The roots of Pentecostalism in New Zealand are in late 19th-century revivalism, which emphasized personal experience and divine healing.
However, Classical Pentecostalism emerged only in the 1920s, largely as the result of British evangelist Smith Wigglesworth's healing campaigns in the country, first in 1922 and then in 1923–1924.
The Pentecostal Church of New Zealand was formed with the help of American evangelist A. C. Valdez in 1924 to preserve and organize the results of the Wigglesworth campaigns.
In 1932, the arrival of the British-based Apostolic Church in New Zealand led to a loss of disaffected PCNZ members.
[1] The Pentecostal Church split again in 1946 after three American pastors introduced baptism in the name of "Lord Jesus Christ" (rather than of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit).