IPHC Church Manual - Extension Loan Fund
IPHC Church Manual - Extension Loan Fund
IPHC Church Manual - Extension Loan Fund
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Introduction<br />
the former Soviet states of the Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and<br />
Kazakhstan.<br />
In 2003, the Pentecostal Holiness church in Cuba celebrated<br />
its 50th anniversary. The work there had not only survived under<br />
communism; it had thrived and had become vibrant testimony to<br />
the power of the gospel.<br />
The World Pentecostal Holiness Fellowship (WPHF) continued<br />
to gain in significance. The WPFH held its third global meeting in<br />
February 2003 in San Jose, Costa Rica. Delegates represented<br />
the emerging global, diverse nature of the church. The WPHF<br />
Committee includes eight members, each from one of the<br />
continents where the Pentecostal Holiness <strong>Church</strong> ministers and<br />
one each from our affiliates in Brazil and Chile.<br />
The U.S. church also accelerated at a record pace in<br />
membership and new churches. The church registered the largest<br />
gain in members of any previously recorded four-year period.<br />
During the 2001-04 quadrennium, the <strong>IPHC</strong> had its second and<br />
third largest annual gains in its history.<br />
The decade ending in 2000 was the decade of fastest growth<br />
for the church in the United States, with a gain of 72,000<br />
members. Nearly three quarters of the new members were the<br />
result of new church plants. During the 2001-2004 quadrennium,<br />
493 new churches were reported (an average of 123 a year). This<br />
means the fellowship began more than two churches each week.<br />
The net increase in total churches was 152. Those new<br />
congregations accounted for 34,540 new members at the end of<br />
2004.<br />
A key development was <strong>IPHC</strong> Experience magazine. This<br />
publication is the outgrowth of the initial church publication, the<br />
Pentecostal Holiness Advocate, which had been printed since the<br />
early days of the movement. <strong>IPHC</strong> Experience was unveiled at the<br />
National Pastors’ Conference in Nashville in 2003 and launched in<br />
January 2004.<br />
The Twenty-Fifth General Conference met in Oklahoma City,<br />
Oklahoma, July 26-29, 2005. This General Conference proved to<br />
be a historical event as delegates elected Mrs. Trish Weedn, the<br />
first woman to serve on the General Executive Board. The<br />
conference voted to enlarge the GEB to include 12 members<br />
besides the General Superintendent: five resident members, four<br />
zone representatives, a Hispanic representative, two pastors, and<br />
one layperson.<br />
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