Pentecostal Dominance in French Evangelicalism in Quebec, 1921-1963

Abstract

During the period of the 1920s through to the early 1960s there was a marked change regarding which denominations were predominant in French evangelicalism in Quebec. New groups such as the Pentecostals, Christian Brethren, and Fellowship Baptists became predominant in terms of measures like numbers of churches due to the decline of all the major pre-existing French evangelical groups and to the continuous if limited growth of these new groups. The experience of the Pentecostals illustrates well the factors involved in the change among French Protestant groups in Quebec regarding which groups were predominant. In the context of the decline of the older groups, Pentecostals experienced a continuous if very limited growth. This growth was rooted in a theological anti-Catholicism, a conviction that many French Catholics in Quebec were in need of salvation. This theological conviction motivated a strong commitment to evangelism and church planting, and the establishment of a French Bible school to facilitate such work, all of which provided the motor of Pentecostal growth. This theological anti-Catholicism motivating church planting was also shared by the Brethren and Fellowship Baptists and similarly led to continuous if limited growth. Together these three groups established over fifty new French churches in fifteen of the seventeen present administrative regions of Quebec in the period 1921-63, with each having roughly the same number of churches. This period was the beginning of the trend of the predominance of the Pentecostals and these