PELHAM, N.H. — The root of what later became New England Pentecostal Ministries was planted by a home prayer group in Nashua during 1942. The church now occupies a large plot of land at 955 Bridge St. in Pelham nearly eight decades later.
Pentecostalism represents one of the fastest-growing segments of global Christianity, according to the Pew Research Center website.
At least a quarter of the world’s 2 billion Christians are thought to be members of Pentecostalism and related “charismatic movements,” which include “lively, highly personal faiths,” emphasizing such spiritually renewing “gifts of the Holy Spirit” as speaking in tongues, divine healing and prophesying, the website states.
“Even more than other Christians, pentecostals and other renewalists believe that God, acting through the Holy Spirit, continues to play a direct, active role in everyday life,” according to the Pew Research Center.