The U.S. Assemblies of God’s General Council recently held its biennial business meeting in Orlando, Florida. Here is what you should know about one of the largest groups of Christian churches in the world.

1. The Assemblies of God considers itself a large fellowship rather than a denomination.

2. In the United States, the Assemblies of God is a young and diverse fellowship.

3. The Assemblies of God is the world’s largest Pentecostal group.

4. Assemblies of God are (mostly) autonomous and independent.

5. There are more than a dozen AG-endorsed colleges in the United States.

6. The Assemblies of God grew out of the Azusa Street Revival.

7. About one-quarter of Assembly of God pastors are women.

8. Assemblies of God churches subscribe to 16 ‘Fundamental Truths.’

Two years after its founding, the AG established 16 doctrines that became the Statement of Fundamental Truths. The 16 doctrines are:

• 1. The Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, are verbally inspired of God and are the revelation of God to man, the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct.
  2. There is only one true God who exists as a Trinity.
  3. The Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. The Scriptures declare his virgin birth, his sinless life, his miracles, his substitutionary work on the cross, his bodily resurrection from the dead, and his exaltation to the right hand of God.
  4. Man was created good and upright. However, man by voluntary transgression fell and thereby incurred not only physical death but also spiritual death, which is separation from God.
  5. Man’s only hope of redemption is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
  6. There are two ordinances. Believer’s baptism by immersion is a declaration to the world that the believer has died and been raised together with Christ, becoming a new creation. The Lord’s Supper is a symbol expressing the believer’s sharing in the divine nature of Christ, a memorial of Christ’s suffering and death, and a prophecy of Christ’s second coming.
  7. Baptism in the Holy Spirit is a separate and subsequent experience following conversion. Spirit baptism brings empowerment to live an overcoming Christian life and to be an effective witness.
  8. The baptism of believers in the Holy Spirit is witnessed by the initial physical sign of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit of God gives them utterance. The speaking in tongues in this instance is the same in essence as the gift of tongues, but is different in purpose and use.
  9. Sanctification is an act of separation from that which is evil, and of dedication unto God. Sanctification is realized in the believer by recognizing his identification with Christ in his death and resurrection, and by the faith reckoning daily upon the fact of that union, and by offering every faculty continually to the dominion of the Holy Spirit.
  10. The Church’s mission is to seek and save all who are lost in sin; the church is the gody of Christ and consists of all people who accept Christ, regardless of Christian denomination.
  11. Divinely called and scripturally ordained ministers serve the church.
  12. Divine healing is an integral part of the gospel. Deliverance from sickness is provided for in the atonement, and is the privilege of all believers.
  13. The resurrection of those who have fallen asleep in Christ and their translation together with those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord is the imminent and blessed hope of the church.
  14. The second coming of Christ includes the rapture of the saints, which is our blessed hope, followed by the visible return of Christ with his saints to reign on earth for one thousand years.
  15. There will be a final judgment in which the wicked dead will be raised and judged according to their works. Whosoever is not found written in the Book of Life, together with the devil and his angels, the beast and the false prophet, will be consigned to the everlasting punishment in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
  16. “We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.”

9. Four doctrines are considered core to the belief of the Assemblies of God.

Within the 16 Foundational Truths, four are considered core beliefs “due to the key role they play in reaching the lost and building the believer and the church both now and for the future.” The Four Core Beliefs’ of the Assemblies of God are Salvation, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, Divine Healing, and the Second Coming of Christ.

www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-assemblies-god/