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.jpg) On April 9, 1906, William Seymour and several of his associates received what they referred to as the “Baptism in the Holy Spirit.” This was the beginning of the Azusa Street Revival.
William Seymour was born May 2, 1870, in Centerville, Louisiana, the son of former slaves. He was raised Baptist, but was greatly influenced by the holiness movement.
In 1905, Seymour heard Charles Parham teach on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit in Houston Texas. Parham would not allow Seymour in the classroom because of the “Jim Crow Laws.” So Seymour sat in the hall, heard the Pentecostal doctrine, and embraced it.
Early Meetings in Los Angeles
In February of 1906, Seymour received an invitation to pastor a small Holiness church in Los Angeles. His first sermon in his new church was from Acts 2:4, “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.” When he returned that evening for service, the deacons had padlocked the church to keep him out.
However, a few of the members followed Seymour and began a Bible study in their home at 214 Bonnie Brae Street (now a small museum to honor the beginning of Pentecostalism). On Monday, April 9, several members of the group were baptized in the Holy Spirit. After that, the crowds grew so large they could no longer meet in the home. So Seymour brought the piano onto the porch and continued the meetings outdoors. When the front porch collapsed, they rented an abandoned AME church at 312 Azusa Street. For the next three years, they held meetings three times a day at Azusa, attracting people from all over the world and birthing numerous Pentecostal Denominations.
“The meetings began at 10 am and continued for at least 12 hours, often lasting until two or three the following morning. Seymour rarely preached. There were no hymnals, no liturgy, and no order of services. Most of the time there were no musical instruments. But around the room, men jumped, shouted, danced, and sang.” (Ted Olson, American Pentecost, Christian History 4/98)
The Characteristics of the Meetings
The early meetings were interracial. Their motto was, “The color line is washed away in the blood.” A 1906 Azusa staff photo shows blacks and whites, men and women—all together in leadership. A staff member described one Communion service and foot washing that lasted until daybreak: “Over twenty different nationalities were present, and they were all in perfect accord and unity of the Spirit.” (Frank Bartleman, Azusa Street, p xviii)
“African-Americans, Latinos, whites, and others prayed and sang together, creating a dimension of spiritual unity and equality, almost unprecedented for the time.” (Gary McGee, William Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival, www.ag.org)
The power of God could be felt at Azusa even outside of the building. Scores of people fell to their knees in the streets before they ever reached the mission. By the summer of 1906, crowds had reached staggering numbers, often into the thousands. The scene had become an international gathering. Every day, trains unloaded visitors who came from all over the continent. News accounts of the meetings spread over the nation in both the secular and religious press.
“The 35-year-old Seymour was an unlikely ambassador of the Pentecostal message: he was not a gifted speaker, he lacked in social skills, and he had almost no formal education.” (Ted Olson, American Pentecost, Christian History 4/98)
But God filled him with power and used him to usher in the century of the Holy Spirit. Church historian Vinson Synan has estimated that over 850,000,000 people were baptized in the Holy Spirit in the twentieth century.
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