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...its roots in the Pentecostal revival of the early twentieth century. This revival is generally traced to a prayer meeting at Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas, on January 1, 1901. The revival spread rapidly to Missouri and Texas, then to California and elsewhere. In 1906, a three year revival meeting began at Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles that attracted believers from around the world.

Reports of what was taking place were carried in scores of periodicals and other publications that sprang up with the movement. Spontaneous revivals also began to break out about that time in other parts of the world and on various mission fields. The Pentecostal aspects of the revival were not generally welcomed by the established churches and participants in the movement soon found themselves outside existing religious bodies. They were forced to seek their own places of worship, and soon there were hundreds of distinctly Pentecostal congregations.

By 1914, many ministers and laymen alike in the United States had begun to realize the rapid spread of the revival, and the many evangelistic outreaches it spawned had created a number of practical problems. The need arose for formal recognition of ministers as well as approval and support of missionaries, with full accounting of funds. In addition, there was a growing demand for doctrinal unity, gospel literature, and a permanent Bible training school.

These concerned leaders realized that to protect and preserve the results of the revival the thousands of newly Spirit-baptized believers should be united in a cooperative fellowship. In 1914 about 300 preachers and laymen gathered from 20 states and several foreign countries for a "general council" in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to discuss and take action on the growing need.

The five reasons they listed for calling the meeting were: 1. doctrinal unity, 2. conservation of the work, 3. foreign missions interests, 4. chartering churches under a common name for legal purposes, and 5. the need for a Bible training school.

A cooperative fellowship emerged from the meeting and was incorporated under the name "The General Council of the Assemblies of God." In time, self-governing and self-supporting general councils broke off from the original fellowship or were formed in several nations throughout the world. These councils originated from indigenous Pentecostal movements or as a direct result of the indigenous missions strategy of the General Council.

In 1988, the loose body of cooperative councils joined under the name Assemblies of God Fellowship as result of an iniative by Dr. J. Philip Hogan, then executive director of the Division of Foreign Missions of the General Council of the Assemblies of God of the United States. The initial purpose was to coordenate evangelism, but soon developed into a more permanent organism of inter-relation. Dr. Hogan was elected the first chairman of the Fellowship and served until 1992 when Rev. David Yonggi Cho was elected chairman. In 1993, the name of the Fellowship was changed to the World Assemblies of God Fellowship.