BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: According to the National Council of Churches Yearbook, the ranking of major Christian groups in the U.S. goes Roman Catholic, by far the largest; then Southern Baptist and United Methodist; and the fourth largest is the Church of God in Christ, a Pentecostal denomination perhaps unfamiliar to many Americans.

Today, a look at what may be the fastest-growing denomination in the country.

The 11 a.m. Sunday service at the Temple of Deliverance Church of God in Christ in Memphis, Tennessee -- it has 6,000 active members, almost all of them African-American. There's a 30-piece orchestra and a 100-voice choir.

CHOIR (sings): Forever, you're my king.

MAN #1 (sings): You're my king.

ABERNETHY: Also, dramatic preaching and high-volume, high-energy spiritual experience.

The Church of God in Christ teaches classic Christian doctrine, the Bible is God's word. But COGIC members also put special emphasis on the power of the Holy Spirit, of which the surest sign -- many say -- is speaking in tongues.

Michael Scruggs is 23 years old, a college graduate.

MICHAEL SCRUGGS (Temple of Deliverance): Oh, it feels good. It gives you so much joy. A celestial connection with you and God.

ABERNETHY (to Mr. Scruggs): Does that happen to you often?

Mr. SCRUGGS: Oh yes, it happens to me all the time. I love it. I don't mind. I could be in the grocery store. I don't mind. Wherever the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, and I have the liberty and the freedom of the Holy Ghost and I just can love it.

ABERNETHY (to Mr. Scruggs): Is it something that you can imitate?

Mr. SCRUGGS: Oh no. The Holy Ghost is something that you cannot imitate. You can't imitate at all.

ABERNETHY: The pastor of the Temple of Deliverance and the Presiding Bishop of the full Church of God in Christ is Bishop G. E. Patterson. He recalled the Bible account of what happened to Jesus' disciples, 50 days after Easter.

Bishop G. E. PATTERSON (Church of God in Christ): On the day of Pentecost, they all gathered in one place and while they were praising God, they begin to speak in other tongues.

So when one receives the gift of the Holy Spirit, something happens down on the inside and [as] Jesus said, ³From out of your belly, comes from down within.² You are opening your mouth to express praise to God in the language that you know. But instead, another language comes out.

ABERNETHY: The Church of God in Christ is an American-born denomination that grew out of the Deep South in the late 1800s and then was inspired by a famous revival in Los Angeles in 1906.

The site was a former stable on Azusa Street, where many people spoke in tongues, giving birth to what became known as the Pentecostal Movement. One of those who spoke was a visiting pastor from Mississippi -- Charles Mason, the founder of COGIC, who took his experience back with him to his church in Lexington, Mississippi, which is still growing strong.

COGIC celebrates baptism as a symbol of having been converted, born again. It also teaches that what it calls another kind of baptism -- by the Holy Spirit -- brings gifts such as healing and prophecy.

Many COGIC members are so exuberant in their praise because, they say, God has rescued them.

TEMPEST WILLIAMS (St. Paul's Church of God in Christ): When you think about all the things that God has done for you and when I look back on my life, I think about all the things that he has done for me and what he brought me from, because I didn't grow up in the church. I come from the streets. I come drinking, smoking included. I didn't know anything about the Church of God in Christ at all.

And so when I think about how he delivered me, set me free, changed my attitude, my outlook, and my uplook, I'm grateful.

ABERNETHY: Historians speak of a COGIC tradition called holiness.

Elder NORVILLE VAN WOFFOLK (Church of God in Christ Historian): No card playing, absolutely no drinking, and no public dancing. We dance in church.

ABERNETHY: Holiness becomes possible, says COGIC doctrine, because of sanctification --receiving the power to choose not to sin.

Professor DAVID DANIELS (McCormick Theological Seminary): People would teach, you can speak in tongues all day long, but if you're not living a holy life, it's nothing.