What Pentecostal Christians believe, and how they worship

What Pentecostals believe

Pentecostalism takes its name from the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit came on the first disciples and they spoke in other tongues. The modern movement grew from revivals in the early 1900s, especially at Azusa Street in Los Angeles, and Canadian Pentecostals organized the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC) in 1919. Today the PAOC is the largest evangelical Protestant denomination in Canada, with more than a thousand congregations.

Pentecostals hold the historic evangelical faith. The PAOC’s Statement of Fundamental and Essential Truths confesses the Bible as the inspired and inerrant Word of God; one God eternally existing as Father, Son and Holy Spirit; the deity, virgin birth, atoning death, resurrection and return of Jesus Christ; salvation by grace through faith in Christ; believer’s baptism by immersion; the Lord’s Supper; and the resurrection and final judgment.

What is distinctive is the teaching about the Holy Spirit. Pentecostals believe that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is an experience distinct from and following conversion, which empowers believers for witness and service, and that the initial evidence of this baptism is speaking in tongues “as the Spirit gives utterance.” They believe all the spiritual gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12 — including prophecy, healing, tongues and interpretation — continue in the church today. They believe divine healing is provided for in Christ’s atonement and pray for the sick with the laying on of hands and anointing with oil. And they expect Christ’s personal, premillennial return, summarized in the “full gospel” of Jesus as Saviour, Baptizer in the Spirit, Healer and Coming King. Other Pentecostal and charismatic bodies in Canada, such as the Foursquare Gospel Church of Canada and many independent charismatic churches, share these emphases with variations. A small number of “Oneness” Pentecostal churches, such as the United Pentecostal Church, do not hold the doctrine of the Trinity; they are not part of the PAOC.

Worship: what a service is like

Pentecostal worship is expressive and participatory. A Sunday service, often called a “celebration,” usually begins with twenty to forty minutes of sung worship led by a band and singers, moving from upbeat praise to quieter songs of adoration. People stand, lift their hands, clap and pray aloud; some pray or sing in tongues, and there may be a message in tongues followed by an interpretation, or a word of prophecy, which the leaders weigh. Announcements, an offering and a children’s dismissal follow, then a sermon of thirty to forty minutes that is practical, Bible-based and often energetic. Services frequently end with an altar call — an invitation to come forward for salvation, healing or prayer — and members of a prayer team pray with those who respond.

Communion is usually monthly, with bread and juice, open to all believers. Baptisms by immersion happen several times a year, often with testimonies, and babies are dedicated rather than baptized. Dress is casual, the room may be a modern auditorium with screens and stage lighting, and the atmosphere is warm and informal. Midweek life includes prayer meetings, small groups and youth ministry. A first-time visitor is more likely to be greeted, prayed for and invited to lunch than left alone.

How Pentecostal churches are organized

PAOC churches are largely self-governing. Each congregation has a lead pastor and a board of elders or deacons, and members vote on major matters at an annual business meeting. Congregations belong to a district — Wellington County is in the Western Ontario District — which credentials pastors, plants churches and provides oversight through a district superintendent. The General Conference meets every two years and elects a General Superintendent; the national office is in Mississauga. The PAOC ordains women. Pastors train at schools such as Master’s College and Seminary in Peterborough and Vanguard College in Edmonton. Independent charismatic churches, by contrast, are governed entirely at the local level.

Compared with Reformed churches

Pentecostals and Reformed Christians hold the same Bible, confess the same Trinity and the same Jesus, believe the same gospel of grace, and pray for the same Spirit to work. Both take sin, conversion and the return of Christ seriously, and both love to sing.

A Pentecostal would find a Canadian Reformed service quieter and more fixed. Worship follows a set liturgy — votum, greeting, the Ten Commandments or Creed, prayer, Scripture, sermon and blessing — with the congregation singing the Psalms to Genevan tunes with organ rather than a band; there are no raised hands, tongues or altar calls, and there are two services each Sunday, one preaching through the Heidelberg Catechism. Reformed churches teach that the Spirit’s ordinary way of working today is through the preached Word and the sacraments, that the miraculous sign gifts belonged to the founding age of the church, and that assurance of salvation rests on God’s promises rather than on a particular experience. They baptize the infants of believers as members of God’s covenant, are governed by elders in consistory, classis and synod, and expect Christ’s return without a millennial kingdom on earth. Pentecostals are warmly invited to visit and see.

Further reading

• The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada
• What We Believe (PAOC) — the Statement of Fundamental and Essential Truths
• Foursquare Gospel Church of Canada: We Believe
• Evangelical Fellowship of Canada — the PAOC is an affiliate