Springfield, Mo. — The Assemblies of God (AG) marked its 100th anniversary Aug. 5–10 from its home base in Springfield, Mo. It is the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination.
The centennial events include a summit on church planting. AG members from more than 100 countries will attend the celebration of the “fellowship” that has grown from 300 people gathered in Hot Springs, Ark., in April 1914 to 67.5 million adherents worldwide.
The United States denomination alone is a veritable United Nations of some 3.1 million faithful — with a membership that is 41 percent nonwhite, up from 31 percent a decade ago.
General Superintendent George Wood said the denomination has grown because its members model the methods of the earliest followers of Jesus.
“They were tasked with taking the gospel to every nation,” said Wood, 72, who also heads the World Assemblies of God Fellowship. “The word ‘nation’ in the Greek language is ‘ethnos,’ or ethnic group. Our task, right from day one, has been to attempt to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ethnic groups of this world and in this country.”
Wood and others acknowledge that the Assemblies’ racial history has not been unblemished. With roots in the interracial Azusa Street Revival that began in Los Angeles in 1906, the leaders of the AG started out as a group of white men. Bishop Charles H. Mason of the Church of God in Christ, which would eventually become one of the largest black Pentecostal denominations, attended the Hot Springs gathering, but black and white leaders ended up leading segregated groups.
“We did have a slow start,” Wood said. “In the last number of decades, we’ve seen tremendous progress in the United States.”
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