In a modest, weathered building on Azusa Street in downtown Los Angeles, a religious movement began in 1906 that would fundamentally transform Christianity around the world.
The Azusa Street Revival, led by African American preacher William J. Seymour, became the catalyst for modern Pentecostalism—a movement that today claims over 600 million adherents globally and represents one of the fastest-growing segments of Christianity.
The Man Behind the Movement
William Joseph Seymour was born in 1870 in Centerville, Louisiana, to parents who had been enslaved.
Despite losing sight in his left eye to smallpox and facing the rigid constraints of Jim Crow segregation, Seymour pursued his calling to ministry with unwavering determination.
His spiritual journey took him through various denominations before he encountered the Holiness movement, which emphasized sanctification and a deeper experience of God’s power.
In 1905, Seymour traveled to Houston, Texas, where he studied under Charles Fox Parham, a white minister who taught that speaking in tongues was the biblical evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Due to segregation laws, Seymour was forced to listen to Parham’s lectures from the hallway, separated from white students.
Despite this indignity, he absorbed the theological framework that would shape his ministry, though he had not yet personally experienced speaking in tongues.
The Invitation to Los Angeles
In early 1906, Seymour received an invitation from a small Holiness church in Los Angeles to serve as their pastor.
When he arrived and preached his first sermon on the baptism of the Holy Spirit with tongues as evidence, the congregation was scandalized—particularly because Seymour himself had not experienced this manifestation.
He was locked out of the church after that single sermon.
Undeterred, Seymour began holding prayer meetings in the home of Richard and Ruth Asberry on Bonnie Brae Street.
For several weeks, a small group gathered for intense prayer and Bible study. On April 9, 1906, several people at the meeting began speaking in tongues, followed by Seymour himself three days later.
The gatherings quickly outgrew the house as word spread throughout Los Angeles about these unusual spiritual manifestations.
312 Azusa Street
The growing crowds necessitated a larger space, and the group moved to a former African Methodist Episcopal church building at 312 Azusa Street.
The structure was unremarkable—a two-story wooden building that had previously served as a stable and warehouse.
The main meeting room was bare, with rough wooden planks for seats and sawdust covering the floor.
Two wooden crates stacked together served as Seymour’s pulpit. By worldly standards, it was an unlikely birthplace for a global movement.
The first meeting at Azusa Street took place on April 14, 1906, and the revival would continue with services held three times daily for the next three years.
What made these gatherings extraordinary was not the building but the spiritual intensity and radical inclusivity that characterized every service.
At a time when American society was deeply segregated, the Azusa Street Mission welcomed all people regardless of race, gender, or social status.
African Americans, whites, Latinos, and Asians worshiped together in a remarkable demonstration of what participants understood as the authentic spirit of Pentecost described in the Book of Acts.
The Revival Experience
Eyewitness accounts describe scenes that seemed chaotic to outside observers but felt divinely orchestrated to participants.
People fell to the floor under the power of the Spirit, spoke in unknown languages, prophesied, experienced physical healings, and worshiped with uninhibited joy.
Services had no fixed schedule or program—Seymour would often sit behind his makeshift pulpit with his head inside the top crate, praying, while the Spirit was believed to direct the meeting through various participants.
The emphasis was on direct, personal encounter with God rather than formal liturgy or professional presentation.
Anyone, regardless of education, status, or gender, could share a testimony, lead in prayer, or speak as they felt moved by the Holy Spirit.
Women preached and led worship alongside men, a radical departure from most Christian practice of the era.
The services attracted curiosity seekers, skeptics, journalists, and hungry seekers from around the world.
News of the revival spread rapidly through word of mouth and through The Apostolic Faith, a newspaper published by the mission.
The timing coincided with the devastating San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906, which some interpreted as a sign of the apocalyptic times the revival seemed to herald.
People traveled from across the United States and internationally to witness and participate in what was happening at Azusa Street.
Theological Foundations
The theological distinctives that emerged from Azusa Street would define Pentecostalism for generations.
Central was the doctrine of baptism in the Holy Spirit as a distinct experience from salvation, evidenced by speaking in tongues.
Pentecostals taught that all the spiritual gifts described in the New Testament—prophecy, healing, miracles, tongues, and interpretation of tongues—were available to believers today.
This emphasis on experiential religion, on the immediate and tangible manifestation of God’s power, appealed to people who felt mainline denominations had become cold and formal.
The movement stressed holy living, divine healing as an expression of faith, and an urgent expectation of Christ’s imminent return.
Participants understood themselves as part of the “latter rain” of the Spirit, preparing the world for the end times through a great spiritual awakening.
Spreading the Fire
Visitors to Azusa Street carried the Pentecostal message around the globe.
Missionaries departed for Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America, establishing churches and Bible schools that would propagate Pentecostal theology.
Within a few years, Pentecostal movements had taken root on every inhabited continent.
The revival began to wane after 1909. Internal conflicts arose over leadership, doctrine, and the handling of finances.
Seymour’s marriage to Jennie Evans Moore, one of the revival’s worship leaders, caused tension with some supporters.
The interracial harmony that had characterized the early revival began to fracture as some white leaders broke away to form their own organizations, often excluding African Americans from leadership roles.
William Durham, a white minister from Chicago, challenged some of Seymour’s theological positions and eventually started his own meetings in Los Angeles, drawing away many followers.
By 1913, the intensity of the revival had significantly diminished, and Seymour led a much smaller congregation until his death in 1922.
He died in relative obscurity, with little recognition of the global movement he had birthed.
Legacy and Impact
Despite its modest beginning and relatively brief duration, the Azusa Street Revival’s impact on global Christianity cannot be overstated.
It gave birth to numerous Pentecostal denominations including the Assemblies of God, the Church of God in Christ, the Pentecostal Holiness Church, the United Pentecostal Church International, and countless independent Pentecostal churches.
The Charismatic Renewal movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which brought Pentecostal experiences into mainline Protestant and Catholic churches, traced its spiritual lineage back to Azusa Street.
Today, Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity represents the fastest-growing segment of global Christianity, particularly in the Global South.
From Korea to Brazil, from Nigeria to the Philippines, churches emphasizing the baptism of the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, and experiential worship reflect the theological DNA implanted at Azusa Street.
The revival also challenged social barriers in ways that prefigured the civil rights movement.
The sight of Black and white believers worshiping together as equals, women exercising spiritual authority, and the poor being treated with dignity offered a prophetic witness against the prevailing social order.
While the movement would later struggle with racial division and the marginalization of women in leadership, its founding vision remained a powerful testimony.
The humble building on Azusa Street no longer stands, but its legacy endures in hundreds of millions of believers worldwide who trace their spiritual heritage to those remarkable meetings that began in April 1906.
What started in a converted stable with an African American preacher who had been denied even a seat in a classroom became a movement that reshaped global Christianity, demonstrating that God’s power is not constrained by human limitations or social conventions.
