The Assembleias de Deus began when Daniel Berg and Gunnar Vingren, two Swedish Pentecostal missionaries departed to Brazil.Initially the Assembleia de Deus was closely linked to the Scandinavian Pentecostal movement, led by Lewi Pethrus, who financed and sent missionaries to help Berg and Vingren.There also are Assembleias de Deus among Brazilian immigrant communities in North America, Japan, and Western Europe, but they do not typically have a relationship with local World Assemblies of God Fellowship-affiliated national denominations.Among the major ministérios are the Assembly of God Bethlehem Ministry, which has about 2,200 churches concentrated in the south-central[clarification needed] and headquartered in the Belenzinho neighborhood of São Paulo.Since it is not a unified movement, there are many variations in doctrine and practice in the Assembleias de Deus in Brazil, but they share beliefs in the Bible as the sole source of doctrine, the vicarious death of Christ, the baptism of adults by immersion in water, Holy Communion with no wine (grape juice is used, instead), an obligation to tithe,[5] the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the premillennial return of Jesus.
Percentage of the population attending Assembleias de Deus-affiliated churches by state in Brazil