Spirit-Empowered Leaders Gather for What Could Be Largest Christian Pentecost Celebration in Israel’s Modern History

JERUSALEM May 21st, 2015 — George O. Wood, general superintendent of the Assemblies of God Church (USA) and chairman of the World AG Fellowship, considered the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination with more than 67 million adherents, said Wednesday that young people are leaving traditional churches that have “abandoned a belief in the authority of Scripture.”

Responding to a question asking how the Empowered21 movement is doing among young people, considering reports that many are moving away from the church in general, Wood explained that it’s not the case for Empowered21.

“All I can do is tell you our statistics in the USA,” began Wood.

“We (AG USA) have 3.1 million young people in the USA and 34 percent of them are under the age of 25. … The young people that are moving away from traditional religious structures in the U.S. typically belong to churches which have abandoned a belief in the authority of Scripture and the uniqueness and centrality, and exclusiveness of Jesus Christ,” said Wood.

“They have no belief to hang on to since that has all been gutted by those who have chosen, under the guise of religion, to reject the very claims of the founder of the religion,” he said.

“This movement is very attractive to young people around the world because it believes we can experience God. We don’t just talk about Him, we don’t just think about Him, we actually can experience Him,” said William Wilson, co-chair of Empowered21.

“There is a whole generation of young men and women who are looking for purpose and really want their life to count and the radical message of Jesus Christ gives them that opportunity. In an expression, they can experience God in reality, so we’re seeing explosive growth in many parts of the movement among young people. It’s exciting,” said Wilson