Origin from 1958
On 18 May 1958, eleven years after the first Pentecostal World Conference convened in Zurich in 1947, already recorded here, and thirty one years before the World Pentecostal Assemblies of God Fellowship formed in Indianapolis in 1989, also recorded here, the twenty three year old Assemblies of God minister David Yonggi Cho and his future mother in law Choi Ja shil opened a tent church with five worshippers in Daejo dong, a slum district of Seoul, South Korea. Working among the urban poor in the aftermath of the Korean War, the two pastors combined healing prayer and practical relief; a widely reported case of a paralyzed boy regaining the ability to walk after prayer drew crowds, and by 1961 the growing congregation relocated nearer the city center as the Full Gospel Central Church. It moved again in September 1973 to a purpose built sanctuary on Yeouido Island, by then Seoul's developing financial and political center, and the congregation Cho and Choi founded in a tent grew through cell group organizing and Cho's own teaching on prayer and healing into Yoido Full Gospel Church, recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest single congregation, with membership peaking above eight hundred thousand in the two thousands. Cho's Church Growth International, founded in 1976, carried the congregation's cell based growth methods to Pentecostal and charismatic churches on every continent, making Yoido Full Gospel Church one of global Pentecostalism's clearest demonstrations that the movement's twentieth century growth ran as strongly through the global South as through its North American origins.
Facts
Dates
StatusEstablished marks David Yonggi Cho and Choi Ja-shil's founding of Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul on 18 May 1958, a specific dated milestone between the first Pentecostal World Conference convening in Zurich in 1947 already recorded here and the World Pentecostal Assemblies of God Fellowship forming in Indianapolis in 1989 also recorded here. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Assemblies of God directly: "one years before the World Pentecostal Assemblies of God Fellowship formed in Indianapolis in 1989, also recorded here, the twenty three year old Assemblies of God minister David Yonggi Cho and his..."
This source names Global directly: "making Yoido Full Gospel Church one of global Pentecostalism's clearest demonstrations that the movement's twentieth century growth ran as strongly through the global South as through its North..."
This source names Korean directly: "Working among the urban poor in the aftermath of the Korean War, the two pastors combined healing prayer and practical relief; a widely reported case of a paralyzed boy regaining the ability to walk..."
Zurich, Cities This source names Zurich directly: "World Conference convened in Zurich in 1947, already recorded here, and thirty one years before the World Pentecostal Assemblies of God Fellowship formed in Indianapolis in 1989, also recorded here..."
Occurred In
Spread Event Of
Adds a specific, dated milestone in Pentecostal history between the first Pentecostal World Conference convening in Zurich in 1947 and the World Pentecostal Assemblies of God Fellowship forming in Indianapolis in 1989, both already recorded here: David Yonggi Cho and Choi Ja-shil's founding of Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul on 18 May 1958, which grew into the world's largest single congregation.
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