The Assemblies of God comprises national Pentecostal church bodies linked through a worldwide fellowship.
The US Assemblies of God formed at Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1914. Other national bodies have their own histories; Brazil's dates to 1911. Following preparations in 1988, the World Assemblies of God Fellowship was established in 1989. It is a cooperative worldwide fellowship, not simply the US denomination expanded abroad.
The tree's references for this branch: Britannica: Assemblies of God · Assemblies of God: History · Wikipedia: Assemblies of God · World AG Fellowship: History of WAGF.
Lineage: Israel and Judah: the First Temple›Second Temple Judaism›The early, undivided Church›Catholic Church›Church of England (Anglican)›Methodist›Holiness movement›Pentecostal›Assemblies of God
The Assemblies of God is a worldwide family of Pentecostal churches. The US fellowship began in 1914 when several hundred Pentecostal ministers gathered in Arkansas to cooperate in missions, ministerial training and doctrine 6. Many already belonged to Pentecostal networks; the meeting did not create Pentecostalism itself.
The call went out in 1914 from Eudorus N. Bell, Howard Goss, Daniel Opperman, M. M. Pinson and A. P. Collins, addressed to the Churches of God in Christ and to all Pentecostal or Apostolic Faith assemblies. That wording matters: many of the white ministers who answered it held their credentials from the Church of God in Christ, the Black-led body that had been issuing them, and the meeting they came to formed a separate fellowship 9,8. About three hundred preachers and lay people from twenty states and several other countries gathered at Hot Springs in April, and what they founded was incorporated as the General Council of the Assemblies of God, with Bell as its first chairman 9,8.
They had deliberately adopted no creed, and within two years they found they needed one. The question that forced it was whether God is three persons or one, and whether baptism should be in the name of Jesus alone. In 1916 the General Council adopted the Statement of Fundamental Truths, sixteen articles whose treatment of the Trinity runs far longer than the rest because it was written to settle exactly that 2,3. Ministers who held the Oneness position left, and the bodies they formed are on this tree too 9.
National churches developed their own leadership and institutions. After preparatory meetings in 1988, the World Assemblies of God Fellowship was formally established on 15 August 1989. It is a cooperative fellowship of national bodies, distinct from the US Assemblies of God founded in 1914 18.
See it on the family treeThe Assemblies of God puts four beliefs at the centre and calls them the core doctrines: salvation, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, divine healing, and the second coming of Christ 3. Everything else in its teaching is arranged around those.
The full statement is longer, and unusually modest about itself. Its preamble says that the Bible is the all-sufficient rule for faith and practice, that the Statement is intended simply as a basis of fellowship so that its members all speak the same thing, and that the phraseology employed in it is not inspired nor contended for, only the truth set forth 2. It says it covers not all biblical truth but the fellowship's own need on these points. Article one holds the Scriptures of both Testaments to be verbally inspired of God, the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct 2.
On the Spirit the teaching is specific. Baptism in the Holy Spirit is understood as an experience after conversion, and the Assemblies of God holds that speaking in tongues is its initial physical evidence 2,3. Divine healing is held to be provided for in the atonement and is the privilege of all believers 2. On the Godhead the Statement uses the words Trinity and persons while noting that neither appears in Scripture, and sets out at length that the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, and the Spirit is neither, while the three are one Being 2.
A service is recognisably Pentecostal: extended sung worship with a band, prayer aloud together, room for tongues and interpretation and for prophecy, preaching that expects a decision, and an altar call at the end where people come forward to be prayed for. Prayer for healing is normal rather than exceptional. Baptism is by immersion for believers, and the Lord's Supper is kept as an ordinance rather than as a sacrament that conveys grace in itself 2.
Government is a compromise that the fellowship names openly. Each local church is sovereign and calls its own pastor; the General Council is a cooperative fellowship rather than a hierarchy over them, and it meets biennially, with district councils in between 1,4. Ministers hold credentials from the fellowship rather than from their congregation, which is what gives the General Council its real authority: it can decline to credential, and that is most of what it can do.
There is no prescribed version. Congregations read the New International Version, the New Living Translation, the New King James Version, the English Standard Version and the King James Version, and a preacher will often move between them in one sermon.
What the fellowship does insist on is that the doctrine be shown from the text. Every article of the Statement of Fundamental Truths is followed by its chain of proof texts, and the Assemblies of God publishes them with links to both the King James Version and the New International Version so a reader can check the wording in either 2. Its position papers work the same way, arguing from passages rather than from a confessional tradition 5. The verses below are given in the Berean Standard Bible.
Free to read here: Berean Standard Bible, King James Version, Reina-Valera 1909, Bíblia Livre, Neno: Maandiko Matakatifu, Bíbélì Mímọ́, Baịbụlụ Nsọ, Littafi Mai Tsarki. The full note on which Bible Assemblies of God use, with sources ›
These passages illustrate themes discussed in this profile; they are not a survey of members' favorite verses. Each is quoted from the Berean Standard Bible and links to its chapter. You can explore the text for study or personal reflection; memorization is optional.
that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Salvation, the first of the four core doctrines, in the form an Assemblies of God preacher will put to a congregation at the end of a sermon.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Power and then witnesses. This is the second core doctrine and the reason the fellowship was organised in the first place: Spirit baptism understood as equipment for mission.
But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
By His stripes we are healed. The Statement of Fundamental Truths rests divine healing on this verse, holding it to be provided for in the atonement.
as we await the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
The blessed hope. The fourth core doctrine, and the phrase the Statement itself uses for the return of Christ.
I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree together, so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be united in mind and conviction.
That all of you agree together. The preamble to the Statement cites this verse for why a fellowship with no creed wrote one anyway.
The World Assemblies of God Fellowship brings together self-governing national church bodies; its worldwide figures should not be confused with membership of the US Assemblies of God 7. National histories differ: Brazil’s Assembleias de Deus began in 1911, before the US body was organised in 1914 18.
The American body publishes its own count and distinguishes two numbers rather than one. For 2023 the Assemblies of God USA reported 12,681 congregations, 37,885 ministers, 1,737,524 members and 2,984,352 adherents, the second figure counting people of all ages who identify with an Assemblies of God church 9,1. Its headquarters are at Springfield, Missouri. Its relief agency, Convoy of Hope, works well beyond the fellowship 17, and it runs colleges, a seminary and one of the larger Protestant missionary forces in the world 1,4.
No. The Assemblies of God teaches that speaking in tongues is the initial physical evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and it expects and prays for that experience, but Spirit baptism is not what makes someone a Christian or a member 2,3. Salvation comes through faith in Christ. In practice a good many people in these congregations have never spoken in tongues, and the difference is between what the fellowship teaches its ministers to hold and what it requires of everyone in the pews.
The congregation. Each local church is sovereign, calls its own pastor and owns its own property; the General Council is a cooperative fellowship, not a hierarchy 1,4. What the fellowship controls is credentials: ministers are credentialed by it rather than by their congregation, and it can decline or withdraw that. A general superintendent is elected, and the General Council meets every two years.
Because a question arose that it could not settle any other way. Within two years of the 1914 founding, ministers were dividing over whether God is three persons and whether baptism should be in the name of Jesus alone, and in 1916 the General Council adopted the Statement of Fundamental Truths 2,9. Its preamble is careful about what it is doing: the Bible is the all-sufficient rule, the Statement is only a basis of fellowship so that its members speak the same thing, and its phraseology is not inspired nor contended for 2.
Chiefly organisation and doctrine on the Godhead. The Assemblies of God is trinitarian and holds the Finished Work position, which teaches conversion and then Spirit baptism rather than a third experience of entire sanctification; Holiness Pentecostal bodies such as the Church of God in Christ teach the third 8. Oneness Pentecostals, who left in 1916, hold that God is one person and baptise in the name of Jesus alone. All of them share Pentecostal worship and the expectation of the Spirit's gifts, as do bodies that grew out of the fellowship such as the Foursquare Church 14.
Whichever the congregation prefers. There is no prescribed version, and the NIV, NLT, NKJV, ESV and KJV are all in common use. The fellowship's own Statement of Fundamental Truths publishes its proof texts in both the King James Version and the New International Version so a reader can compare them 2.
Numbered references link the account above to its sources. These include the tradition's own documents and outside reference works. The review status below distinguishes source checking from completed member and scholarly review.
BibleVerse. “Assemblies of God: where they came from, what they hold, and the Bible they read.” bibleverse.site, version 2026-09-09, https://bibleverse.site/denominations/ag/
Awaiting review by a member of the tradition. First published 2026-09-07; last changed 2026-09-09. Years before the common era are written BC, and later years plainly, as the site's Christian pages do.
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The verse a fellowship organised itself around in 1914, when a few hundred preachers decided that power without a plan was not going to reach anybody.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”