ^[11] . Communities of the International Pentecostal Church of Holiness are visited by 330 thousand believers ^[12] .

Other associations of classical Pentecostals include: Pentecostal Church of God (100 thousand ^[13] ), Church of the God of Prophecy (90 thousand ^[14] ), United Holy Church of America (50 thousand ^[15] ), Open Bible Church (45 thousand ^[16] ), the African American Church of the living God (42 thousand ^[17] ), the Church of God by faith (35 thousand ^[18] ), the Pentecostal Baptist Church of free will (28 thousand ^[19] ), Christian “New World” church (28 thousand ^[20] ), Congregational Church of Holiness (25 thousand ^[21] ), Elim Brotherhood (21 thousand), Assembly of Faith (17 thousand ^[22] ), Holy Church A Mount Sinai (8 thousand ^[20] ), Mission of the Apostolic Faith (Portland, Oregon - 5 thousand ^[23] ), Church of God (Mountain Assembly - 5 thousand ^[24] ), International Pentecostal Church of Christ (5 Thousand ^[25] ), Independent Assemblies of God, United Pentecostal Church in Christ.

A very prominent group in the United States is the Pentecostal Unitarian . Most of them are concentrated in the three largest associations: the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (1.65 million believers, including 1.3 million members ^[6] ), the United Pentecostal Church, international (810 thousand believers ^[6] , t including 646 thousand members ^[26] ) and the World Church of our Lord Jesus Christ of the biblical way (250 thousand ^[27] ). In addition to these, other Pentecostal Unitarian unions operate in the USA: Assemblies of the Lord Jesus Christ (50 thousand ^[28] ), Church of Christ the Way of the Cross (50 thousand ^[29] ), Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith (30 thousand ^[30] ), Pentecostal churches of the apostolic faith (25 thousand ^[31] ), Apostolic overcoming holy church of God (15 thousand ^[28] ), First Church of Jesus Christ (10 thousand ^[32] ).

The largest charismatic associations are: The Brotherhood of Baptist Churches of the Full Gospel (the largest black charismatic church), The Brotherhood of Churches of the Full Gospel (2.8 million believers in 8.3 thousand churches ^[6] ; the largest church of white charismatics), Chapel on Calvary , Association of Churches Vineyard (189 thousand. ^[33] ). Moreover, a significant number of local charismatic churches are not included in any association.

A growing group of American Pentecostals are Hispanics ^[34] . Moreover, if previously Hispanic churches were part of large unions (the Assembly of God ), recently there has been a process of formation of new national unions - Puerto Rican, Mexican, Brazilian, Guatemalan.

Since the mid 80-ies of the XX century, tens of thousands of Pentecostals from the countries of the former Soviet Union immigrated to the United States. Most of the Russian-speaking Pentecostal churches are members of the Union of Slavic Churches of the XWEP of America, the Union of the XWE of America and the Slavic branch of the Church of the Assembly of God . The largest local church is the Slavic missionary church "Bethany" (5 thousand parishioners ^[35] ).

• Protestantism in the USA
• Pentecostals
• Pentecostal Denomination List

• Stanley M. Burgerss, Eduard M. Van der Maas. New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, The. - 2nd ed. - Grand Rapids , Michigan : Zondervan Publishing House, 2002 .-- 1328 p. - ISBN 0310224810 .

• J. Gordon Melton . Melton's Encyclopedia of American Religions / James Bevereley, Constance Jones, Pamela S. Nadell, Rodney Stark. - 8th ed. - Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale Cengage Learning, 2009 .-- 1416 p. - (Encyclopedia of American Religions). - ISBN 978-0787696962 .

• Pentecostalism in the USA // Protestantism: Dictionary of an Atheist / Ed. ed. L. N. Mitrokhina . - M .: Politizdat , 1990 .-- S. 215-216. - 319 p. - ISBN 5-250-00373-7 .

• Pentecostal / Charismatic North America Website