THE HISTORY OF THE MODERN DAY HOLINESS PENTECOSTAL CHURCH MOVEMENT
The Pentecostal Movement’s Leadership
The Pentecostal movement had two major figures. The first, Charles Parham, can be seen somewhat as the father of Pentecostalism. Parham was the founder of the Apostolic Faith Movement. He had been brought up in Holiness and Methodist churches. He became a prominent preacher and evangelist. He began instructing students in a school of ministry that he conducted in Kansas and Texas. At the turn of the twentieth century, he was teaching his students that they needed to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire. He taught that this should be expected of all those who converted to Christianity. He proclaimed a message of holiness and sanctification. Parham was marked for greatness as a young child. In his own words, he says, “The earliest recollection I have of a call to the ministry was when about nine years of age, and though unconverted, I realized as certainly as did Samuel that God had laid His hand on me, and for many years endured
the feeling of Paul, ‘Woe is me, if I preach not the gospel.’”12 He spent his life doing the work of ministry and pioneering in Christian movements. He is significant to the Pentecostal movement because he lit the match that started it all. He had the first documented cases of people being filled with the Spirit and speaking in other tongues in that time period. In addition, he taught William J. Seymour about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, prayer, revival, and the gifts of the Spirit. William J. Seymour is the second major figure in the Pentecostal movement. As I mentioned earlier, he started the Azusa Street revival, the birthplace and epicenter of the movement. This took Pentecostalism throughout America and beyond. The information on Seymour’s life is spotty due to the time period and the fact that he was African American. Not many records were kept for African Americans because they weren’t treated as equals. The Encyclopedia of American Religious History does provide some information for us.13 He was born in Centerville, Louisiana, on May 2, 1870, as the son of freed slaves.
He received no formal education, and he worked as a waiter in Indianapolis for a time. In 1900 Seymour moved to Ohio, where he encountered and became part of the Holiness movement. He had an experience of sanctification there. These encounters in his formative salvation years were preparing him to be a catalyst in the Pentecostal movement. Later, Seymour settled in Houston, Texas, where he met Charles Parham and attended his Bible Institute. These two men are integral to the Pentecostal movement because they sacrificed their lives carrying out the Gospel mission. They served the people whom they were assigned to minister to. They trained up disciples, and more importantly, they taught the importance of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This was all done during a time period where not many in the Western world were filled with the Spirit. Seymour and Parham also ushered in the movement of the gifts of the Spirit. People began to have supernatural, spontaneous encounters with God. These men taught that every believer should seek a Holy Spirit baptism after salvation.
This was new and not the current doctrine. These two men were met with enormous challenges. In particular, Seymour was an African American pastor during a time where the nation was dealing with the aftermath of slavery. Society was entrenched in racism and segregation; however, Seymour rose to the occasion and led a movement that would affect America and the world. White and black attendees alike would gather in his church on Azusa Street to hear the Word of God and be part of the massive revival. This was groundbreaking in its day. The courage, tenacity, and grit of these two leaders can be measured in the impact of Pentecostalism that is still just as relevant today. At the beginning of the Pentecostal movement in the early 1900s, the Spirit would fall on people and they would be thrown to the floor. Many in that period described it as being overcome by a force where they could only move portions of their body. It was strange and glorious for the churchgoers church goers who had this unusual experience.
For some, it would be accompanied by what outsiders described as babbling, or what we know as speaking in tongues. The core theological beliefs of the Pentecostal movements can be found in the accounts of Acts 2. In his book Thinking in the Spirit, Douglas Jacobsen wrote, “Within early Pentecostalism, theology and experience went hand in hand.
There is no doubt that experience was a crucial dimension of the early Pentecostal movement, but it was experience guided by theological truth that really mattered.”14 Most of the theological foundation of Pentecostalism came from the Holiness movement that preceded it. This included the doctrine of justification, sanctification, and righteous living.
The Holiness movement put major emphasis on living purely and set apart from the world. Its roots were founded in methodism and Quakerism. Early Pentecostalism had these same values, but put major emphasis on feelings or experiences with God. This caused much debating among Pentecostals about how to describe their faith.
Theological debate became the norm early on in the movement.15 The most notable example of Pentecostal theology comes from Charles Parham and his Bible college in Kansas. Based on his reading of the Bible, Charles came to the conclusion that whenever the baptism of the Holy Spirit was authentically received, it would always result in speaking in tongues. Even though at the time that Charles came to this conclusion in 1900, he had not yet received the baptism of the Spirit, Jacobsen notes that “Parham made this theological doctrine a centerpiece of the curriculum at his school, and he encouraged his students to seek linguistic confirmation of the Spirit’s baptism as promised by the biblical text.
His students took up the challenge, and soon their hopes were fulfilled.”16 The core of Pentecostal theology focuses on Acts chapter 2. Of course, this is the story of the outpouring of the Spirit. This foundation is important to understand, because from it flows the rest of Pentecostal theology. From that outpouring or baptism of the
Spirit comes the gifts of the Spirit.
These encompass gifts of prophecy, words of knowledge, healing and the working of miracles. There were many who claimed to be healed and claimed to have experienced miraculous occurrences from the Pentecostal movement. Furthermore, the Azusa Street revival became the hub of the Pentecostal movement in America and globally. It quickly erupted, bringing about a new phase of Pentecostal history and theology. The revival spread through reporters and attendees who traveled from hundreds or thousands of miles away to experience it.
One of the main ways we are able to understand the theological beliefs of the Azusa Street revival is through their mission’s semi-monthly newspaper called The Apostolic Faith. Clara Lum was one of the leaders of the revival who kept the paper up and running. Jacobsen tells us, “Without that publication, the work of the mission would have been much less well known.”17 William Seymour wanted to be the instructor or teacher of the whole Pentecostal movement.
During the years of 1906 to 1908, he extended his teaching mission in large part due to The Apostolic Faith newspaper. This paper was mailed out to supporters across the nation and literally around the world. It provided monthly updates of what was happening in the revival, as well as special teaching on the baptism of the Spirit and more.
Pentecostalism brought massive change to the Church. Because of the movement, the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues became widely accepted in America and even around the world. In the year 1900, there were at most a handful of Christians who were experiencing this phenomenon, as well as gifts of the Spirit similar to those in the book of Acts. By the turn of the next century, over 600 million Christians identified themselves as Pentecostal or charismatic.18 That’s nearly a quarter of the Christian population. This speaks to the legacy and impact of the Pentecostal movement on the Church at large in the early twentieth century.
Furthermore, Pentecostalism affected society and culture. At the time of the Pentecostal movement in the early 1900s, there was still much dissension between races. Black people weren’t seen as equal with White people. They weren’t allowed to eat in the same restaurants or sometimes even patronize the same businesses. Black people were made to use separate entrances and were second-class in the eyes of many. In spite of all of this, one of the main leaders of Pentecostalism was a Black man. Although the movement didn’t eliminate racism, it did push things in the right direction.
It was the first of its kind to have large gatherings of Blacks and Whites in the same building for regular worship gatherings. This pushed the boundaries on colorism and broke societal norms. The Pentecostal movement and later evangelicalism are credited with furthering civil rights in America.
The Azusa Street revival and movement was phenomenal. But that was nothing in comparison to what we are going to experience. We are charting a new course in history. The story is still being written about how God will use you. He may use you to bring social change to some of the issues that are ailing our communities. He may use you to bring clarity and solutions to political challenges that seem immovable. He may use you to bring solutions and answers to the medical industry. He may use you to shift the governmental arena, or arts and entertainment.
The next move of God will impact all spheres, systems, and sectors of the world. It’s important that you remove any barrier or limitation on how the Lord may want to show up in and through your life. It doesn’t take a whole lot for a move of the Holy Spirit to start. If the Pentecostal movement through Azusa Street could be started by someone who was marginalized, with no social status, no massive wealth, and no extraordinary human ability, then how much more could God cause you to start a move of the Spirit in your neighborhood, city, or community?
Giles, Joshua. Mantled for Greatness: Your Prophetic Guide to Releasing a God-Sized Dream (p. 172). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.