The_Pentecostal_Mission

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The Pentecostal Mission

The Pentecostal Mission (TPM), formerly known as Ceylon Pentecostal Mission (CPM), is a pentecostal denomination which originated in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. The international headquarters is now situated in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the biggest Pentecostal denominations.

The mission was founded in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1923., by a Hindu convert, Ramankutty - later known as Pastor Paul. It now has churches (or Faith Homes) in every continent with close to 9.6 million believers worldwide. The church has spread to many parts of Sri Lanka, as well as India, Nepal, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, England, France, Europe, Africa, Caribbean Islands, and the Middle East, and is continuing to expand.

Church Names

In the United States, The Pentecostal Mission is known as New Testament Church (NTC) and is headquartered in Newark, New Jersey. In the United Kingdom it is known as Universal Pentecostal Church (UPC) and is headquartered in Brixton, London. In other parts of the world, the church is known by the following names:

Universal Pentecostal Church - Great Britain
Eglise de Pentecote Primitive – France
Grace New Covenant Pentecostal Church – Canada
New Testament Church – Trinidad & Tobago
Iglesia Communion Cristiana – Puerto Rico
Iglesia Communion Cristiana – Dominican Republic
New Testament Church – Sierra Leone
New Covenant Pentecostal Church – Australia
New Testament Church - New Zealand
New Testament Church– Papua New Guinea
New Testament Church – Nepal
New Testament Church – Fiji
Iglesia del Nueva Testamento – Mexico
Iglesia Communion Cristiana – El Salvador
Iglesia Communion Cristiana – Costa Rica
New Testament Church - Kenya
Christliche Gnaden Gemeinde – Switzerland
Neue Testament Kirche – Germany
The Universal Pentecostal Church - Nigeria
The Pentecostal Mission (TPM) - India
Pentecostal Church of Malaysia
Pentecostal Church of Singapore
New Testament Church - Middle East (headquartered in Dubai, UAE)

Other branches

History

According to historian, Somaratna, "The Ceylon Pentecostal Mission owes its origin to the ministry of Walter Clifford." The church was founded by Pastor Paul along with Pastor Alwin R. de Alwis. Pastor Paul was born to Hindu parents in the district of Trichur in Kerala, India. While in Sri Lanka, at the age of 18, he became a Christian and a follower of Jesus Christ. Later, he felt a strong call from the Lord for his life and began to preach and share the gospel in various parts of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. In the initial stages, he had worked with other evangelists. Pastor Paul served as the founder chief pastor of this church. The CPM espoused an ascetic approach to spirituality. The church also instituted indigenous (or innate) forms of worship.

Organization Structure

This Church stands out among the Pentecostal churches because of its exclusivist teachings and organization structure. Some of the distinctives are that fulltime ministers were expected to practice an ascetic life-style including celibacy, obedience to the elder pastors, communal living (including disposal of private possessions) in faith homes.

The TPM churches are run by full-time ministers who are celibate and predominantly single. Married couples who enter full-time ministry are also expected to become celibate, and may be sent to different locations by the TPM leadership. These full-time ministers are required to forsake the world, its attractions, and even their own families to become a ministers or worker or servant of God for full-time, consecrated ministry. They are expected to be dedicated to the ministry of the church, their calling, to prepare themselves for Jesus' return and to lead others to Christ.

At dawn, every servant of God across the globe must awake early to praise God and to pray for every member in the church. They are to fast and pray often. They assert that all of the sermons preached are through prayer and waiting on the Lord. These sermons are deemed to be extremely deep in the truths of the Holy Bible. According to the church members, the ministers do not seek offering and live by faith. The church’s one mission is to prepare each and every believer to be ready for Jesus' second coming (rapture).

Church Leadership

The worldwide TPM is led by a Chief Pastor. Chief Pastors are generally appointed for life, and leadership is passed down after death to the next in seniority. The current Chief Pastor, Wilson Joseph, succeeded the late Pastor T.U. Thomas (died on 6 November 2006) as the Chief Pastor and Pastors Wesley and Joy Fitch as Deputy/Associate Pastors. Chief Pastor previously served as Pastor to the Singapore Pentecostal Mission. In America most of church work was pioneered by one named Pastor Don M Spiers. Pastor Don was eventually working with Oral Roberts ministries . Later he joined NTC (New Testament Church) know as TPM and pioneered in establishing church in most parts of USA and in the west.

Doctrines and teachings

The doctrines of the church include: Trinity, New Birth, Water Baptism, Baptism of the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in unknown tongues, Separation, Divine Healing, Entire Sanctification (of the Body, Soul and Spirit), Overcoming Life, Consecrated Ministry, Rapture, Tribulation and Great Tribulation, Resurrection, The Millennial Reign, The Great White Throne Judgement, and Eternity.

Basic doctrines

As per the church the doctrines are

There is one God, eternally existent as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.
The Bible is God's only inspired, written, Word to mankind - trustworthy, authoritative, and infallible.
The work of redemption by Jesus Christ - His virgin birth, atoning death, burial, and resurrection - is complete and prefect. Salvation (new birth) must be preceded by sincere repentance toward God and faith in Christ as risen Savior and Lord.
Water Baptism by immersion is mandatory for all who have been cleansed by the blood of Christ, and provides a further work of grace in the believer's life. It must be administered by a spirit filled minister in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in tongues, is the promise of the Father for all of His children. Only through the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit can the believer live a life of true holiness and victory over the flesh, the world, and the devil.
Jesus Christ is coming back soon for a "glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle". Only those who are thus prepared, those who ardently love His appearing, will be caught up to reign with Him as His Bride.
There will be a resurrection of the just and the unjust - the one to eternal life, other to eternal damnation.

Further, they do not believe in wearing jewellery, and encourage divine healing rather than depending on medicine. The full time workers in the church would generally believe this to the point of not going to hospitals or doctors. They discourage watching television or visiting the cinemas. They believe that their rules and regulations prevent the believer from being trapped in the world. They preach and teach separation from the world, to prepare themselves for the Second_Coming.

International conventions

The international convention is held at Irumbuliyur in Chennai, India, every year in the month of March/April as well as at Kottarakara in Kerala, India, every year in the month of February. It is one of the largest Pentecostal conventions in India where a crowd of over 100,000 worshipers from all over the country and the world participate. All the people who come can make use of the basic amenities like food and accommodation which are provided by the church, free of cost, for 5 days. It is also said that there is well arranged order while food is being given out for almost 1,00,000 people.

Every year in the month of November an International Youth Camp is held at the same place. Young people converge in this place from different parts of the world.

The main convention in North America is held at Virginia in the USA every year on the first week of July, and the largest convention in Europe is the London convention, which is held on the last week of August every year.

Other activities

Service of Song

The Service of Song (Service or worship rendered to God by singing) is given a very high priority in the mission. Though the church couldn't boast of great learned people, yet ageless, immortal hymns and songs that have stood the test of time have been churned out of this mission. The service of song is considered a ministry in itself, rather than being a part of the ministry.
Ever since the inception of the mission, songs were regularly composed by the brothers and sisters of the mission who fasted and prayed for the divine touch in all their compositions. Releasing new songs every year for various occasions set aside the church from other churches. The songs of the mission have a unique style - with praising being the opening lines and the glrious hope of Zion and the advent being the closing lines.

In the beginning, the songs were recorded in magentic spools and were distributed to the centre faith homes alone for the sake of practising the tunes. But unfortunately many of these spools are not available today.
Recording of the songs in cassettes came into vogue in the 70's and fortunately these disks exist for the faithful to hear and relish them.
Digital recording was introduced in the year 1998 (on cassettes only) and in the year 1999 CD recording was introduced, though on a limited scale.
Mass production started from the year 2000.
Live recording of International Convention messages was introduced from the year 2003 and complete recording began from the year 2005.
The disks and cassettes are not sold for profit but are always dedicated to the glory of God. The disks are also unique in that they never carry the names of the singers nor any speeches or prayers by them. The works, though copyrighted legally, can be used by anyone for the furtherance of the Word of God.

Songs were originally composed in five languages namely Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi and English. Of late songs are also released in various lanuguages such as Kannada,Punjabi,Tulu, Bengali, Marathi etc.
The songs were recorded in the Mission's recording theatre at Adyar and were a great attraction during their release during the Annual International Convention and also were a reason for the saving of many a way-ward soul.

Sunday School Ministry

"Train up a child in the way he should go" resounds the theme of the Sunday School Ministry aimed at bringing up children spiritually. Classes are held from L.K.G till Grade 11.A Senior Sunday Class is also conducted where the students can study for three years after completion of Grade 11.
Each class has its own syllabus containing twenty lessons - ten from the Old Testament and ten from the New Testament (in most of the standards). Each lesson is accompanied by a moral and memory verse (except in some higher grades). The syllabus covers the entire Bible and the children become proficient in the Scriptures once they are through the Sunday school.
Deeper doctrines are presented in a very simple and concise way, yet surpassing many of the theological degrees in their content, meaning, beauty and depth. Certain portions of the syllabus like "An Introduction to the Book of Revelation", "The Triune God", "Eternal Habitations", "Sacrifices”, “Divine Healing ", "New Testament Ministry”, “Second Coming", ”Orders of Resurrection”, ”Paul’s Missionary Journeys”,"Tabernacle" have no parallels anywhere in the world in any theological studies. They are the fruits of the revelation of the mysteries and truths of the scriptures by the Holy Spirit to the saints who forsook their all for the sake of the Kingdom of God.
The Sunday School organization is unique in many ways. Notable among them are

The Teachers are selected not on the basis of their merit in terms of theological degrees, education or riches but based on their exemplary spiritual life.
The Teachers are not paid salary for the services rendered by them but rather, they are willing to spend and be spent in the ministry.
The Teachers are expected to strictly adhere to

Avoid outward adornment like wearing jewels, cosmetics etc.
Shun watching movies, television in any form and preach the same.
Stand for divine healing.
Practice and preach wearing white garments.

Though Children are imparted Scriptural Knowledge, utmost importance is given to moulding the character of the children and to make the children live the Word of God they study.

Examinations are held matching the standards of Government examinations right from the distribution of question papers, sending invigilators, timing, valuation etc. The competition is for the children among a Centre. In addition to the exams, various competitions like Memory verse reciting, quick Bible reading, Singing etc are conducted for the encouragement of the children and the performers are rewarded well.
Sunday Schools in the branches take one step further in that they reach out to the children in the nearby areas (slums, etc) too often providing them some form of assistance both spiritually and materially. Many families have been saved from the flames of hell by their children who paved the way for their salvation who were in fact rescued by the Sunday School Ministry from the clutches of sin and misery.

Magazine Ministry

The church has a magazine ministry, where magazines in several languages are printed and distributed to subscribers. The English magazine published from India is called Voice of Pentecost. Pilgrim's Journal is another magazine which is published and printed in USA. Email edition of Pilgrim's Journal can be subscribed by sending an email to pilgrimsjournal-on@pj.worthyofpraise.org. Other English Magazines are: "Pentecostal Messenger" from Malaysia, "The Youth Herald" from Singapore, "Power Divine" from Sri Lanka, "Trumpet of the Lord" from U.K.

Malayalam magazine PENTECOST is one of oldest Pentecostal magazines from Kerala. Hindi edition PENTECOSTIN WANI published from New Delhi is also other landmark in the history of Church to spread the Gospel to northern part of India.

New Testament Christian Academy

In the year 2002 the church opened an academy known as "New Testament Christian Academy" in Sierra Leone where an experienced teacher and few church believers from the church school in Canada were sent to train teachers to set up the school. The children from the Congo Cross and Wilberforce assemblies of this church attend the school.

Tract Ministry

Tracts of different kinds and various life issues are also published and printed regularly in different languages (English, French, Spanish, Hindi, Nepali, Sinhala, German, Afrikaans, Swidish, Italian, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Oriya, Bengali, Assamese, Manipuri, Angami, Sema, Lotha, Ao, Khasi etc). These tracts address topics like Peace, Salvation, questions about life and healings.

Publications

There are a lot of books being published by the church to let them know the truths and beliefs of this church. The following are some of the publications:

The Biography of Pastor Paul (also includes biographies of other Pastor's after Pastor Paul)
Divine healing
Water Baptism
An Exposition of the Book of Revelation
The Second Coming of Christ
Deeper Truths
Baptism of the Holy Spirit
Anointing of the Holy Spirit
God, Angels and Man
Redemption, Repentance and New Birth
Morning Manna (daily devotional)
New Testament Ministry
A Study on the Will of God - Read Online/Download eBook
The life of Joseph
Twenty Judgments
God's Eternal Purpose for Man
The Sweetness of Psalms 23
Zion, The Perfection of Beauty
Answers to 50 Difficult Questions in Christian Life
Forgiveness the Foretaste of Heaven - Read Online/Download eBook
Human Pride & Divine Humility - Read Online/Download eBook
Journey of the Israelites - Read Online/Download eBook
Book of Daniel - Read Online/Download eBook