Christian Congregation of Brazil

Christian Congregation in Brazil
Founder	Luigi Francescon
Origin	1910
Congregations	18,877 in Brazil (2013)
Members	2.5 million (2000) 2.8 million (2016)

The Christian Congregation in Brazil (Portuguese: Congregação Cristã no Brasil) was founded in Brazil by the Italian-American missionary Luigi Francescon (1866–1964), as part of the larger Christian Congregation.

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.

The Brazilian Assemblies of God was founded 1911 in Pará, by the Swedish-Americans, Daniel Berg and Gunnar Vingren. The Christian Congregation of Brazil is one of the most dynamic and it is fast-growing.

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 at the North Avenue Full Gospel Mission led by William Howard Durham. 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.

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