Schweizer Pfingstmission

The Swiss Pentecostal Mission (German: Schweizerische Pfingstmission, abbreviated SPM) is an umbrella organization of Pentecostal congregations in Switzerland and the Swiss affiliate of the Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world.^[1]

The SPM is divided into a number of congregations, numbered at between 70 and 80 as of 2015. The largest congregation is the Christliches Zentrum Buchegg in the city of Zürich. The SPM originates in the Pentecostal movement of the 19th century, reaching Switzerland from the U.S. in the early 20th century. The first conference of Swiss Pentecostal congregations took place in 1910. In 1925, a Schweizerische Pfingstmissionsgesellschaft ("Swiss pentecostal mission society") was founded, renamed to Schweizerische Pfingstmission in 1935. The leader of the SPN, Leonhard Steiner, in 1947 initiated the "World Pentecostal Conference" in Zürich. A parallel organization, "Freie Christengemeinden der Schweiz (FCGS)", went bankrupt in 1993^[2] and many of its congregations joined the SPM. As a result, total membership of SPM grew from 3,900 in 1980 to 6,200 in 1990 and further to 8,100 in 1997 and to 9,300 in 2006.

The SPM operates a conference center in Emmetten, and until 1997 owned Dynamis-Verlag, a publisher of Pentecostal literature.

Notes

References

• Official Website, www.pfingstmission.ch
• Georg Schmid, Schweizerische Pfingstmission (1998, 2000).
• Burgess, Stanley M. und McGee, Gary B. (ed.): Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, Grand Rapids, 7th ed., 1995