Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| pentecostal | A general descriptive noun or adjective for any person or group or movement stressing direct divine inspiration by the Holy Spirit and exhibiting glossalia, faith healing, and parallel phenomena |
| Pentecostal Apostolics | Pentecostals differing from other Pentecostals in stress on complex hierarchy of living apostles, prophets and other charismatic officials. |
| Pentecostal World Conference | (PWC). The major Pentecostal world communion, mainly a triennial conference (since 1947) with minimal continuity. |
| Pentecostalism | A Christian confession or ecclesiastical tradition holding the distinctive teaching that all Christians should seek a post-conversion religious experience called the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, and that a Spirit-baptized believer may receive one or more of the supernatural gifts known in the Early Church: instantaneous sanctification, the ability to prophesy, practice divine healing, speak in tongues (glossolalia), or interpret tongues. |
| Pentecostals | Followers of Pentecostalism (qv), a major world tradition originating around 1900. |
| Pentecostals/Charismatics | Shorthand term for Pentecostal/Charismatic/Independent Charismatic. |
| Pentecostals: 2-crisis-experience | See Baptistic-Pentecostals. |
| Pentecostals: 3-crisis-experience | See Holiness-Pentecostals. |
| Pentecostals: Oneness | (Jesus Only). See Oneness-Pentecostals. |
| people | (1) Acollection of persons who are linked by a common past or a common culture, or who have a common affinity for one another. (2) An ethno-linguistic people (qv) or ethnolinguistic sub-family. |
| people distance | Cultural distance (qv). |
| people group | A people (qv). |
| people movement | A large-scale movement to Christ and into the church by a fair proportion of a people, acting as a group and with a group decision. |
| people movement | The spread of the gospel among a people in such a way that all individuals in that group are presented with an opportunity to know Christ; usually accompanied by significant response. |
| people, people group | A grouping of individuals who perceive themselves to have a common affinity for one another because of their shared language, religion, ethnicity, residence, occupation, class or caste, situation, etc. or combination of these. The statistical unit ‘people’ in this survey always refers to a people, or part thereof, in one single country. |
| people’s palace | In Salvation Army usage, a moderatelypriced hotel in Australia, New Zealand or France. |
| per capita | Per head, per person; usually used of some national attribute (GNP, etc.) divided by the total population (men, women, children and infants). |
| per capita income | See national income per person. |
| percentage | A proportion in a hundred. |
| perfecting | The third of the 3 stages of church planting and growth (discipling, baptizing, perfecting, based on the Great Commission in Matthew 28.19), involving the bringing of individuals to conversion and commitment to Christ, the same for their children, teaching baptized individuals the full meaning of church membership and Christian maturity, and teaching about ethical change, holiness, witness, social justice, etc. |
| Perfectionist-Pentecostals | Also termed Free Pentecostal, Deliverance-Pentecostal, Radical-Pentecostal, Revivalist- Pentecostal; Pentecostals teaching crisis experience including deliverance/ecstatic confession/ascension/perfectionism/ prophecy. |
| Perfectionists | Holiness Christians (qv). |
| periodicals, Christian | Defined here as all Christian or church periodicals, journals, magazines, newspapers, bulletins, house organs; of popular, news, scholarly, professional or academic content; daily, semi-weekly, weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, appearing at regular intervals each with 2 or more issues a year, excluding annuals and irregular serials; and in any language. |
| Peripheral Mande | An African ethnolinguistic family with about 30 languages. |
| peripheral religion | A religion on the periphery of this survey’s definition of religion. |
Data on 18 categories of religion, including non-religious, by country, province, and people.
Data on all religions, Christian activities, and trends.
Membership data, year begun, and rates of change.
Population and religion data on all major cities & provinces.
Detailed information covering religion, culture, and geography.
A repository of historical data, including a chronology of Christianity from the 1st to 21st centuries.