A passionate believer of racial integration, William Seymour led the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles in 1906, credited for launching the American Pentecostal Movement and several denominations. In this biography, Borlase captures his intriguing story.
In 1906, William J. Seymour (1870–1922) preached Pentecostal revival at the Azusa Street mission in Los Angeles. From these and other humble origins the movement has blossomed to 631 million people around the world. Gastón Espinosa provides new insight into the life and ministry of Seymour, the Azusa Street revival, and Seymour's influence on global Pentecostal origins. After defining key terms and concepts, he surveys the changing interpretations of Seymour over the past 100 years, critically engages them in a biography, and then provides an unparalleled collection of primary sources, all in a single volume. He pays particular attention to race relations, Seymour's paradigmatic global influence from 1906 to 1912, and the break between Seymour and Charles Parham, another founder of Pentecostalism. Espinosa's fragmentation thesis argues that the Pentecostal propensity to invoke direct unmediated experiences with the Holy Spirit empowers ordinary people to break the bottle of denominationalism and to rapidly indigenize and spread their message. The 104 primary sources include all of Seymour's extant writings in full and without alteration and some of Parham's theological, social, and racial writings, which help explain why the two parted company. To capture the revival's diversity and global influence, this book includes Black, Latino, Swedish, and Irish testimonies, along with those of missionaries and leaders who spread Seymour's vision of Pentecostalism globally.
Serving as the “catalyst” of the Pentecostal movement in the twentieth century, William J. Seymour turned a tiny former horse stable in Los Angeles into an international center of revival. Baptism of the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in tongues, was a major part of the meetings held there, and Seymour led the first organized movement that promoted this experience. At Azusa, blacks, whites, Hispanics, and Europeans all met and worshiped together, crossing formerly impossible cultural lines. “There is no Jew or Gentile, bond or free, in the Azusa Mission,” Seymour said. “No instrument that God can use is rejected on account of color or dress or lack of education. This is why God has built up the work.” Compiled by Roberts Liardon, author of the bestselling God’s Generals series, The Great Azusa Street Revival features historic accounts, eyewitness testimonies to the power of God, and photos capturing the multicultural, worldwide appeal of Seymour and his ministry. Included are many of Seymour’s stirring sermons and writings, which are still relevant to believers today. Although the revival was short-lived, it produced and exploded the Pentecostal movement around the world. Today, many denominations attribute their founding to the participants of the Azusa Street church, and countless others are linked to this revival.
He is the meekest man I ever met. He walks and talks with God. His power is in his weakness. He seems to maintain a helpless dependence on God and is simple-hearted as a little child, and at the same time is so filled with God that you feel the love and power every time you get near him. Here are just some of the descriptions from Azusa Street...
From the pen of John Bartleman, an early leader of the Pentecostal movement, we have an eyewitness account of the "latter rain" when Pentecost moved from California to Maine and back.
The Book of Acts never ended! Live and Experience the Book of Acts today! Experience the Book of Acts today! Supernatural Christianity never ended! A generation today is asking, Where are all God’s miracles which our fathers told us about? (Judges 6:13). Author of the best-selling book They Told Me Their Stories, Tommy Welchel answered this question, living among the youth of one of the greatest spiritual outpourings ever experienced—the Azusa Street Revival. During this time, Tommy recorded first-hand accounts of the miracles that they had witnessed… and even performed themselves! These testimonies have been shared around the world, and the results have been amazing: Miraculous healings, supernatural phenomena, and impossible situations being turned around by a wonder-working God. As you read about the miracles that God performed during this great move of His Spirit, your faith will be stirred to: • Encourage others that God’s healing power has not passed away • Believe for the miraculous in your life • Release supernatural breakthrough to people who need a touch from God Prepare to experience a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit… today!
JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE EARTH, Introducing William Seymour -- Jerry Newman doesn't mean to keep getting into trouble-it just sort of happens. But when a practical joke goes wrong, burning down a church in his small east Texas town, Jerry's widowed mother quickly sends him to live with his journalist uncle in Los Angeles. Jerry is secretly pleased-not only to avoid being punished for his crime but also to live in California . . . the end of the earth! On the night before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Jerry and his uncle go to investigate a popular warehouse church in Los Angeles. There, they hear a man predict the coming quake. But Jerry is even more impressed by the powerful preacher, William Seymour, and by the hundreds of blacks and whites worshiping and praying together in strange "tongues." Jerry wants to believe Seymour's message, but will he do so when it means confessing his dangerous secret? A simple message that shakes the world ...
The Life and Ministry of William J. Seymour is the first fully researched, major biography of the pastor of the Apostolic Faith Mission at 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles, CA. Beginning in 1906, Seymour hosted a revival that spread the Pentecostal message around the world. In 1999 religious newswriters voted the Azusa Street revival as one of the ten most important religious events of the millennium. Seymour has been called the most influential black religious leader in American history. Born in 1870 in Centerville, Louisiana, Seymour's parents were both former slaves. His father was a union soldier in the Civil War. Seymour was reared in the poverty and oppression of the reconstruction south. Seymour left the south and lived in Missouri, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, usually working as a hotel waiter. He was baptized as a Roman Catholic, converted in a Methodist Church, and then joined the Church of God Reformation movement. In 1905, he encountered Charles F. Parham in Houston, Texas and embraced the Pentecostal doctrine. Arriving in Los Angeles in February 1906, Seymour was locked out of the church that had called him to the city to preach. In April, a Pentecostal outpouring led to the establishment of the mission on Azusa Street. Seymour spent his later years at the church in Los Angeles and traveling to spread the message. He died in 1922. This work looks at every area of Seymour's life and gives considerable attention to the revival that made him famous. The book has over 100 illustrations, including never before published photos of the mission. - Publisher.
In The Azusa Street Mission and Revival, Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. brings to bear expertise from decades of focused study in church history to reveal the captivating story of the Apostolic Faith Mission in Los Angeles, which became known as the Azusa Street Mission. Sometimes the largest blaze begins with the tiniest spark. At the dawn of the twentieth century, William J. Seymour, the son of Louisiana slaves, began meeting with a tiny congregation in a two-story wooden building in downtown Los Angeles. What began as a spontaneous gathering of believers quickly grew into a passionate revival and renewal of the work of the Holy Spirit. The movement spread at breathtaking speed. With little more than a printing press, a trolley stop, and a powerful message, the spiritual fire emanating from the Apostolic Faith Mission on Azusa Street rapidly crossed strict cultural and national borders—into Mexico, Canada, Britain, Scandinavia, Africa, India, and China. Led by William J. Seymour, the revival became the catalyst for the modern Pentecostal movement. Today, the more than 500 million Christians who identify as Pentecostal or Charismatic can trace the roots of their faith to this humble beginning at Azusa Street. The Azusa Street Mission and Revival tells the full story of how this uniquely diverse and inclusive group grew into a powerful movement that forever changed the landscape of Christianity.
"Reporter is just wonderful. Truly a great life, and what shines out of the book, amid the low cunning and tireless legwork, is Hersh's warmth and humanity. This book is essential reading for every journalist and aspiring journalist the world over." —John le Carré From the Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling author and preeminent investigative journalist of our time—a heartfelt, hugely revealing memoir of a decades-long career breaking some of the most impactful stories of the last half-century, from Washington to Vietnam to the Middle East. Seymour Hersh's fearless reporting has earned him fame, front-page bylines in virtually every major newspaper in the free world, honors galore, and no small amount of controversy. Now in this memoir he describes what drove him and how he worked as an independent outsider, even at the nation's most prestigious publications. He tells the stories behind the stories—riveting in their own right—as he chases leads, cultivates sources, and grapples with the weight of what he uncovers, daring to challenge official narratives handed down from the powers that be. In telling these stories, Hersh divulges previously unreported information about some of his biggest scoops, including the My Lai massacre and the horrors at Abu Ghraib. There are also illuminating recollections of some of the giants of American politics and journalism: Ben Bradlee, A. M. Rosenthal, David Remnick, and Henry Kissinger among them. This is essential reading on the power of the printed word at a time when good journalism is under fire as never before.