Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 2: Pentecostalism revival arrival

Pentecostalism has roots prior to April 14, 1906, but it owes much of its worldwide reach to the revival that started that day at the Azusa Street mission founded by William J. Seymour. His church had been meeting elsewhere priot to that day, but after the group started speaking in tongues (and after the growing crowds caused the porch of their previous meeting space to collapse), Seymour moved to a new building on Azusa Street.

Worship services there were frequent, and pulled in hundreds. The crowd was notable for it racial and gender balance, which did not always sit well with others (notably Charles Parham, another of the founding figures of the Pentecostal movement). This would change, as segregated congregations would become the norm until the 1960s.

While the revival would wane after a few years, Seymour would preach at what became to be called the Apastolic Faith Mission for the rest of his life. Other preachers, who left Azusa Street to found their own churches, would grow Pentecostalism to the worldwide faith it is today. This timeline gives a good idea of where the Azusa Street revival fits in the history of the movement.