History of the Assemblies of God Movement The Pentecostal Movement is a religious phenomenon that has transformed the face of Christianity since its Twentieth Century advent at Charles Parham's Bible school in Topeka, Kansas (See Figure 1). Parham had instructed his students to carefully study Acts Chapter 2, believing that speaking in tongues was the evidence of Spirit baptism. After careful examination of the Scriptures, Agnes Ozman was baptized with the Holy Ghost speaking in tongues on January 1, 1901. The rediscovery of the Pentecostal experience shortly led to converts and seekers around America. Pentecostalism received its greatest thrust and expression in the Azusa Street revival that ran in Los Angeles from 1906 to 1913. This revival attracted Christians from nearly every denomination and from all over the world. Though Pentecostal adherents met with much opposition, the phenomenon continued to spread as newly-filled saints and preachers returned to their communities and began to hold meetings. Figure 1. Charles Parham's Bible school in Topeka, Kansas. Many early Pentecostals were opposed to ideas of organization. The movement, in the beginning, had no denominational aspirations but intended to work from inside the various existing denominations. However, it became increasingly clear as stalwart opposition to Pentecostalism mounted that it would be necessary to form some organization in order to credential ministers who were being disfellowshipped by their former assemblies. To this end, the Assemblies of God (and other less significant Pentecostal groups) began to organize. The Assemblies of God was chartered in 1913 by the initiative of such Pentecostal pioneers as E.N. Bell, Howard Goss, D.C.O. Opperman, Archibald Collins and Mack Pinson (Burgess & McGee 24). The Azusa Street Revival (1906 - 1913) Figure 2. The Azusa Street Church in Los Angeles, California (Circa 1908). Charles Parham, (from Topeka, Kansas) an itinerant preacher and a former pastor of Methodist churches, formed the Pentecostal teaching that included what was called the "initial evidence," meaning that people who are baptized in the Holy Spirit will speak in tongues; Acts 1:8. Figure 3. Charles Parham. During his itinerant preaching in the Midwest, Parham went to Houston where he set up a short-term Bible School. Although Texas practiced segregation, Parham allowed a young black Holiness preacher named William Seymour (See Figure 4) to sit in the doorway of the meetings so he could hear the Pentecostal teachings. Figure 4. William Seymour. From there, the unknown and humble Seymour, a son of slaves, was invited to Los Angeles to assist a black pastor, Julia Hutchins in her Holiness mission. He assumed the Holiness church could hardly wait to hear his message that speaking in tongues is the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit - though he himself had not yet spoken in tongues. He was wrong. In fact, he soon found himself locked out of the church. But the message burned in his soul. He found an audience in the Edward Lee home where he was staying, and then at Richard and Ruth Asberry's home at 214 North Bonnie Brae Street. There, integrated congregations prayed for revival and they learned of speaking in tongues from Seymour. On April 9, as Seymour was about to leave the Lee home for the Asberry house, Edward Lee engaged him in a conversation about speaking in tongues. Afterward, he and Seymour prayed and Lee received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. That news shot the levels of faith and excitement to new highs over at North Bonnie Brae Street. Soon, several in the Bible study spoke in tongues. Bigger crowds than ever gathered in the Asberry's home. The house, which still stands (See Figure 5), could hardly handle all the people. In fact there were so many on one occasion that the porch caved in. That's when finding a bigger and safer building became necessary. Within a week, a pulpit, an altar, and benches-all makeshift, graced what the Times called the "tumbledown shack." The building at 312 Azusa Street soon had new tenants. Figure 5. Asberry Home. Although the newspapers ridiculed Seymour and called him "an old colored exhorter, blind in one eye" (he was 35 when he arrived in Los Angeles), Seymour rode out the persecution and became the primary leader in the Azusa outpouring. He urged people to lift up Jesus. "Don't go out of here talking about tongues; talk about Jesus," he would say. Joseph Kelly, a missionary to the Philippines was in the U.S. and decided to go to the meetings and "expose the tongues business." When he arrived, one Spirit-filled woman began to speak to him in a language she didn't know. Kelly nearly fell off his chair. She had spoken the language of a hostile Philippine tribe located in the interior of Mindanao where he had ministered. George Studd, who had been a member of the famous English cricket team, the "Cambridge Seven," and the brother of missionary C.T. Studd, was baptized in the Spirit at the Azusa meetings and gave away his inherited fortune to Christian causes. Among those who received the baptism in the Holy Spirit was Charles H. Mason who turned the Church of God in Christ into a Pentecostal blaze. Gaston B. Cashwell returned to the South from Azusa street and saw several Holiness organizations turn Pentecostal, including the Pentecostal Holiness Church, the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church and the Pentecostal Free-Will Baptist Church. Jennie Evans Moore, reportedly the first woman in Los Angeles to speak in tongues, became a minister and evangelist and later the wife of William Seymour Figure 6. Standing L to R unidentified woman, G.W. Evans, Jennie Moore Seymour, Glen Cook, Florence Crawford, unidentified man, Sister Prince. Seated, May Evans, Hiram W. Smith, unidentified child, William J. Seymour, and Clara Lum Azusa street was a revival of major proportions. Thousands came to Christ. Segregationists saw that "the color line was washed away by the Blood," as writer Bartleman said. He promoted the revival by sending out up to 500 news reports about it to publications all over the world. What happened at Azusa Street has fascinated church historians for decades and has yet to be fully understood and explained. For over three years, the Azusa Street "Apostolic Faith mission" conducted three services a day, seven days a week, where thousands of seekers received the tongues baptism. Word of the revival was spread abroad through The Apostolic Faith, a paper that Seymour sent free of charge to some 50,000 subscribers. From Azusa Street Pentecostalism spread rapidly around the world and began its advance toward becoming a major force in Christendom. The Azusa Street movement seems to have been a merger of White American Holiness religion with worship styles derived from the African-American Christian tradition which had developed since the days of chattel slavery in the South. The expressive worship and praise at Azusa Street, which included shouting and dancing, had been common among Appalachian Whites as well as Southern Blacks. The mixture of tongues and other gifts with Black music and worship styles created a new and indigenous form of Pentecostalism that was to prove extremely attractive to disinherited and deprived people, both in America and other nations of the world. The interracial aspects of the movement in Los Angeles was a striking exception to the racism and segregation of the times. The phenomenon of Blacks and Whites worshipping together under a Black pastor seemed incredible to many observers. The ethos of the meeting was captured by Frank Bartleman, a White Azusa participant, when he said of Azusa Street, "The color line was washed away in the Blood." Indeed, people from all the ethnic minorities of Los Angeles, a city which Bartleman called "the American Jerusalem," were represented at Azusa Street. Another Azusa Pilgrim was William H. Durham of Chicago. After receiving his tongues experience at Azusa Street in 1907 he returned to Chicago where he led thousands of mid-western Americans and Canadians into the Pentecostal movement. He had traveled halfway across the country by train to see the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Los Angeles. Figure 7 William Durham. Had Durham read and believed reports in the Los Angeles Daily Times, he would have stayed in Chicago. Scorn and ridicule dripped from the Times reports which told of a "new sect of fanatics breaking loose" in what the reporter called a "tumbledown shack" in the industrial area at 312 Azusa Street. Turning off San Pedro Street onto the short block of Azusa Street, Durham soon stood before an old, two-story building that had once been an African Methodist Episcopal church and later a stable. "As soon as I entered the place I saw that God was there," Durham wrote. Hundreds of people were there yet, he noted that it appeared nobody was in charge, "The Holy Ghost seemed to have perfect control. My soul melted before the Lord," he later said. Figure 8. 312 Azusa Street, Los Angeles, CA. Durham's "finished work" theology of gradual progressive sanctification, which he announced in 1910, led to the formation of the Assemblies of God in 1914. Since many white pastors had formerly been part of Mason's church, the beginnings of the Assemblies of God was also partially a racial separation. In time the Assemblies of God church was destined to become the largest Pentecostal denominational church in the world, claiming by 1993 over 2,000,000 members in the U.S. and some 25,000,000 adherents in 150 nations of the world. The good news is, the fires that burned at Azusa Street from 1906 to 1909, are still burning. Assemblies of God Early History The Winds of Revival The Assemblies of God was birthed in the fires of revival that swept the world at the turn of this century. Participants in the revival were filled with the Holy Spirit in similar fashion to the disciples and followers of Jesus on the Jewish Feast of Pentecost. So participants in this revival were called "Pentecostal" Like those in the upper room, the followers of the 20th century revival spoke in tongues as they received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Other supernatural manifestations such as prophecy, interpretations, spiritual conversions, and healings also took place (Acts2). With the exception of scattered reports around the world in intervening centuries, the resurgence of the Holy Spirit's outpouring is generally traced to Topeka, Kansas, in January 1901. Soon the winds of the Holy Spirit carried the revival south and into the western regions of North America. Houston and Los Angeles became other sites for the revival in following years which eventually birthed the Assemblies of God in 1914. Rejection and Isolation Participants in the revival were not welcomed back into their former churches. As a result many broke from their denominations, forming new and smaller churches throughout the country. Distance and limited communication left these new Pentecostal churches feeling isolated. To counter this sense of singularity, numerous publications appeared telling of the revival. A Call Goes Out In 1913 a Pentecostal publication, the Word and Witness, called for the independent churches to band together for the purposes of fellowship and doctrinal unity. Other concerns for facilitating missionaries, chartering churches, and forming a Bible training school were also on the agenda. Meeting Births Fellowship The first meeting was held in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in April 1914. It brought together some 300 church leaders, opening with 3 days of prayer and preaching before business was discussed. Apprehensive about creating another denomination, those attending agreed to form a loosely knit fellowship of independent churches. So began the General Council of the Assemblies of God. Back