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data received from the survey carried out with the lay people, has a lower level of education and a lower economic income per capita. These churches are more like the Brazilian Neo-Pentecostals who are to be found basically among the working classes. The \u2018Iglesia Universal del Reino de Dios\u2019 led by bishop Macedo is a faithful representative of this movement (Freston 1998a, 1998b).\u000A2. Worship as a life experience\u000AThe worship in these churches shows a drastic change in relation to the traditional framework for services in the historic and Pentecostal church traditions. Worship is not only a time of preparation for the sermon, it is the very life of these churches and it is mixed with a series of charismatic experiences within the established pattern of the service. In a way it is the fundamental crux of the service which acts as a vehicle for the members to experiment the presence of God. In this context the members have a religious experience which stimulates changes in their state of mind, thinking patterns and commitment to the word of God.\u000ASep\u00FAlveda says that the personal and shared experience with the Spirit, or the completely unmediated experience of God is what makes a profound change in the life of a person possible (In B.Gutierrez 1995: 79, 82). For some authors this experience in many cases meets the spiritual, psychological and physical needs (Cleary in Dempster et. al. 1999:131-150; Sepulveda in Cook 1994a: 68-74).40 It is an experience of the sacred which is accessible for all of the members without any mediation. Pablo Deiros, a Baptist pastor whose church became Neo-Pentecostal affirms the following with respect to this,\u000A[...] new guidelines for conduct are being manifested in the desire for growth, authenticity and amplitude of the personal experience. The human being of today wants to experience life and God in a direct way, and not indirectly or in a secondary way through the mediation of human or institutional interpreters or standard means... It seems that in\u000A40Edward L. Cleary notes in this respect: \u2018The Pentecostals centre their lives on the experience of the Holy Spirit\u2019. Underlines, that this experience provides for them a profound communion with God which brings them hope among other things. (in Dempster et. al. 1999:131-150). Juan Sep\u00FAlveda notes that the growth of Pentecostalism has as its foundation the experience of God. See the reasons which he gives in Cook (ed.) 1994: 68-74.\u000A 83\u000A