A Smaller, Bigger World (1905–1917)

The introduction of new printing, steamship, rail, and telegraph technologies to China increased global awareness and supported universalistic thinking. These new technologies facilitated both the spread of charismatic ideas and organizational processes to protect and propagate these ideas. The international Pentecostal movement in the early twentieth century arose not only from the inherent popularity of charismatic practices and theologies but also from new logistical capabilities in popularizing these practices worldwide, such as mass mechanized printing, telegraph and rail lines, and transpacific steamship travel. This global openness that began with the great transnational missionary organizations of the nineteenth century became more accessible to ordinary people by the first decades of the twentieth century, allowing the Norwegian American Pentecostal missionary Bernt Berntsen to influence the religious worldview of Wei Enbo, who later founded the True Jesus Church.