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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 />

23

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