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The ESH senior pastor came from a Catholic home and became a born-again Christian within the circle of his wife\u2019s family. From the beginning he had contact with some churches in United States such as Lakewood where he was ordained to the ministry. He founded ESH the church with a small group of friends and relatives. Several pastors from the ICV church were interviewed, but the senior pastor was chosen as their representative as he is the leading elder in the Verbo ministries and one of the founders of the ICV. Before his conversion to Christianity he had links with Gospel Outreach, a group of churches whose headquarters are in Eureka, California. He came to Guatemala, together with other North American families, having been sent by the church to help people affected by the 1976 earthquake.\u000ATable 4.3 Church background\u000A   Pastor\u2019s code\u000AChurch\u000AReligious or church background\u000AGospel Outreach California\u000AEl Calvario Pentecostal Church Catholic Church\u000ANational Presbyterian Church Catholic church, Masons and yoga Elim and Presbyterian Church\u000AWith the exception of the LDG church the rest of the churches came out of small congregations or family groups. They are now the churches which are growing most along with the Assemblies of God and the Church of God. The NPS identify themselves with some of the beliefs of Pentecostalism and some features from the Protestant Reformation. According to a Pentecostal theologian those churches choose selectively and apply some content of the latter according to their own criteria (IO1). That is they take some doctrines or strands of teaching from the Evangelical tradition which fits into their Neo-Pentecostal vision. From the start they have had links with evangelists or preachers from Latin America and the United States from the Pentecostal and Charismatic worlds. Oscar Amat commenting on the Peruvian case points out that these churches were established not only\u000A   P1ICV\u000AP2FCG\u000AP3ESH\u000AP4LDG\u000AP5IFD\u000AP6IVF\u000ASource: Interviews of Neo-Pentecostal pastors\u000AIglesia Cristiana Verbo\u000AFraternidad Cristiana de Guatemala El Shaddai\u000AIglesia Lluvias de Gracia\u000AIglesia la Familia de Dios\u000AIglesia Visi\u00F3n de Fe\u000A                  166\u000A


































































































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