International Fellowship of Christian Assemblies | |
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Classification | Protestant |
Theology | Pentecostal |
Governance | Cooperative body of congregations, organized into geographic districts with district overseers, and a collective annual convention and business meeting |
Associations | National Association of Evangelicals and Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America |
Region | United States, affiliates worldwide |
Founder | Louis Francescon |
Origin | 1927 (with heritage dating to 1901) [1] Niagara Falls, New York |
Congregations | Over 3,000 worldwide [2] |
Members | Over 210,000 worldwide [3] |
Official website | www.ifcaministry.org |
The International Fellowship of Christian Assemblies (IFCA), formerly known as the Christian Church of North America (CCNA), is a North American Pentecostal denomination with roots in the Italian-American community, but is now a multicultural denomination. Central offices are located in Transfer, Pennsylvania. [4] Ministries of the church include Benevolence, Home Missions, FOCUS, Foreign Missions, Education, Lay Ministries, and Public Relations. A convention is held annually, [5] and their official publication is Vista, a quarterly magazine. [6] Membership in 2000 was about 7,200 in 96 churches in the United States. They also have thousands of affiliated congregations internationally in Africa, Australia, [7] Canada, Europe, South America, and Asia with a strong presence in India with over 100,000 members in over 1,000 churches. [8] Brother Rick George is the general overseer of the denomination. [9]
The International Fellowship of Christian Assemblies is part of the larger Pentecostal movement that began in the United States during the first part of the 20th century and is rooted in a revival movement among the ethnic Italians in Chicago. Reverend Louis Francescon organized the first Italian-American Pentecostal church there in 1907 after hearing Pentecostal preacher William Howard Durham and having experienced the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. William Durham had prophesied that Francescon had been divinely appointed to bring the Pentecostal message to the Italian people. [10] The IFCA remains committed to evangelism to people and communities with Italian roots, but is now a multicultural denomination and holds strongly to the mission of the Great Commission. [11] Francescon, Pietro Ottolini, and several other early Italian-immigrant Pentecostals soon traveled to Brazil and Italy in order to evangelize to Italian communities outside of the United States. Reverend Francesco Emma (1875–1948) started the first church in New York City for Italian immigrants. News outlets at the time reported that his funeral lasted five days as seven thousand people visited from various parts of the world. The Rev. Joseph Giordano (1890-1955), continued with an Italian and later English ministry in Jersey City, New Jersey from 1927 through the 1950s. Following his passing, the Rev Biagio Parisi (1914-1992) continued the Jersey City ministry. The Rev. Joseph De Mola (1912–1987), who had come out of the Rev Joseph Giordano's ministry, continued with an Italian and English ministry in Staten Island during the 1950s and 1960s. The first convention of the Italian Pentecostal Movement was called in Niagara Falls, New York, in 1927, where the group adopted articles of faith and organized into a cooperative fellowship known as the Unorganized Italian Christian Churches of the United States. This helped build the movement into a cohesive whole. Later, the fellowship slightly modified its name to the Italian Christian Churches of North America. By the 1940s, "Italian" was dropped, in order to convey the message that its message was not just restricted to Italians. In 1948, the movement was incorporated in Pennsylvania as The Missionary Society of the Christian Church of North America. In 1963, the body was restructured as the General Council of the Christian Church of North America. In 2006, it adopted its current name. [12] [13] [14]
The IFCA is conservative and Pentecostal in their beliefs and practices. They stress order in their congregations when it comes to manifestations of the Holy Spirit among the congregants. Explaining their desire for order, the IFCA says that they "frankly abhor the excesses tolerated or practiced among the churches using the same name [of Pentecostalism]." [15] The denomination's first General Council in 1927 had a mural which read, "Let all things be done decently and in order," a quotation from I Corinthians 14:40. [16] The IFCA deems themselves a "Full Gospel Church", but this should not be confused with the four-fold Full Gospel concept found in some other Pentecostal denominations. They explain the Full Gospel as meaning that they "embrace every doctrine of the New Testament." [17]
The beliefs of the IFCA are set forth in their 13-point "Articles of Faith" which was originally set forth in 1927, but its wording and focus has been modified over the years. [18] These articles are deemed "binding upon all members" who are affiliated with the IFCA. Below is a summary of these articles:
Despite the IFCA descending from Finished Work Pentecostalism of William Durham instead of Wesleyan Holiness, they put an emphasis on Biblical Holiness. The IFCA believes "in the necessity of living a consistent life marked by obedience of God's Word, holiness, and evidencing godly spiritual fruit" and they give specific definitions for what they see as Biblical Marriage and Sexuality, speaking out against homosexuality, transgenderism, and gay marriage. [19] Sister denominations such as the Christian Congregation in Brazil also focus on outward Holiness in dress and lack of beards, but the IFCA generally lacks this focus, instead detailing the avoidance of "sinful pleasures, practices and associations." In earlier editions of their Articles of Faith, it contained a rare statement which is a belief to "abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, and from things strangled," [20] citing the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15. It remains on some websites affiliated with the IFCA. This statement dates to early debates in the denomination's history where different leaders discussed whether or not the Council of Jerusalem regulations were currently binding to Christians. The Christian Congregation Movement and Assemblies of God in Italy, also founded by Louis Francescon and Italian-ancestry Pentecostals, likewise contain articles of faith related to the Jerusalem Council. [21] [22]
The IFCA is a Cooperative Fellowship of member congregations and ministries unified under their Articles of Faith and mutual cooperation. As a whole the IFCA operates under a presbyterian polity with an executive board composed of 13 offices and a general overseer. On the local level, churches hold a high level of autonomy (Congregationalist polity) and are "free to adopt administrative rules and regulations." [23] In the United States, IFCA churches are assigned to geographical districts, each with a district overseer. As of 2000, there were approximately 7,200 congregants in 96 member churches. By 2020, despite growth overseas, the number of member churches in the United States had dropped to 69 congregations. [24] Presently there are 7 districts: [25]
While the majority of district members are physical church congregations, district fellowship members also include ministries focused on overseas activities which are headquartered from the United States. These include ministries which operate orphanages, Bible schools, and hospitals in other countries. [28] The IFCA also operates a Bible college and seminary in Richmond Heights, Ohio, which offers bachelor's and master's degrees in partnership with the SUM Bible College. [29]
While based out of the United States, the IFCA is in fellowship/affiliation with ministries and groups internationally. This global structure includes churches, orphanages, Bible colleges, schools, and food programs. These fellowship members are geared towards a common goal, which includes the Great Commission of evangelism, and are united in certain doctrinal points. [30] Below are some of the global statistics per region according to the IFCA's global missions department:
While not in official fellowship, the IFCA has strong cooperative ties with other Pentecostal groups also founded by Louis Francescon such as the Assemblies of God in Italy and the Christian Congregation in Brazil. [33]
The IFCA holds to interdenominational ecumenism with Christian groups of "like precious faith". [34] They are members of the National Association of Evangelicals and the Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America. [35]
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement that emphasizes direct personal experience of God through baptism with the Holy Spirit. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, an event that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles.
The Church of the Nazarene is a Christian denomination that emerged in North America from the 19th-century Wesleyan-Holiness movement within Methodism. It is headquartered in Lenexa, Kansas. With its members commonly referred to as Nazarenes, it is the largest denomination in the world aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement and is a member of the World Methodist Council.
The International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC) or simply Pentecostal Holiness Church (PHC) is an international Holiness-Pentecostal Christian denomination founded in 1911 with the merger of two older denominations. Historically centered in the Southeastern United States, particularly the Carolinas and Georgia, the Pentecostal Holiness Church now has an international presence. In 2000, the church reported a worldwide membership of over one million—over three million including affiliates.
The Elim Pentecostal Church is a UK-based Pentecostal Christian denomination. It was founded in Ireland in 1915 by George Jeffreys and is the second largest pentecostal denomination in the UK.
The Independent Assemblies of God International (IAOGI) is a pentecostal Christian association with roots in a revival of the 1890s among the Scandinavian Baptist and Pietist communities in the United States. Independent Assemblies of God International is a member of the Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America. International offices are located in Laguna Hills, California.
The charismatic movement in Christianity is a movement within established or mainstream Christian denominations to adopt beliefs and practices of Charismatic Christianity, with an emphasis on baptism with the Holy Spirit, and the use of spiritual gifts (charismata). It has affected most denominations in the United States, and has spread widely across the world.
Renewal is the collective term for Charismatic, Pentecostal and Neo-charismatic churches.
Louis Francescon was a missionary and pioneer of the Italian Pentecostal Movement. Several Pentecostal denominations and fellowships acknowledge him as their founder, including the Christian Church of North America, the Christian Assembly in Argentina, the Assemblies of God in Italy, the Christian Congregation in the United States, and the Christian Congregation of Brazil.
The Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa (AFM) is a classical Pentecostal Christian denomination in South Africa. With 1.2 million adherents, it is South Africa's largest Pentecostal church and the fifth largest religious grouping in South Africa representing 7.6 percent of the population. Dr. Isak Burger has led the AFM as president since 1996 when the white and black branches of the church were united. It is a member of the Apostolic Faith Mission International, a fellowship of 23 AFM national churches. It is also a member of the South African Council of Churches. The AFM is one of the oldest Pentecostal movement is South Africa with roots in the Azusa Street Revival, the Holiness Movement teachings of Andrew Murray and the teachings of John Alexander Dowie. The AFM had an interracial character when it started, but, as in American Pentecostalism, this interracial cooperation was short-lived. The decades from the 1950s to the 1980s were marked by the implementation of apartheid. After 1994, the white AFM moved rapidly towards unification with the black churches. By 1996, all the AFM churches were united in a single multi-racial church. The constitution of the AFM blends at the national level the elements of a presbyterian polity with an episcopal polity. Decentralization is a major feature of its constitution, which allows local churches to develop their own policies. The Apostolic Faith Mission displays a variety of identities and ministry philosophies, including seeker-sensitive, Word of Faith, Presbyterian, and classical Pentecostal.
The Australian Christian Churches (ACC), formerly Assemblies of God in Australia, is a network of Finished Work Pentecostal churches in Australia affiliated with the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, which is the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world.
The Assemblies of God USA (AG), officially The General Council of the Assemblies of God, is a Pentecostal Christian denomination in the United States and the U.S. branch of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, the world's largest Pentecostal body. The AG reported 2.9 million adherents in 2022. In 2011, it was the ninth largest Christian denomination and the second largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States. The Assemblies of God is a Finished Work denomination, and it holds to a conservative, evangelical and classical Arminian theology as expressed in the Statement of Fundamental Truths and position papers, which emphasize such core Pentecostal doctrines as the baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, divine healing and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
Finished Work Pentecostalism is a major branch of Pentecostalism that holds that after conversion, the converted Christian progressively grows in grace. On the other hand, the other branch of Pentecostalism—Holiness Pentecostalism teaches the Wesleyan doctrine of entire sanctification as an instantaneous, definite second work of grace, which is a necessary prerequisite to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Finished Work Pentecostals are generally known to have retained the doctrine of progressive sanctification from their earlier Reformed roots, while Holiness Pentecostals retained their doctrine of entire sanctification from their earlier Wesleyan roots. William Howard Durham is considered to be the founder of Finished Work Pentecostalism.
Pentecostal viewpoints concerning homosexuality are varied worldwide, since there is no one organization that represents all Pentecostals. However, most Pentecostal denominations condemn homosexuality as going against scriptural teachings, though there are some affirming Pentecostal denominations.
William Howard Durham was an early Pentecostal preacher and theologian, best known for advocating the Finished Work doctrine.
Pentecostalism is a renewal movement within Protestant Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal relationship with God and experience of God through the baptism with the Holy Spirit. For Christians, this event commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the followers of Jesus Christ, as described in the second chapter of the Book of Acts. Pentecostalism was established in Kerala, India at the start of the 20th century.
The Christian Congregation is an international non-denominational fellowship of assemblies with roots in the Italian Pentecostal revival in Chicago, which began in 1907. It can be found, for example, in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, the United States, Mozambique, Italy, Portugal and Ireland. There are approximately 3 million members, 2.5 million being in Brazil.
The Swedish Pentecostal Movement is a Pentecostal movement in Sweden. Many, but not all, of these, are members of the Pentecostal Alliance of Independent Churches, which was founded in 2001. The Pentecostal movement spread to Sweden by 1907 from the 1904–1905 Welsh Revival and the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles in 1906.