PART III:

In 1980-1981 the author returned to Pasadena, California, from his home and ministry in Costa Rica, where he had served as a missionary with the Latin America Mission since 1972, and began doctoral studies at the School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary. His doctoral dissertation, written in English, was on "A History of the Protestant Movement in Central America, 1880-1980." The first part of the present report for CISRE is based on his chapter on Costa Rica, which only included historical profiles on Protestant denominations with more than 1,000 members in 1978. In historical perspective, eleven church planting organizations initiated work in Costa Rica prior to 1940, eleven more in the period 1940-1960, and 20 between 1960-1980. Obviously, it was the latter period that witnessed the greatest amount of new activity among Protestant mission agencies and this contributed to accelerated church growth in Costa Rica, both numerically in terms church members and geographically in terms of the planting of new churches and missions throughout the country.

In order to update the data on these denominations from 1980-2000, the author used a variety of sources, which are listed at the end of this study. In addition, a number of new denominations were added to the original study that didn’t exist prior to 1980, or that were to small to be included in the original study because they had less than 1,000 baptized members at that time.

The intent of this brief historical survey is to provide the reader with basic information about the twelve largest Protestant denominations known to exist in Costa Rica as of March 2000, and to encourage others to expand these profiles and update them so that we all may have a more accurate picture of the origin, growth and development of the larger denominations in our midst. Also, it is important that we analyze the growth of these denominations in order to learn more about the way religious groups develop in the Costa Rican context. The growth of baptized members in each of these denominations is not the only valid measurement of "church growth," but it does provide us with one important criteria for doing a comparative analysis by decades to better understand the growth patterns of the major denominations.

Hopefully, we can learn some important lessons from this brief study that well help us in the process of strategic planning as we work to further the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Costa Rica in faithfulness to the Great Commission.

The first Protestant missionary work among the Spanish-speaking population was begun by the Central American Mission (CAM). The CAM's first missionaries were Mr. and Mrs. William Connell, who arrived in Costa Rica in 1891. Their initial ministry in San José was in English, but Spanish-speaking work was soon launched at the urging of Francisco Penzotti of the American Bible Society. This was a serious step to take because of the popular idea that Protestantism was all right for Anglo Americans and West Indians, but not for Hispanic Americans. The McConnell's were aided by the arrival of three new missionaries in 1893 and five more in 1895.

From the outset, the emphasis of the CAM was on widespread evangelism rather than on church planting. Mission workers preached and distributed Bibles throughout the Central Valley and along the Atlantic coast. Meetings were held in private homes, and it wasn't until 1902 that the first chapel was built. During the early years, the CAM work weathered severe attacks from without by the Roman Catholic clergy and by popular fanaticism. From within, under the leadership of Francis Boyle (1912-1920), the work was divided and frustrated over the issue of hyper-dispensationalism.

These factors help to explain why church growth was slow. From 190 baptized believers in 1900, the CAM work grew to 721 members in 1919, with eight organized congregations in five provinces. However, by 1921, few CAM missionaries remained in Costa Rica, and the work, in general, had deteriorated. Only five congregations remained, and all but two national workers had abandoned the Missions.

Another twenty years passed with very little growth; only 300 members were reported in 1937. It was not until the 1940s and 1950s that a new group of missionaries, together with national pastors and workers, brought about an extension and consolidation of CAM work in Costa Rica. The churches founded by the CAM were organized as the Association of Central American Evangelical Churches, becoming autonomous in 1948 and almost entirely self-supporting by 1956. Not until the 1940s, under the leadership of William Taylor, were national workers ordained as pastors and sufficient emphasis given to formal training for Christian work. Church membership increased from 260 in 1935, to 650 in 1955, and by 1960 had reached 1,064. By the latter date, twenty-seven organized churches had been established, each with an Hispanic pastor, in addition to thirty-nine "congregations" (equivalent to "missions" in the vocabulary of other denominations), and with 4,200 adherents reported.

Whereas the period 1940-1960 was one of slow but sustained growth, between 1960 and 1980 the number of churches and members remained about the same. In 1978, the CAM reported 30 churches and 1,122 members, or about the same number as in 1967 (1,123) or in 1960 (1,064).

CAM missionary Sigifredo Bieske reported that, on the Pacific coast, the CAM lost 10 out of a total of 15 congregations to the Pentecostals during the 1970s and 1980s (Bieske, 1990:13). Bieske characterized the period 1960-1980 in CAM history as conservative, conformist and lacking dynamism.

However, between 1980 and 1990, the CAM experienced something of a revitalization, after coming to a realization of some of their shortcomings in a pastoral retreat in 1978?. After the late 1970s, some of the older, conservative pastors retired or passed away, while the number of CAM missionaries increased, mainly young couples from the USA (some were reassigned from Nicaragua after the Sandinistas won the civil war against the Somoza dictatorship in 1979), as well as the arrival of new national pastors from other countries, mainly Guatemala and Nicaragua. Also, there was a change in the evangelistic strategy of the CAM, from planting churches in small towns in rural areas to concentrating on church planting in the growing urban areas of Costa Rica. Consequently, the work of the CAM in Costa Rica began to show signs of renewal and growth for the first time in several decades. During 1979 alone, the CAM started 10 new congregations in the San José Metropolitan Area, which at that time had a population of about 850,000 people. (??Check this) By 1986, the total membership in CAM churches had grown to about 2,900, or more than double what it was in 1978 (1,122), with a total Sunday school attendance of about 4,400. (How many churches and congregations were there at this time?) By 1990, there were ?? churches and ?? missions (called "congregations" by the CAM), with a total membership of about ??; and at the end of 1999 the CAM reported ?? churches and ?? missions (congregations) with about ?? members.

Seventh-Day Adventism began in Costa Rica during the 1890s among the English-speaking West Indian immigrants on the Caribbean coast. Adventist missionaries, based in the Bay Islands of Honduras, visited many ports of the Caribbean aboard their ship "The Herald" during the 1890s, arriving in Port Limón in 1897. By 1900, two Adventist chapels had been established in Costa Rica at Pacuarito and Limón.

After the headquarters of the West Indian Union Conference was transferred from Kingston, Jamaica to Colón, Panamá in 1908, Costa Rica and other Central American countries began to receive greater attention by Adventist missionaries. However, early efforts to reach the Spanish-speaking population were sporadic and not very successful. It was not until 1927 that an Adventist Mission was formally established in Costa Rica, with only four churches and about 130 total members. By 1935, there were seven churches with about 320 members.

Although the Seventh-Day Adventist Church grew slowly in Costa Rica prior to 1950, since that time it has become one of the largest Protestant denominations in the nation. By 1955 there were 24 congregations (churches and missions) with about 1,450 members. In 1978, 41 congregations and about 5,700 members were reported, and in 1986 there were 46 organized churches and 66 missions (total congregations = 112) with 9,444 members. Prior to 1960, the majority of the Adventist church members were English-speaking West Indians, but since then a growing number have been Spanish-speaking mestizos.

Although the Adventists are Protestants, they are not necessarily known to be "Evangelicals," due to their own exclusiveness as a religious group and to certain doctrinal differences that have caused many Evangelicals to consider them to be distant cousins at best. This historical separation between Adventists and Evangelicals (including both Pentecostals and non-Pentecostals) in Costa Rica, and generally throughout the Americas, has been a mutual rejection of one another. Prior to the 1950s, this mutual antagonism was very strong, but since that time there has been greater tolerance and growing mutual understanding between them.

One of the significant contributions that the Adventists have made to education in Costa Rica was the founding of the "Colegio Adventista" (primary and secondary levels) in 1927. Although the school was originally founded in Las Cascadas, Panama, in 1925, it was relocated to San José in 1927, then to a site near Tres Ríos in 1932, and finally to its present location at La Ceiba, near the City of Alajuela, in 1950. By 1972, the name of the school was changed to "Centro Adventista de Estudios Superiores" (Adventist Center of Higher Education), and it offered courses that were the equivalent of what the Evangelicals were providing at the Bible institute level. However, as this type and level of instruction was not accredited by the government of Costa Rica, the Adventists began to upgrade their program so that it was able to satisfy the government’s requirements to become a private university in 198?.

This was the first "Protestant" educational institution in Costa Rica to achieve official "university" status, and it paved the way for two Evangelical programs of theological education to also become private universities in the 1990s: the Nazarene University of the Americas (formerly, the Nazarene Seminary of the Americas) and the Latin American Biblical University (formerly, the Latin American Biblical Seminary).

In 1990, the Adventists reported a total of 170? congregations (?? churches and ?? missions) with about 12,000? members, and the latest annual report shows: churches = ; missions = ; members = 28,000 (1999).

The Methodist Episcopal Board of Foreign Missions began work in Costa Rica in 1917, with the arrival of George Miller from Panama and Eduardo Zapata from Mexico. That year, the first Methodist congregation was founded in San José, which became the "Church of the Redeemer" in 1919. Under the bishopric of W. P. Thirkfield from 1920-1924, new missionaries arrived and new centers were opened. By the mid-1930s, additional churches were planted in other communities of the Central Valley, in the rich agricultural region of San Carlos, and in the southwestern coastal plain where the United Fruit Company was developing new banana plantations. However, by 1937, only 262 "members in good standing" were reported. According to Costa Rica Church historian Wilton Nelson:

In that same year, the Methodists appointed the first two Costa Ricans as pastors. Nelson states that "the development of national workers and leaders was much slower than in the Central American Mission" (1963:167). In 1944, for the first time, a national was named as superintendent of the Costa Rican District of the "Central American Mission Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church," which included the districts of Costa Rica and Panama. The Methodists were also slow in developing self-supporting churches, since it was not until 1954 that the first church in the district achieved this goal.

Methodists have always stressed the social implications of the Gospel, and Methodism in Costa Rica is no exception to the rule. In the first Annual Conference, social service and temperance committees were established. Boy Scout troops and Camp Fire Girl groups were developed in 1923. Since 1921, the Methodist School in San José has provided quality primary and secondary education for middle and upper class students, who have later become part of the new generation of leaders within Costa Rican society. Many parents who would not darken the door of an evangelical church sent their children to this school, thereby removing prejudice and creating a good public image for the growing evangelical community. In 1953, an agricultural project was initiated in San Carlos, known as the Methodist Rural Center.

The Central America Conference of the Methodist Church established, in Alajuela, a "School for the Preparation of Methodist Workers," beginning in 1957 with twelve students from Costa Rica and Panama. This school was operated until the late 1960s, and the facilities are still used as a retreat and training center for the Methodists and other groups.

Although church growth among the Methodists has been rather slow, the work has been notably well organized. From the first Conference report in 1920, when 49 communicant members were reported, the Methodists grew to 262 in 1937, 633 in 1955, and by 1960 numbered 865. Only 70 members were added by 1967 (935), and only 1,135 members were reported in 1978. Between 1967 and 1978, the Methodists had an annual growth rate of only 1.8%, which is less than the natural population increase of 3.5%. By 1983 there were 1,266 communicant members, and by 1986 the total membership had increased to 1,378 among 20 churches and seven missions.

A number of tensions within the Methodists in Costa Rica have led to conflicts between those who have favored Liberation Theology and those who have opposed it, between those caught up in the Charismatic Movement and those who oppose the Pentecostalization of Methodist churches, between traditional Liberals and Conservatives, etc. In 19??, a group of pastors and their churches (how many?) left the Methodist Conference of Costa Rica (affiliated with the United Methodist Church in the USA) and became affiliated with the Free Methodist Church of North America, including the Methodist Church of the Redeemer in San José.

The interdenominational Latin America Evangelization Campaign, later known as the Latin America Mission (LAM), entered Costa Rica in 1921, under the leadership of the Rev. and Mrs. Harry Strachan. The mission began as a promoter of evangelistic campaigns throughout Latin America, and soon came to have a major role in pulling the evangelical movement in Costa Rica out of its impasse and stagnation. This was accomplished by means of local evangelistic campaigns and the cooperative institutional efforts promoted by the Strachans.

Harry and Susan Strachan, who had served in Argentina under the Regions Beyond Missionary Union, established the headquarters of their new mission in San José for the express purpose of engaging in: (1) Systematic evangelistic campaigns in the larger cities and towns of Latin America, to be held in tents, theatres, halls, or in the open air, to attract people who would normally not come to a building associated with religious services; (2) Itinerant evangelization to be carried out simultaneously, covering the district surrounding the center where the campaign is held; (3) Training of native workers (Nelson, 1962:175). Some of the best evangelists of Latin America were recruited as preachers for the campaigns that were carried out between 1921 and 1934 in Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Morocco. According to Nelson, "These campaigns may well have constituted one of the factors that pulled the Evangelical Movement in all Latin America out of its decades of doldrums and started it on its modern period of phenomenal growth" (1962:176).

Such campaigns were held in Costa Rica with Juan Varetto in 1922, and with Angel Archilla Cabrera in 1927. During the first campaign, there was no organized opposition, and people from all social classes packed out the largest theatre in San José. But the second campaign in 1927 provoked a great religious controversy, with public defamation of Protestants by Catholic priests through articles in local newspapers and printed handbills. However, this seemed to encourage people to attend the meetings held in a San José lumberyard, where 1,400 overflowed the meeting place. The Archilla campaign contributed greatly to the advancement of the evangelical movement in Costa Rica, because sympathy for the evangelical cause had been created, and hundreds had been converted. New converts were so numerous that the existing churches could not care for them, which motivated the Strachans to build a large tabernacle-like structure in 1929, seating 1,000. This was the origin of the Bible Temple in San José that served as an "evangelistic center" for the extension of the work in the capital and to outlying areas.

Before coming to Costa Rica, the Strachans had traveled throughout Latin America in 1920 to survey the status of evangelical work. One of their conclusions was that Bible institutes and seminaries were few in Latin America, and that an urgent need existed to train national workers. During the campaigns, this need was met by holding short-term Bible institutes in the mornings, concurrently with the evangelistic meetings in the evenings. They also established a Women's Bible Training School in the Strachan home, beginning in 1923 with eight students. In 1924, when a two-story structure was built for the Training School, Harry Strachan brought down eight young men from Nicaragua and converted the school into a "Bible Institute". By 1925 the Institute was functioning with 19 students and a faculty composed of missionaries of the Central American Mission, the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Latin America Evangelistic Campaign. This interdenominational Institute met a long-felt need and was well received in evangelical circles, resulting in many Missions deciding to send students to the school. In 1930, there were forty students, representing eleven countries and eight denominations or missions. The name was changed to the "Latin America Biblical Seminary" in 1941, when its academic standards were raised to meet the growing needs of the evangelical movement.

Other ministries were created by the Latin America Evangelization Crusade to further the Lord's work in Costa Rica and Latin America. In 1926, a Spanish literature ministry was initiated that grew to become the Editorial Caribe/LAMP (Latin America Mission Publications) in 1948, now one of the most important publishers and distributors of evangelical literature in Latin America. By 1961 LAMP bookstores had been formed in Port Limón, Panama City and New York City, in addition to the original bookstore founded in San José in 1953. Editorial Caribe continued to expand and increase its effectiveness, however, its offices were moved to Miami in 1970 to better serve the growing literature market throughout Latin America.

The Bible Clinic (now, Hospital Clínica Bíblica) was constructed in 1929 to care for believers who needed hospitalization, as prejudice was so strong against evangelicals that they were sometimes refused entrance to the city hospital or, once interned, were neglected. Although Costa Rica was becoming more liberal, fanaticism still persisted in many of the state and Catholic institutions. In addition, loving care of the sick and helpless in an evangelical hospital resulted, both directly and indirectly, in winning many to the Lord and improving the public image of the evangelical movement in Costa Rica. The Bible Clinic grew out of a small nursing school that was established by the Mission in 1928, under the direction of missionary and national nurses. Many leading Costa Rican doctors have practiced medicine at the Bible Clinic, including a growing number of Protestant doctors who are Costa Ricans. A new hospital building was added to the older facilities in 1975, which doubled the capacity to over 60 beds. Since 1968, the hospital has been entirely under national management.

Susan Strachan had a great concern for sick and homeless children, and in 1931, when a two-hundred acre dairy and coffee farm was purchased by the Mission, her dreams were fulfilled by the establishment of an evangelical orphanage, called the Bible Home, in San José de la Montaña. Hundreds of orphaned and abandoned Costa Rican children have been cared for by the Bible Home, some of whom have become outstanding evangelical leaders. In 1947, a camping ministry was added to the work of the LAM, utilizing part of the Mission farm. Camp Roblealto thus became one of the earliest such camping ministries in all of Latin America.

The decade of the 1940s brought many changes to the Latin America Evangelistic Crusade. In 1941, the name was changed to "The Latin America Mission" (LAM) to reflect the expanding interests and ministries of the Mission. With the death of Harry Strachan in 1945, his son, Kenneth, became co-director of the LAM along with his mother, Susan. When Mrs. Strachan passed away in 1950, Kenneth became the General Director.

The 1940s also brought the organization of the Association of Bible Churches (AIBC), which grew out of the LAM's evangelistic work. Although it was not the Strachan's intention to plant churches, the expansion occurred naturally resulting from evangelistic work by students and faculty of the Bible Institute and from evangelistic campaigns sponsored by the Mission. During the 1920s and 1930s, local congregations were formed in the Central Valley and in the northwestern coastal province of Guanacaste. The Bible Temple in San José remained the center of these efforts, with the distinction of being the largest evangelical church in the country until the 1980s.

In 1945, the AIBC was formed with 14 churches and 406 baptized members, however, the number of adherents was considerably larger. The LAM, during its early years of evangelistic enthusiasm, did not adequately follow-up and consolidate the gains made in evangelism by organizing new believers into local congregations. This lack of proper ecclesiastical organization was a common defect of independent missions, such as the CAM and the LAM, and stemmed from an inadequate concept of the importance of the local church.

The first LAM missionary to see this weakness was Kenneth Strachan, who initiated the preliminary steps that led to the formation of the AIBC in the mid-1940s. However, many of the founding congregations of the AIBC had only been organized locally the year before, when the first Latin pastors were ordained. By 1959, much progress had been made toward self support among the Bible Church Association.

In 1960, the AIBC had 13 churches, 18 missions and 37 preaching points, with a total membership of 1,055. During the 1950s, a large number of rapidly growing missions, mostly daughter-congregations of the Bible Temple, had been planted in the San José area, many of which later became flourishing churches.

By 1967, the membership of the AIBC had grown to 1,574, in 1974 to 3,470 and by 1978 had reached 3,984 with 44 churches, 18 missions and at least 34 preaching points. The annual membership increase between 1967 and 1978 was 9.7% (AAGR). Most of these congregations were located in the Central Valley and in the provinces of Guanacaste and Alajuela.

Beginning in the early 1970s, the AIBC began to experience the impact of the growing Charismatic Movement in North and South America, which resulted in the Pentecostalization of the many of the AIBC congregations throughout Costa Rica. The Bible Temple was the first AIBC church to hear testimonies in the pulpit from Charismatic leaders, both Protestants and Catholics, from the USA and Argentina regarding the "New Pentecostal Revival" that was spreading around the world. During the 1970s, the Renewal Movement, as it was called in Costa Rica, had a large impact on many non-Pentecostal denominations, like the AIBC, the Methodist Church, the Baptist Convention and other groups. While many local congregations began to exhibit Neo-Pentecostal tendencies, others rejected these influences and became strongly anti-Charismatic. For years many AIBC congregations struggled over this issue: some experienced conflicts and divisions and lost members to other churches, while others were unified and prospered. By and large, the AIBC became identified with the Neo-Pentecostal Movement by the late 1970s.

However, during the 1970s and 1980s, other conflicts emerged that caused serious damage to people and organizations and led to the first real schism within the ranks of the AIBC. Liberation Theology (LT) became a controversial issue in the mid-1970s among Evangelicals in general, and in particular among the faculty and students of the Latin American Biblical Seminary (LABS) in San José, a school founded by the LAM in the 1920s that trained pastors and Christian leaders from many denominations and not just from the AIBC. The pro-LT and anti-LT factions waged verbal warfare against each other, with the result that many individuals were slandered and many Evangelical organizations were divided over this issue, including missionaries of the LAM and of other mission agencies.

By the late-1970s, a number of professors had resigned from the LABS who were opposed to, or not comfortable with, the teaching of LT, which left the majority of the remaining professors united and supportive of LT. At the same time, many denominations in Costa Rica that were opposed to LT, as well as national churches and mission agencies in other countries, stopped sending their leaders to the LABS.

This controversy also affected the AIBC as several of the LABS professors were also pastors in AIBC churches, and the issue of LT was hotly debated within the leadership of the AIBC for several years. Finally, in 1985, a group of five pastors and their churches withdrew from the AIBC and founded a new association of churches: the Costa Rican Federation of Evangelical Churches (FIEC, in Spanish). The FIEC is now affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in the USA, and has also become a member of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI, in Spanish) and the Association of Reformed and Presbyterian Churches in Latin America (AIPRAL, in Spanish). At the end of 1988, FIEC reported nine churches and one mission, with a total of about 400 members. By 1998, there were 12?? churches/missions and about 500?? members affiliated with FIEC.

Meanwhile, in 1983, the AIBC reported 52 churches and 18 missions in Costa Rica, with about 5,700 baptized members; and, in 1989, the total membership was about 6,000 in 70 congregations. By November 1998, there were 115 congregations (107 churches and eight missions) with about 9,850? members.

The Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) began work in Limón in 1937, when a small English-speaking independent congregation was taken under its care. No other work was begun for 13 years. In 1950, Noel de Sousa, a young, bilingual Panamanian missionary arrived to develop the work. The first Spanish-speaking church was organized in San José in 1951, and by 1955 four churches with 281 members were reported. However, Nelson states that "during its first years this group was notorious for its proselytizing activities and an extreme form of Pentecostalism" (1962:224). Noel de Sousa was reportedly arrested some 40 times because of his preaching in public places. This "scandalous behavior" did not enjoy the respect of other evangelical groups, and even fellow Pentecostals protested. This situation led to the formation of a number of splinter groups.

However, with the arrival from Guatemala of the Rev. Jaime Aldama in 1959, this movement took on a more serious character. Under Aldama's leadership, the Church of God became more identified with the evangelical movement in Costa Rica, especially after their participation in the 1960-61 Evangelism-in-Depth campaign. The work expanded to include 14 congregations with 835 members in 1967, with over 2,000 reportedly attending Sunday school. In 1974, the membership totaled 1,235 and by 1978 had increased to 2,100 distributed among 48 organized churches and 17 missions. Between 1967 and 1978, the total membership grew 9.7% per year. The main San José church is located in Barrio Cristo Rey, where the Church of God Bible Institute is also operated.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the Church of God has continued to expand geographically, as well as experiencing an increase in the total number of churches and membership. By 1983, there were 236 churches with about 9,145 members; by 1986, there were 317?? churches and about 12,700 members. By 1990, it is estimated that there were about 18,000 members and about 360 churches.

The largest Protestant denomination in Costa Rica, the Assemblies of God, was established by the Rev. and Mrs. Lawrence Perrault in 1942. By 1944, several missions had been established in San José, Alajuela and Puntarenas. The Assemblies of God workers also experienced some difficulties during these early years, mainly due to the novelty of Pentecostalism in Costa Rica but also due in part to the attitudes and policies of their missionaries. Some of the first national workers were pastors who had served with other Missions, but who were recruited by the Assemblies of God after professing the Pentecostal experience. However, this initial period of non-cordial relationships was soon overcome when Perrault left and Arthur Bauer took his place. The latter demonstrated a friendly and cooperative spirit, which has been true of most of the missionaries who have arrived since Brauer. When the Evangelical Alliance was formed in 1950, the Assemblies of God was a charter member.

In 1945, the Assemblies expanded their work to the town of San Isidro del General, an important market center located on the Pan-American Highway to the south of San José. This led to the development of the work in the large southwestern sector of Costa Rica, an agriculturally rich area that was attracting many colonists, including a group of Italians that settled near San Vito. This region was practically untouched by other Protestant groups, except for the Methodists. Here, the Assemblies found a large field for evangelism and church planting. By 1956, eleven churches had been formed in this region, mainly cared for by new workers that had been trained in the new Bible institute in San José.

During the period 1946 to 1952, very little progress had been made in opening new work by the Assemblies of God in Costa Rica. This was mainly due to a lack of national workers, which kept missionaries tied down to pastoral responsibilities. However, by 1950, a national pastor was appointed to the main church in San José, and two years later the same occurred in Alajuela, which freed missionaries to develop work in new fields. The establishment in 1953 of a Bible institute in San José, under the direction of David Kensinger, led to the development of trained national pastors and provided new workers for church expansion in the southwest region.

Between 1953 and 1980, the Assemblies of God grew to become the largest Pentecostal denomination in Costa Rica, and the second largest Protestant denomination after the Adventists. From 189 baptized believers in 1953, the work grew to 556 members in 1960, and by 1967 a total membership of 846 was reported. Between 1967 and 1978, membership grew 19.2% per year, which was the highest rate of growth among the larger denominations. Membership more than doubled between 1974 and 1978, from 2,128 to 4,492, with 120 congregations in existence by 1978.

Much of this recent growth has been due to concentrated evangelistic efforts since 1970 in the San José area and throughout the Central Valley, which have met with considerable success. Several large new churches, like those in Desamparados and Moravia, have been planted after a year of conducting an extended evangelistic campaign with wide publicity from radio, TV, and newspaper advertisements. Thousands were drawn to the meetings by a strong emphasis on divine healing, and hundreds stayed on to become founding members of the new churches. Special training sessions were held for new converts before the evening evangelistic services, and new leaders were prepared to teach Sunday school classes and to shepherd the new congregations. In 1980 one of San José's largest churches, the Gran Campaña de Desamparados reported over 500 baptized members, and with 800 to 1,000 in attendance. Many new churches and missions have been started by means of these extended evangelistic campaigns throughout Costa Rica, combined with the zeal of young, new pastors from the Bible Institute in Moravia.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the growth of the Assemblies of God in Costa Rica was even more spectacular. By 1983, the total membership was reported to be 11,691 (about 300 congregations); by 1986, it had increased to about 18,000 (about 325 congregations); and by 1990, to about 25,000 (about 360 congregations). In 1999, there were ?? churches and ?? missions, with about 50,000 members. The largest congregation in the nation was reported to be Iglesia Oasis de Esperanza (about 3,500 members) in Moravia, a suburb of San José.

The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel initiated work in Costa Rica in 1953 as an extension of its strong work in Panama, where the Foursquare Church is the largest evangelical group. About 1954, a mission was begun in Puntarenas, and in the later part of 1955 work began in San José. Due to the influx of Panamanian Foursquare members into the banana region of southwestern Costa Rica, a considerable number of Foursquare churches arose in that area. In 1978, nineteen out of a total of 31 Foursquare churches in Costa Rica were located in this region. From 56 members in 1956, the Foursquare work increased to 250 members in 1960. The total membership tripled between 1960 and 1967, with 758 members recorded in 1967. Between 1967 and 1978, an annual growth rate of 14.4% was maintained, with 1,626 members in 1964 and 2,905 in 1978. Of the larger Protestant denominations in Costa Rica, the Foursquare Church has the second highest rate of growth for this period, somewhat below that of the Assemblies of God. A Bible institute is operated at the central church in San José for the training of national pastors and lay workers.

One of the largest of the ten Baptist groups in Costa Rica is the work related to the Southern Baptist Convention. Their first church in Costa Rica was a group that broke away from the Central American Mission in 1943, under the leadership of Aurelio Gutiérrez, who was appointed to the Home Mission Board in 1944. During this early period, the doctrine of Landmarkism was especially strong, which brought ill repute upon the Baptists because they taught that "Baptists, especially Southern Baptists, constitute the only true and legitimate succession of the Apostolic Church" (Nelson 1962:229). Many of the early Baptists in Costa Rica had been "converted" from other evangelical groups. However, dissention soon arose within the new Baptist movement, leading to the formation of a splinter group, known as the National Baptist Church, in 1945.

From 1944 to 1948, Gutiérrez was the only resident missionary of the Southern Baptists, but the Rev. Van Earl Hughes was sent to Costa Rica in late 1947. With his arrival, the former policy of Landmarkism began to change, and relationships improved with other evangelical groups. Although the Baptist Convention did not become affiliated with the Evangelical Alliance when it was formed in 1950, they did cooperate wholeheartedly in the Evangelism-in-Depth campaign in Costa Rica in 1960-61.

The expansion of the Baptist work began in 1944 when missions were begun in Cinco Esquinas, Moravia, Puriscal and Nicoya, and the following year in Limón, Naranjo and Alajuela. The first Annual Convention was held in 1946 with representatives from six churches and missions. By 1949, when the Convention was transferred to the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board, there were three organized churches and six missions, with about 220 members.

The period 1950-60 was marked by the organization of six new churches, the construction of new church buildings, the initiation of a theological seminary and the paternalistic economic policy by the Foreign Board. Funds for the purchase of property and the construction of new temples, as well as pastoral salaries, all came from the Foreign Board, with very little economic participation from the local churches. After the founding of the Baptist Theological Seminary in 1951, new fields were opened by the graduates with the economic support of the Mission. However, the work suffered a setback in 1955 when Gutiérrez led a breakaway movement that became affiliated with the World Baptist Fellowship. By 1960, however, new churches and missions had been added to the work that had grown to 613 members and a Sunday school attendance of 1,278. By 1962, a total of 867 members were reported by all the churches and missions in Costa Rica related to the Baptist Convention.

Beginning in 1957 there was a turnover in missionary personnel, with nine new couples arriving by 1979. Among them were seminary professors, literature workers, general missionaries, urban church developers and pioneer workers. Three new fields were opened by evangelistic missionaries (church planters) in Turrialba, San Ramón and San Isidro. Baptist bookstores were started in San José (1958) and San Ramón (1960). Since 1966, and excellent campground has been developed by the Southern Baptists in San Rafael de Ojo de Agua that is used by many different groups.

Beginning in 1960, the Southern Baptist Mission began a ten-year program aimed at self-support, which created a crisis in missionary-national relationships. During 1963, several pastors resigned in protest, but the churches generally accepted the responsibility of self-support. The Baptist Convention, since 1966, has administered the funds sent through the Foreign Mission Board for church work in Costa Rica and for its various institutions (Baptist Theological Institute, Baptist Camp and bookstores) and programs (social, youth and evangelistic work). By 1973, most of the churches were self-supporting, although many of the pastors were working part-time outside the church. However, lay participation increased, and the churches continued to grow both in number and membership.

Between 1967 and 1978, the Baptist Convention had a 6.7% AAGR, increasing from 1,107 members in 1967 to 1,626 in 1974 and 2,260 members were reported in 1978. By 1978, there were 27 organized churches and 13 missions.

In 1980 (this is the date given by Bieske, page 44; but it appears that the rupture occured in the Annual Convention of 1979; see Nelson, page 290) the Baptist Convention of Costa Rica (BCCR) had a falling out with the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board (SBFMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in the USA, and the former became independent of the latter. The main problem seems to have been a breakdown in relationships between the missionaries (related to the Foreign Mission Board) and the national pastors (related to the national Baptist Convention) over the issue of the autonomy of the local congregations and the use of funds from abroad. Consequently, each organization went it’s separate ways.

After the split, 12 churches remained with the BCCR, while others became independent of both groups, and ?? remained in fellowship with the SBC. For years both associations of churches sought to incorporate the independent Baptist churches into their own ranks. The SBC-related churches and missions continued to receive the support of the SBFMB. After about three years of financial struggles, the BCCR became affiliated with the American Baptist Churches in the USA, which enabled the Baptist Convention to cover part of its budget with funds from abroad and to begin its own Bible institute program with courses at night.

By 1998, the BCCR reported 22 churches and nine missions (total = 31), while the SBFMB-related fellowship of churches, called the National Union of Baptist Churches (NUBC), reported 17 churches and nine missions (total = 26). It could be that the separation between the two sister organizations allowed each one to concentrate more on its own priorities and development unhindered, and that this released the built-up tension and allowed greater freedom and creativity to emerge, thereby producing greater growth in total membership and in the establishment of new congregations than might have been achieved if the split had not occurred. Both organizations appear to have been "revitalized" after the split took place, and to have grown both in quality and quantity.

According to a study done by CAM missionary Sigifredo W. Bieske, the Rose of Sharon Christian Mission was founded in San José in 1976, following an extended evangelistic campaign led by Guatemalan evangelist Gumercindo Melgar. Before leaving Costa Rica, Melgar entrusted José Luis Madrigal, a Costa Rican pastor who had no formal theological training, with the responsibility of providing pastoral care for the small congregation that had been formed as a result of the crusade.

Note: check to see if Madrigal had been a pastor prior to this crusade; was he one of a group of pastors that invited Melgar to Costa Rica to hold the crusade? What responsibilities did Madrigal have during the crusade? Why was Madrigal chosen by Melgar to pastor the new congregation? What was the original name of this congregation, and when did they choose the name that is currently being used?

From this small beginning, Madrigal and his organization began to make quite a name for themselves (positive with some, negative with others) in Costa Rica, not only because of Madrigal’s charisma and style of worship but also due to the rapid growth of the movement. First, Madrigal rented the second floor of a commercial building, located near Plaza González Víquez on the south side of San José, where they began to hold meetings in late 1976 (note: confirm month/year). Within two years (note: confirm month/year), the congregation had increased to more than 300 members and had outgrown the facilities. Consequently, part of the congregation moved to a larger meeting place near the Central Market in the "red-light" district, renting another "upper room" in a building that formerly housed the Canada Dry Company. From these two locations, Madrigal and his followers began to hold evangelistic meetings around the country that resulted in the formation of a series of daughter congregations. By 1983, the Rose of Sharon Christian Mission reported 26 affiliated congregations with about 3,000 adherents (no membership records are kept).

However, in 1982 a conflict developed between Madrigal and Yamil Brenes, the pastor of the Plaza Víquez congregation, which resulted in the movement’s first division. After Brenes was forced to leave Madrigal’s organization, he started a new church in the "red-light" district of San José that became known as Maranatha. In 1987, although the central church in San José had only about 100 members, the Maranatha movement reported approximately 1,000 total adherents in 17 small congregations throughout the country.

Both of these movements are characterized as very authoritarian, with the founder being the dominant leader and prophet who requires absolute obedience and loyalty from his followers. Both Madrigal and Brenes are given to sharing "special revelation" by means of dreams, visions, tongues and prophecy, which enhances their authority and popularity among their followers. The worship services, which often last for two or three hours or more, are characterized by very active and loud participation by members of the congregation in a variety of activities: singing, praying, dancing in the spirit, speaking in tongues, words of prophecy, etc. There is also a strong emphasis on divine healing and the casting out of demons led by church leaders. Consequently, both Rose of Sharon and Maranatha are classified as belonging to the Divine Healing and Liberation Family of Churches within the Pentecostal Movement.

In early 1983, Madrigal began to promote the idea of building a large central church with a seating capacity of about 6,000. At that time the "mother" church of the movement, located in the Central Market district, only had about 800 people in attendance. Madrigal began to raise money to buy a large piece of property (about 4,000 square meters), located across the street from the Kamakari Restaurant in Barrio Tournón (District of San Francisco de Goicoechea) on the north side of San José, for about $100,000. His vision was to build a three-story building on this site consisting of a first floor for church offices and a dining hall for social activities, a large second-floor auditorium (seating 6,000), and a basement to be used as a parking garage. By late 1983, the property had been purchased and construction began on the basement area, but soon the funds ran out and the project came to a halt. However, after the congregation began to meet in the unfinished basement, the attendance continued to grow (about 1,200) and the funds continued to flow, which allowed construction efforts to resume. At the end of 1989, a temporary roof had been built for the first floor, and the congregation had grown to about 2,000 in attendance. When and if this building is completed, this congregation may grow to become the largest in the nation.

By 1990, the Rose of Sharon Christian Mission was an established "denomination," with about 6,000 adherents in about 30 congregations. However, a series of problems arose during the 1990s that resulted in the closing of some of the daughter congregations, with the members of these returning to the mother church, while other daughter congregations became independent of Rosa de Sarón. Some of the dissident groups joined forces to form the Association of Wesleyan Churches (Pentecostal Holiness orientation); at the end of 1998 this new denomination reported ?? Churches and ?? Missions with about ?? members. Meanwhile, the mother church of Misión Cristiana "La Rosa de Sarón" in Barrio Tournón reported an average attendance of about 10,000 in March of 2000.

		NUMBER OF	NUMBER OF
	DENOMINATION	CONG.	MEMBERS
1	ASAMBLEAS DE DIOS	294	46.900
2	IGLESIA ADVENTISTA DEL SETIMO DIA	132	31.350
3	IGLESIA DE DIOS (CLEVELAND, TN)	380	19.000
4	MISION CRISTIANA ROSA DE SARON	5	12.500
5	IGLESIA EVANGELICA CUADRANGULAR	99	9.900
6	ASOCIACION DE IGLESIAS BIBLICAS (AIBC)	134	8.772
7	ASOC. DE IGLS. EVANGS. CENTROAMERICANAS	69	5.925
8	IGLESIA SANTIDAD PENTECOSTAL	76	5.850
9	MOVIMIENTO MISIONERO MUNDIAL	140	5.000
10	IGLESIA METODISTA DE COSTA RICA	50	5.000
11	CONCILIO IGLESIA EVANGELICA NACIONAL	41	4.100
12	IGLESIA DE DIOS PENTECOSTAL	118	4.000
13	IGLESIAS DE CRISTO	38	3.800
14	ASAMBLEA APOSTOLICA DE FE EN CRISTO JESUS	34	3.550
15	IGLESIAS BIBLICAS BAUTISTAS	20	3.442
16	CONF. MENONITA CONSERVADORA	21	3.000
17	ASOCIACION MISIONES TRANSMUNDIALES	17	3.000
18	MISION CARISMATICA INTERNACIONAL	1	3.000
19	IGLESIA DE DIOS DE LA PROFESIA	64	2.500
20	IGLESIA PENTECOSTAL UNIDA	33	2.250
21	IGLESIA DEL NAZARENO	33	2.006
22	COM. MISIONERA PUERTA DE FE	16	1.600
23	UNION NACIONAL DE IGLESIAS BAUTISTAS	22	1.527
24	CONVENCION BAUTISTA DE COSTA RICA	31	1.400
	SUBTOTAL: 24 LISTED ABOVE	1,880	189,372
	SUBTOTAL: OTHERS	390	39,285
	TOTAL	2,270	228,657

	NOTE: SORTED BY NUMBER OF REPORTED MEMBERS

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Buttermere, Clive R., "Iglesias Bautistas de Costa Rica" (San José: por el autor, 1 enero 1998).

FAEC, ¿Dónde está la Iglesia? Un Directorio de las Iglesia Evangélicas Costarricenses (San José: Federación Alianza Evangélica Costarricense, 1995).

Gómez, Jorge I., El Crecimiento y la Deserción en la Iglesia Evangélica Costarrricense (San José: Publicaciones IINDEF, 1996).

Holland, Clifton L., Directorio del Movimiento Protestante en Costa Rica, 1974 (IINDEF, 1974).

PROCADES, Directorio de Iglesias, Organizaciones y Ministerios del Movimiento Protestante: Costa Rica (San José: PROCADES-IINDEF, 1978).

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PROLADES, Directorio de Iglesias, Organizaciones y Ministerios del Movimiento Protestante: Costa Rica (San José: PROLADES-IMDELA, 1991).

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Nelson, Wilton, Historia del Protestantismo en Costa Rica (San José: Publicaciones IINDEF, 1983).