"Azusa Street Revival" (April 14,1906)

Was a historic Pentecostal revival meeting that took place in Los Angeles,California is the orgin of the Pentecostal movement.It was led by William Joseph Seymour an African-American preacher.It began with a meeting on April 14,1906,and continued until roughly 1915.The revival was characterized by ecstatic spiritual experiences accompanied by miracles,dramatic worship services,speaking in tongues,and interracial mingling.The participants were criticized by the secular media and Christian theologians for behaviors considered to be outrageous especially at the time.Today,the revival is considered by historians to be primary catalyst for the spread of Pentecostalism in the 20th century.In 1904,the Welsh Revival took place,during which approximately 100,000 people in Wales joined the movement.Internationally,evangelical Christians took this event to be a sign that a fulfillment of the prophecy in the Bible's book of Joel,chapter 2:23-39 was about to take place.Joseph Smale,pastor of the First Baptist Church in Los Angels,went Whales personally in order to witness the revival.Upon his return to Los Angeles,he attempted to ignite a similar event in his own congregation.His attempts were short-lived,and he eventually left First Baptist Church to found First New Testament Church,where he continued his efforts.During this time,other small-scale revivals were taking place in Minnesota,North Carolina,and Texas.By 1905,reports of speaking in tongues,supernatural heeling's,and significant lifestyle changes accompanied these revivals.As news spread that,evangelicals across the U.S. began to pray for similar revivals in their own congregations.In 1905,William Joseph Seymour,the one-eyed 34 old son of former slaves,who was a student of well-known Pentecostal preacher Charles Parham,and an interim pastor for a small holiness church in Houston,Texas.Nelly Terry,an African-American woman who attended a small holiness church pastored by Julia Hutchins in Los Angeles,made a trip to visit family in Houston late in 1905.While in Houston,she visited William's church,where he preached the baptism of the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in tongues,and through he had not experienced this personally,Terry was impressed with this character and message.Once home in California,Terry suggested that William be invited to speak at the local church.He received the and accepted the invitation in February 1906,and he received financial help and a blessing from Charles for his planned one-month visit.William arrived in Los Angeles on February 22,1906,and within two days was preaching at Julia Hutchins' church at the corner of Ninth Street and Santa Fe Avenue.During his first sermon,he preached that speaking in tongues was the first biblical evidence of the inevitable baptism in the Holy Spirit.On the Following Sunday,March 4,he returned to the church and found that Julia had padlocked the door.Elders of the church rejected William's teaching,primarily because he had not yet experienced the blessing about which he was preaching.Condemnations of the his message also came from the Holiness Church Association of Southern California which the church had affiliation.Not all members of Julia's church rejected William's preaching.He was invited to stay in the home of congregation member Edward S.Lee,and he began to hold Bible Studies and prayer meetings there.William and his small group of new followers soon relocated to the home of Richard and Ruth Asberry at 214 North Bonnie Brae Street.White families from local holiness churches began to attend as well.The group would get together regularly and pray to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.On April 9,1906,after weeks of William's preaching and prayer,and three days into an intended 10-day fast,Edward S.Lee spoke in tongues for the first time.At the next meeting,William shared Edward's testimony and preached a sermon on Acts2:4 and soon six others began to speak in tongues as well,including Jennie Moore,who would later become William's wife.A few days later,on April 12,William spoke in tongues for the first time after praying all night long.News of the event at North Bonnie St.quickly circulated among the African-American,Latino and White residents of the City,and for several nights various speakers would preach to the crowds of curious interested on lookers from the front porch of the Asberry home.Members of the audience include people from a broad spectrum of income levels and religious backgrounds.Julia eventually spoke in tongues as her whole congregation began to attend the meetings.Soon the crowds became very large and were full of people speaking in tongues,shouting,singing and moaning.Finally the front porch collapsed,forcing the group to begin looking for a new meeting place.A resident of the neighborhood described the happenings at 214 North Bonnie Brae with the following words:They shouted three days and three nights.It was Easter season.The people came from everywhere.By the next morning there was no way of getting near the house.As people came in they would fall under god's power,and the whole city was stirred.They shouted until the foundation of the house gave way,no one was was hurt.The group from Bonnie Brae Street eventually discovered an available building at 312 Azusa Street in downtown Los Angeles,which had originally been constructed as an African Methodist Episcopal Church in what was then a black ghetto part of town.The rent was $8.00 per month.Since the church had moved out,the building had served as a wholesale house,a warehouse,lumberyard,stockyard,a tombstone shop,and had most recently been used as a stable with rooms for rent upstairs.It was a small,rectangular,flat-roofed building,approximately 60 feet long and 40 feet wide,totaling 4,800 square feet sided with weathered whitewash clapboards.The only sign that it had once been a house of god was a single Gothic-style window over the main entrance.Discarded lumber and plaster plastered littered the large,barn-like room on the ground floor.Nonetheless,it was secured and cleaned in preparation for services.They held first meeting on April 14,1906.Church services were held on the first floor where the benches were placed in a rectangular pattern.Some of these benches were simply planks put on top of empty nail kegs.There was no elevated platform,as the ceiling was only eight feet high.initially there were no pulpit.Frank Bartleman,and early participant in the revival,recalled "Brother Seymour generally sat behind two empty shoe boxes,one on top of the other.He usually kept his head inside the top one during the meeting,in prayer.There was no pride there....in that old building,with its low rafters and bare floors...The second floor at the now-named Apostolic Faith Mission housed an office and rooms for several residents including William and his new wife Jennie.It also had a large prayer room to handle the over flow from the altar service below.The prayer room was furnished with chairs and benches made from California Redwood planks,laid end to end on backless chairs.By mid-May 1906,from 300 to 1,5000 people would attempt to fit into the building.Since horses had very recently been the residents of the building,flies constantly bothered the attendees.People from a diversity of backgrounds came together to worship:men,women,children, black,white,Hispanic,Asian,rich,poor,illiterate,and educated.People of all ages flocked to Los Angeles with both skepticism and a desire to participate.The intermingling of races,and the group's encouragement of women in leadership was remarkable,as 1906,was the height of the "Jim Crow"era of racial segregation,and fourteen years,prior to women receiving suffrage in the United States.Worship at 312 Azusa Street was frequent and spontaneous with services going almost around the clock.Among those attracted to the revival were not only members of the Holiness Movement,but also Baptist,Mennonites,Quakers,and Presbyterians.