May 3 – Azusa Street
In the early 1900s, a black preacher from Houston went to Los Angeles to preach. His congregation met in homes and were filled with the Spirit. They had to move into different locations because neighbors became worried about the strange occurrences happening during their services. Soon, they found a broken down building that had started as a church, but after several businesses and most recently horse stables had occupied the building, it wasn’t worth a lot. The members cleaned it up and began to worship there in 1906.
The Los Angeles Times wrote of how the members would ‘work themselves into a state of mad excitement in their particular zeal.’ They were ‘breathing strange utterances and mouthing a creed which it would seem no sane mortal could understand.’
William J. Seymour was a holiness preacher and was calling the believers worshiping with him to go a couple of extra steps. They needed to be sanctified and then baptized in the Holy Spirit which would be proven by their speaking in tongues.
All of the negative publicity and the work of the Holy Spirit caused great numbers of people to head for Azusa Street. It seemed as if the Spirit had finally lit into the United States, filling it with tongues of fire and the central point was a little, broken down building in Los Angeles. From 1906 to 1915, this place was on fire, just like the explosion on Pentecost in Acts 2.
The Pentecostal movement had begun and Azusa Street was the focus. People from all over the world visited and took back whatever they could to their home churches. However, since there was intentionally no structure to the movement, many different leaders would gather followers and then argued with each other over small points of doctrine. Many others managed to establish their small denominations that still exist today.
As diversity grew, leaders attempted to bring them together, to bring regulation (there were many different accusations aimed at leadership of these offshoot churches – financial and sexual misconduct) and cohesion to doctrinal issues. The Church of God in Christ came into existence in 1913, but in April 1914, leaders gathered in Hot Springs Arkansas to bring unity, stability and to charter the movement. They established a missions program and a Bible school. The Assemblies of God was chartered and has become the fastest growing denomination in the United States with its emphasis on missions and evangelism.
In the early 1900s, a black preacher from Houston went to Los Angeles to preach. His congregation met in homes and were filled with the Spirit. They had to move into different locations because neighbors became worried about the strange occurrences happening during their services. Soon, they found a broken down building that had started as a church, but after several businesses and most recently horse stables had occupied the building, it wasn’t worth a lot. The members cleaned it up and began to worship there in 1906.
The Los Angeles Times wrote of how the members would ‘work themselves into a state of mad excitement in their particular zeal.’ They were ‘breathing strange utterances and mouthing a creed which it would seem no sane mortal could understand.’
William J. Seymour was a holiness preacher and was calling the believers worshiping with him to go a couple of extra steps. They needed to be sanctified and then baptized in the Holy Spirit which would be proven by their speaking in tongues.
All of the negative publicity and the work of the Holy Spirit caused great numbers of people to head for Azusa Street. It seemed as if the Spirit had finally lit into the United States, filling it with tongues of fire and the central point was a little, broken down building in Los Angeles. From 1906 to 1915, this place was on fire, just like the explosion on Pentecost in Acts 2.
The Pentecostal movement had begun and Azusa Street was the focus. People from all over the world visited and took back whatever they could to their home churches. However, since there was intentionally no structure to the movement, many different leaders would gather followers and then argued with each other over small points of doctrine. Many others managed to establish their small denominations that still exist today.
As diversity grew, leaders attempted to bring them together, to bring regulation (there were many different accusations aimed at leadership of these offshoot churches – financial and sexual misconduct) and cohesion to doctrinal issues. The Church of God in Christ came into existence in 1913, but in April 1914, leaders gathered in Hot Springs Arkansas to bring unity, stability and to charter the movement. They established a missions program and a Bible school. The Assemblies of God was chartered and has become the fastest growing denomination in the United States with its emphasis on missions and evangelism.
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