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became known as the Neo-Pentecostal churches (NPCs).2 Their presence was made known by huge church buildings, media communications and educational institutions; they modified the face of the Evangelical churches in the capital and principal cities of the country. With the exception of one of the churches under study, the majority of the churches were born from small family bible study groups at the end of the 1970s and have expanded throughout the country and around the world.\u000AIn Guatemala NPCs represent a significant new aspect of Protestantism. In the 2000s they are the churches that are growing most rapidly within the Evangelical world. According to SEPAL (Evangelical Service for Latin America) of the total Guatemalan population, Evangelicals represent 25.4 per cent, Catholics 58.1 per cent, those without religious affiliation 13.9 per cent, and the religious sects 2.6 per cent, so that one out of every four Guatemalans is Evangelical (actualized report 2003: 5). Today some analysts wonder if the NPCs together with the rest of Evangelical churches have the potential to promote some type of social change in Guatemala (Stoll 1994). Others question this possibility for different reasons (Cleary 1998: 9). All the details about those churches will be discussed later.\u000AThe NPCs are not only growing in Guatemala. This religious phenomenon is not a parochial matter but part of world-wide Charismatic Christianity. The studies by Karla Poewe (1994), Harvey Cox (1996), Ian Cotton (1995), Paul Freston (1996 &1997), Murray Dempster (1999), David Martin (2002) and others, show that the Charismatic Movement is global. Simon Coleman affirms that \u2018These Christians are concerned to prompt the \u201Cflow\u201D of people, ideas and material objects across the globe, and the idea of cementing interconnections between believers united in \u201CSpirit\u201D is powerfully articulated by them in sermons, oral testimonies and literature\u2019(2000: 67). For Martin \u2018Pentecostalism (and associated Charismatic movements) find a quite different kind of niche deep in the interior\u000A2 In the present investigation the terms Neo-Pentecostals and Neo-Charismatics are used to refer to the same henomenon. A difference is made when charismatic Catholics are referred to. The Neo-Pentecostal churches do not use the term charismatic as this is associated with the Catholic Church.\u000A2\u000A