Swiss Pentecost Mission
The Swiss Pentecostal Mission (SPM) is a Swiss umbrella organization of free-church congregations that are part of the worldwide Pentecostal movement as well as the evangelical free churches.
distribution
63 parishes belong to the organization. As of January 1, 2009, the association had 9,541 registered members.
About 5000 children and young people are looked after in the youth association “Youthnet”.
history
Between 1870 and 1905 there were various waves of revival movement in Switzerland from the Anglo-Saxon world. From 9th to 12th December 1900, John Alexander Dowie gave awe-inspiring lectures in front of 500 to 600 people in the courtroom of Zurich , which fell on fertile ground. This resulted in the “Christian-Catholic Zion Church” in Zurich and other congregations such as Herisau and St. Gallen . The Zurich congregation only lasted a few years, so that some of its members went over to the Pentecostal movement, which gathered in the same hall.
The first cross-community work of the Pentecostal movement in Switzerland was the monthly magazine "Die Verheissung des Vaters", founded in 1906. The editor was CED Delabilière, who was previously an Anglican pastor at the American parish in Geneva and leader of the Zurich Pentecostal Church.
“There were and are theological authors who want to construct a theological difference between the sanctification and Pentecostal movements. That's impossible."
In 1920 the English preacher Smith Wigglesworth traveled to Switzerland and held conferences in Bern , Thun , Zurich, Winterthur and St. Gallen; In 1925 and 1926 he came again to Bern and Burgdorf, which contributed significantly to the promotion of Pentecostal witness. In 1921 the Mission Society of the Swiss Pentecostal Mission was founded. Wigglesworth played a key role in sending the first missionary, Joseph Reinhard Gschwend, to Lesotho . In 1926 there were over 50 Pentecostal churches in Switzerland. In 1935 the entire movement for the “Swiss Pentecostal Mission SPM” was formed.
Almost half of the first generation of SPM preachers came from the upper middle class. In the second generation, it was mainly craftsmen and white-collar workers, as the offspring came from within their own ranks due to the church and social isolation. It was entirely from this background that the third generation of preachers came.
In 1996 the "Free Christian Churches", which previously had their own association, were integrated into the SPM. These were created after revival meetings around 1920 in the lower Toggenburg and Appenzellerland . There was a spiritual relationship with the Swedish Pentecostal movement. From 1956, Ebnat-Kappel decided centrally about the appointment of preachers, elders and missionaries. In the mid-1980s there were over 20 parishes with around 1,300 members.
organization
The Swiss Pentecostal Mission SPM is a community association with a non-profit character, registered as an association with its seat in Zurich. Once a year there is a meeting with the members of the leadership conference and the delegates of the congregations. The board consists of the President, the Head of Mission and seven regional representatives. The administration of the association is carried out by the general secretariat in Aarau.
The individual SPM congregations are financially and organizationally autonomous, but theologically and fraternally bindingly integrated into the association. At the association level there is joint missionary work in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, which includes evangelistic and diaconal work.
The current President of the Swiss Pentecostal Mission is Marco Hofmann.
The BBS Academy is the training center for the Swiss Pentecostal Mission. The SPM publishes a quarterly association magazine "zoom", which is distributed free of charge in the communities.
Characteristics
The Pentecost mission has a Trinitarian creed that emphasizes conversion, baptism, sanctification, and the experience of the Holy Spirit. The spiritual gifts of the New Testament are important elements in church life. The Lord's Supper is a celebration of remembrance.
Interchurch relationships
The SPM is a member of the "Federation of Pentecostal Free Churches in Switzerland BFP", founded in 1974. The Swiss Pentecostal Mission sees itself on the basis of the Evangelical Alliance and is fully integrated into the Association of Evangelical Free Churches and Congregations in Switzerland . Most of the local churches are members of the local evangelical alliance. The relationship to the regional churches differs from place to place.
Web links
- Swiss Pentecost Mission
- History page of the SPM
- Evangelical information center Rüti ZH relinfo.ch about the Swiss Pentecostal Mission
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.pfingstmission.ch/dl_artik/I_Organigramm_07.pdf ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on: March 7, 2012).
- ↑ Walter J. Hollenweger: Enthusiastic Christianity. The Pentecostal Movement, Past and Present. Theological publishing house Rolf Brockhaus / Zwingli, Wuppertal / Zurich 1969, p. 252.
- ↑ Walter J. Hollenweger: Enthusiastic Christianity. The Pentecostal Movement, Past and Present. Theological publishing house Rolf Brockhaus / Zwingli, Wuppertal / Zurich 1969, p. 257f.
- ↑ Walter J. Hollenweger: Enthusiastic Christianity. The Pentecostal Movement, Past and Present. Theological publishing house Rolf Brockhaus / Zwingli, Wuppertal / Zurich 1969, p. 264
- ↑ Jakob Zopfi: ... on all meat. History and mission of the Pentecostal movement. Dynamis, Kreuzlingen 1985, ISBN 3-85645-046-7 , p. 46.
- ↑ Markus Koch: Wigglesworth, Smith. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- ↑ Walter J. Hollenweger: Enthusiastic Christianity. The Pentecostal Movement, Past and Present. Theological publishing house Rolf Brockhaus / Zwingli, Wuppertal / Zurich 1969, p. 272
- ↑ Jakob Zopfi: ... on all meat. History and mission of the Pentecostal movement. Dynamis, Kreuzlingen 1985, ISBN 3-85645-046-7 , p. 47f.
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated November 24, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on: March 7, 2012).
- ^ Swiss Pentecostal Mission: Organigram Swiss Pentecostal Mission. Retrieved July 25, 2018 .
- ↑ BBS Academy: BBS Academy. Retrieved July 25, 2018 .
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
