History
Francescon came, for the first time, to Brazil from Chicago, Illinois to São Paulo and from there to Santo Antonio da Plantina, Paraná in 1910. His ten missionary trips were quite successful among fellow Italian immigrants.
This was part of the first wave of Pentecostalism, and evidently the first organized Pentecostal denomination in Brazil. Together with the Brazilian Assemblies of God founded 1911 in Pará, by the Swedish-Americans, Daniel Berg and Gunnar Vingren, the Christian Congregation of Brazil are the early foundation of the Brazilian Pentecostal Movement, one of the most dynamic and fast-growing evangelical movements worldwide.
The Christian Congregation in the Brazil had around 2.5 million members in 2001 and 17,000 temples (2008) in that country and an intense missionary work abroad. In the metro area of São Paulo, the church shows its faith: there are 500,000 followers, distributed in 2,000 branches and a mother-church in the Brás district that houses a 5,000 member congregation.
Francescon was among the early founders of the Italian-American Pentecostal church in Chicago. He had left the First Italian Presbyterian Church of Chicago because of his belief in Water Baptism by immersion. Later he accepted the doctrines of anointing with oil, miracles, and Holy Spirit baptism. Evangelists from Chicago went to the Italian colonies in the United States planting churches mostly in the Northeast. Most of those churches were incorporated into the Christian Church of North America, with a few affiliated with the Christian Congregation in the United States.
Read more about this topic: Christian Congregation Of Brazil
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