Pentecostalism in Australia

Pentecostalism is a renewal movement within Protestant Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through baptism with the Holy Spirit.

[4] Scholars in recent years, such as Sam Hey, have noted the growth in Pentecostal membership accelerated in the 1970s with an increase in the "youth generation".

[6] The AFM experienced conflict and debate over Christology, due to Lancaster's simplified interpretations of trinitarian theology, leading to the schismatic foundation of new denominations.

[5] The Catholic Apostolic Churches in Australia, which emerged under Edward Irving from a confluence of Scots revivalism and Spanish millennialism, maintained charismatic practice from 1853 through until the end of the 19th century, and significantly influenced the global healing movement.

Barry Chant identifies from 1870 a group of Methodist "Sounders", led by Joseph Marshall in rural Victoria, among whom glossolalic practice was directly connected via family links to the early Pentecostal movement.

[10] It was with this backdrop that Sarah Jane Lancaster, the founder of the first Pentecostal church in Australia, practiced Methodism and began to learn about spiritual healing and related gifts of the Holy Spirit.

[5][6] The AFM had problems from the start because the anti-doctrinal approach and the emphasis on personal interpretation led to disunity, although its final demise was due to Van Eyck's relationship with the daughter of a Queensland pastor, which incensed churches that had grown out of a holiness tradition .

the Pentecostal Church of Australia was formed under the leadership of A.C. Valdez, an American convert from the Azusa Street Revival that had taken place in Los Angeles.

[12] Though other denominations dominate Australia's population today (including from the top Catholicism, Anglicanism, Uniting Church and Presbyterian/Reformed), studies show that the number of proportional adherents of these traditions have all dropped.

Other marginal fundamentalist expressions of Pentecostalism include Logos Foundation, led by Howard Carter in Toowoomba, Queensland, and later in the same city, Breakthrough Centre Church.