The Assemblies of God recently finalized its 2024 Annual Church Ministries Report, which contains good news about our Fellowship.

Major worship service attendance increased 6.2% since 2023, with 1.95 million people attending AG churches every Sunday.

Adherents increased 2.5% to 3.06 million people. Like most religious groups, the AG experienced declining adherence in 2020–21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we are growing again.

Indeed, political scientist Ryan Burge believes the AG may be the only major Protestant denomination that will grow over the next decade, which he largely attributes to our ethnic diversity.

Speaking of which, 46.3% of our adherence is racial or ethnic minority, compared to 41.6% in the U.S. population. We will become a minority-majority Fellowship before the U.S. reaches that status as a nation.

Far more importantly, conversions increased 10% to 529,000, and the number of churches reporting conversions increased 1.4%.

More than 168,000 people received water baptism, an increase of 12.1% over 2023.

The number of people baptized in the Holy Spirit increased 3.9% or by more than 84,000.

Formal church membership increased 4.1% to 1.8 million.

New church charters increased by 33.6% to 330 compared to 2023, with an overall net growth of 17 churches.

And the total number of ministers — ordained, licensed, and certified — increased by 0.7% to 38,182.

These upward trendlines are good news, especially in an American media environment that focuses on declines in Christianity’s size and influence.

But it’s not just the U.S. AG that is experiencing growth. The World Assemblies of God Fellowship is growing too.

Founded in 1989, the WAGF is “a cooperative body of worldwide Assemblies of God national councils of equal standing.” Together with its affiliated partners, the WAGF encompasses 88,866,189 believers and 174 councils in 147 countries. It is the largest Pentecostal fellowship in the world, and the fourth largest community of churches — after Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Anglicanism.

Consider some encouraging stats about the WAGF. It has grown 374% since its founding.

Over 93% of WAGF adherents live outside of North America and Europe.

Most of the nations that have more than a million adherents are in the Global South, especially Africa.

Missiologist and statistician Ed Stetzer recently wrote about the current growth and move of the Spirit that the Assemblies of God is experiencing, both nationally and internationally. He drew the following conclusions based on the data he reviewed:

“First the AG’s story reminds us that mission still matters. Evangelism isn’t just a program — it is the heart of the church.

“Second, the AG’s commitment to church planting should encourage us. … The AG’s surge in new church charters is a reminder that every healthy church can multiply.

“Third, the AG’s diversity challenges the rest of the church to look beyond its own cultural comfort zones. As the most diverse large denomination in the U.S., the AG models a gospel that speaks to every tribe and tongue.

The seed of the gospel sown and cultivated by missionaries and indigenous ministers has resulted in a wonderful harvest of souls.

“Finally, the AG’s posture of spiritual vitality — marked by dependence on the Holy Spirit — is something every church can learn from. In a time when many are deconstructing or disengaging, Pentecostal churches are pressing deeper into the Spirit’s presence. They’re not just talking about revival — they’re actively seeking God for it.”

These numbers give reasons for all Pentecostal believers, especially the WAGF, to rejoice. The seed of the gospel sown and cultivated by missionaries and indigenous ministers has resulted in a wonderful harvest of souls.

The glory goes to God, however. After all, in the words of Paul, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow” (1 Corinthians 3:6, emphasis added).

Though now is not the time to rest on our laurels. As the late Loren Triplett (AGWM executive director, 1989–97) often said, “You don’t measure yourself by your success but by the unfinished task.”

And the unfinished task is great.

According to Gina A. Zurlo of the Center for the Study of World Christianity, Christians comprise 32.3% of the global population. More than two-thirds of the world don’t know Christ.

AG World Missions calculates there are 6,602 unreached people groups in the world. These groups don’t have an indigenous Christian community with sufficient numbers and resources to be self-propagating.

Here in the U.S., Pew Research Center reports that 62% of all adults identify as Christian, but only 45% of adults aged 18–29 do so.

I strongly believe that God has grown both the AG and the WAGF to finish the task before us. Like the 2nd General Council in November 1914, let us commit ourselves to doing “the greatest work of evangelism the world has ever seen.”

The operative word is us. Each Christian and every local church has the privileged opportunity to share the gospel with the lost, the last, and the least.

But both the AG and the WAGF define themselves in terms of cooperation. The individual believer or congregation does not try to accomplish God’s mission alone. Instead, we work together, both nationally and internationally.

Our ability for global ministry effectiveness is no greater than the strength of our relationships with one another in the body of Christ. We often use the phrase “better together” to emphasize the power and importance of unity, collaboration, and community. Yet, this concept is rooted in God’s Word.

The Book of Ecclesiastes says that two are better than one, likening the relationship to a cord of three strands that is not easily broken (Ecclesiastes 4:9–12).

In Jesus’ prayer for unity, He asked that believers may be one to reflect God’s love to the world (John 17:21).

The apostle Paul used the analogy of the body with its many parts working together to underscore that God designed believers to function as a united body, with each one contributing their unique gifts to advance His kingdom (1 Corinthians 12:12–27).

It was H.E. Luccock who said, “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it.”

The present moment is a time to rejoice in our growth, as well as a time to remember our task.

As stated in our Constitution, “The priority reason for being of the Assemblies of God is to be an agency of God for evangelizing the world, to be a corporate body in which man may worship God, to be a channel of God’s purpose to build a body of saints being perfected in the image of His Son, and to be a people who demonstrate God’s love and compassion for all the world.”

The Assemblies of God and the World Assemblies of God Fellowship are better together. Only together can we accomplish our God-given task.

This article appears in the Summer 2025 issue of Influence magazine.