A learner’s guide
- Christian family
- Spirit-renewal movement
- Historical setting
- Early twentieth-century revivals with roots in the holiness movement and global Christianity
Historical origin
Where this tradition came from
Modern Pentecostalism emerged through several revivals at the start of the twentieth century. Among the best known are Charles Parham’s Bible school circle in Topeka, Kansas (1901), and the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles (1906), led by William J. Seymour. The movement drew on Wesleyan holiness, evangelical, African American, and global Christian currents, and it quickly became a worldwide movement with many centres.
Authority
How teaching is discerned
The Bible is the final authority for doctrine and practice. Testimony, prophecy, and other spiritual gifts must be discerned by Scripture and the church. Classical Pentecostal denominations publish statements of faith, but the movement has no single worldwide teaching office.
Salvation
How God saves and transforms
Classical Pentecostals teach salvation by grace through repentance and faith, followed by Spirit-empowered discipleship and holiness. Many distinguish conversion or new birth from a further baptism in the Holy Spirit for witness and service; some Pentecostal traditions frame the sequence differently.
The church
Leadership and belonging
Highly varied. Denominations may use episcopal, presbyterial, or congregational systems, while independent charismatic churches often organise around local pastors or apostolic networks.
Sacraments and ordinances
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
Baptism
Classical Trinitarian Pentecostals baptise professing believers by immersion. Oneness Pentecostals use a Jesus-name formula and hold a different understanding of God, so their theology should not be assumed to represent Trinitarian Pentecostalism.
Communion / Eucharist
Usually practised as an ordinance of remembrance, proclamation, and fellowship, with bread and grape juice or wine. Frequency and admission vary, and foot washing is an ordinance in some communities.
Gathered life
What worship may feel like
Participatory, expectant worship with contemporary or local music, spontaneous prayer, testimony, healing prayer, and gifts such as tongues, interpretation, and prophecy, all of which call for pastoral and biblical discernment.
Distinctive emphases
- Baptism in the Holy Spirit
- Spiritual gifts for the church today
- Healing and expectant prayer
- Evangelism and mission
- Participatory worship and testimony
Read with care
Internal diversity and a common misconception
Where members differ
Classical Pentecostal, charismatic, neo-charismatic, holiness, finished-work, Trinitarian, and Oneness streams differ substantially. Teachings about initial evidence, prosperity, sanctification, and ministry structures are not uniform.
Do not assume
Pentecostalism is not identical with prosperity preaching, emotional excess, or one worship style. Many Pentecostal bodies formally reject abuses and place spiritual experience under biblical and communal testing.
Go to the source
Read this tradition in its own words
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