Kay William K. - European Pentecostalism

European Pentecostalism

Its Origins, Development, and F uture

European Pentecostalism

Its Origins, Development, and Future

Paul Schmidgall

CPT Press

Cleveland, Tennessee

European Pentecostalism

Its Origins, Development, and Future

Published by CPT Press

900 Walker ST NE

Cleveland, TN 37311

USA

email: cptpress@pentecostaltheology.org

website: www.cptpress.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011933496

ISBN-10: 1935931199

ISBN-13: 9781935931195

Copyright 2013 CPT Press

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or translated in any form, by print, phot oprint, microfilm, microfiche, electronic database, internet database, or any other means without written permission from the publisher.

Despite the media setbacks suffered by the Pentecostals in the 1980s due to the television evangelists scandals, there is a continuing trend towards growth around the world. In his demographic studies, David Barrett reported lately even stronger growth than most experts suspected. Barrett and Synan, the worlds leading experts on Pentecostal growth, quoted the following numbers for the turn of the millennium:

World Population 6,010,779,000

Christians 1,990,018,000

Roman Catholics 1,040,020,000

Pentecostals /Charismatics 536,000,000

Anglicans 73,200,000

Baptists 59,600,000

Lutherans 57,700,000

Presbyterians 49,800,000

Assemblies of God 34,500,000

Methodists 33,000,000

The 536 million Pentecostals and Charismatics worldwide can be subdivided in three main categories:

Classical Pentecostals 66,000,000

Charismatics 175,000,000

Th ird Wavers/Neocharismatics 295,000,000

The distribution of Classical Pentecostals on the five continents is reflected in the list below:

Africa 15, 000,000

Asia 9,500,000

Australia: 500,000

Europe : 3,000,000

North America: 5,000,000

South America: 33,000,000

The worldwide sociological breakdown of Pentecostalism can be summarized as follows: More members live in cities than in rural areas; there are more women than men, more children than adults; more belong to the majority world (66%) rather than to the western world; and many live in poverty (87%) and are non-white (71%) .

In spite of the fact that in research on worldwide Penteco stalism it becomes more and more obvious that there were several awakenings around 1900,

South America also experienced revivals at the beginning of the twentieth century. Chile, Brazil, and Argentina (1910), Peru (1911), Nicaragua (1912), Mexico (1914), Guatemala, and Puerto Rico (1916) had early Azusa Street experiences of their own that resulted in drastic growth.

In Africa , the number of Christians south of the Sahara has grown from ten million at the beginning of the twentieth century to about 350 million by the year 2000, which is an increase from 8% to 50% of the population.

Even in the secular media, some of the Pentecostal leaders are well known. For example, the best-known German in Africa is the Pentecostal evangelist Reinhard Bonnke. In his open-air healing crusades he has preached to hundreds of thousands throughout the continent. I learned of his great popularity in Africa during a seminar held in the Sedamo Valley in Ethiopia. I asked the participating pastors for the name of the Chancellor of Germany, who was then Helmut Kohl. Over 90% were not able to produce his name. On the other hand, when asked about evangelist Reinhard Bonnke over 90% were not only familiar with his name, but many of them had actually been in one of his crusades. It is also interesting to note that Ethiopia has the fastest growing Lutheran church in the world, the Mekane Jesus Church. One secret of its growth is that it is Pentecostal in its orientation. The influence of Pentecostalism in Ethiopia has become so strong that Protestant believers in the country are at times simply referred to as Pentecostals.