People of Praise
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| Abbreviation | POP |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1971 |
| Type | Ecumenical Christian organization |
| Headquarters | South Bend, Indiana |
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Membership
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about 3,000 |
| Website | www |
People of Praise is an independent Christian interdenomenationalcharismatic "covenant community" with no ecclesial affiliation. It presently consists of 21 branches in the United States of America, Canada, and the Caribbean, with a total of approximately 3,000 men, women, and children.
The People of Praise was formed in 1971 in South Bend, Indiana, by Dr. Paul DeCelles, Kevin Ranaghan and 27 others who wanted to build an "ecumenical", charismatic community of men and women.
The impetus for this new way of community living came from several sources. These include in particular the Charismatic Renewal, the Cursillo movement and the growing interest in basic ecclesial communities. Openness to members of many different expressions of Christianity is essential to its vision of its role in promoting ecumenism. The enthusiasm which inspired its members at its inception can be largely attributed to the Charismatic Renewal. The Cursillo movement provided a way of giving structure and cohesion to a common life together and contributed to the development of an implicit theology of common Christian living. Thinkers such as Stephen B. Clark contributed greatly to its way of conceiving Christian community, particularly through his books Building Christian Communities: Strategy for Renewing the Church. The idea, common to many covenant communities, was to establish a community of believers which would resemble as closely as possible Saint Luke's description of common life found in Acts 2:42-47.
The immediate locus for the inspiration was in the experience of the Charismatic Renewal or Pentecostal movement, particularly the charismatic renewal in the Catholic Church. This renewal centers on conversion to Christ and a “baptism in the Holy Spirit,” which, in the predominant Catholic view, involves prayer to release all the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit given in Baptism and Confirmation, but which needs to be actualized in the life of the believer. These gifts include prophecy, Glossolalia or speaking in tongues, and healing at first exercised primarily in weekly prayer meetings.
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