Apostle William J. Seymour, Azusa Street Mission,       Bonnie Brae Street Home,  Seymour and his wife, Jennie

A Brief History of the Azusa Street Experience; Archives of History, Research done by Chief Apostle J. L. Payne of Christ Churches of God in Christ, USA - International - Bishop J. L. Payne, D.D. ThD. The present Pentecostal Movement in America is clear.  Its roots are in the Azusa Experience. For the truth of these early days are found in history. God took the life of a Black Man named William Seymour and caused  a move of God that who impact a century. In 1905 William J. Seymour, a 34 year old son of former slaves, was a student of well-known pentecostal preacher Charles Parham and an interim pastor for a small holiness church in Houston, Texas. Neely Terry, an African American woman who attended a small holiness church pastored by Julia Hutchins in Los Angeles, made a trip to visit family in Houston late in 1905. While in Houston, she visited Seymour's church, where he preached that baptism in the Holy Spirit was accompanied with speaking in tongues, and though he had not experienced this personally, Terry was impressed with his character and message. Once home in California, Terry suggested that Seymour be invited to speak at the local church. Apostle Seymour received and accepted the invitation in February of 1906, and received financial help and a blessing from Parham for his planned one-month visit

  Apostle William Seymour was born  May 2, 1870 in Centerville, Louisiana. His parents were former slaves. Mr. and Mrs. Simon Seymour was of Baptist persuasion. Apostle Seymour in his early years of life had visions often and studied the Scriptures daily. When  in 1900 he enrolled in a Holiness Bible School that emphasized sanctification, divine healing and the soon return of the Lord Jesus. But before this return of the Lord there would be a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a world wide revival.

 It was also in Cincinnati, Ohio that Seymour heard the voice calling him to preach and as he later stated, he refused that call until he got smallpox and also died. The disease gave William Seymour blindness in his left eye. This experience pushed the God-appointed Apostle to obey God's call , thus he was ordain to preach. During the years of 1903 to 1905, the young preacher traveled about preaching. He met a black woman who claim she had spoken in unknown tongues  under the teaching segregations named Charles F. Parham. She had serve as a governess to his family. Her named was Lucy Farrow. Lucy Farrow and the Parhams had come to Houston and there was a school set-up teaching the experience speaking in other tongues. As a segregationist, C.F. Parham could not allow Apostle Seymour to sit in the class with other whites during his lectures. Seymour sit in the hallway and listen to Parham. This 20th century humble himself before the evil of practice racism. In Apostle Seymour humbly disposition, God open to him the unveiling of the latter Holy Spirit Outpouring. 

In the year of 1906 around the month of February,  a church of Pentecostal persuasion  in Los Angeles was without  a Pastor. A couple of the members had heard of a preacher in Houston, Texas. In fact either  Neely Terry and Julia Hutchins who recommended him to come and aided in purchasing and sending the ticket to him had heard him speak. When Elder William Seymour received the letter  inviting him to be pastor along with the train ticket in the letter, there was little doubt in their minds regarding his called to come for the pastorate.

Seymour was not what most people would think of as a Black Pentecostal preacher. He was usually a meek man with a direct style that was not often stylized or tricked-up; he could, however, become suddenly and volcanically emotional at times, in and out of the pulpit. He saw himself more as a teacher than a preacher, yet his mark was as a preacher and not as a teacher. He'd sometimes sit at the meetings with his head in a shoe box, to cut himself off from the hysteria surrounding him, apparently for two reasons: (1) to keep from becoming visually disoriented (he was blind in one eye); (2) so he could concentrate on prayer and thought, so that he would be most open to speaking in the Spirit. The people in attendance were already in a state of excited agitation long before Seymour spoke, thanks to what went on before him each night. When his thunder suddenly struck on such nights, it must've been more than most people could take.

Apostle William J. Seymour

Azusa Street in Los Angeles

Apostle William Seymour brought to his new pastorate the  matter of speaking in tongues, which Seymour had come to see as the definitive sign of the Holy Spirit baptism in a person.  These meetings drew many from  Baptist churches and other faiths, as well as nearby Pentecostal churches. These meetings were powerful with the messages  of Apostles Seymour's emphasis upon love; they were interracial, involved women, and lay people exercised leadership and the  gifts of the spirit.  History reveals that on April 9, 1906 at the home where Apostle Seymour was staying, Bro. Edward Lee and Sister Jennie Evans Moore, one of Seymour's closest assistant began to speak  in tongues. Many baptism followed. The word began to spread. Apostle Seymour  was already being noticed in the community and the growth of the church now had exceeded it present location. So, the Azusa Mission was formed and they  they rented an abandoned warehouse building on Azusa Street that was previously used as a cattle stable, and history now records what we called the  Apostolic Faith Mission (the return of the Apostle's Ministry).  God gave a vision of a great through 'prophecies' and a predicted calamity coming  , just before a major earthquake hit California. This reinforced the move of God in this last day ministry.

  The Azusa street mission was overflowing with the power of God and the Pentecostal movement was born. Pastors came from everywhere, they came from the North, South, East and West. Reporters from  newspapers came to check out the Azusa's miracle. Many across the nation and the world  were on Azusa Street Mission in a matter of weeks. This all happen  before the modern media, radio and television and modern travel, and long before the telecommunications and any of the modern methods of communications.October 1906: Charles Parham was invited to speak for a series of revival meetings -- and was quickly dis-invited. Why? Parham's racist views were hardening. By the 1910s he had become a full-fledged racist and Klan supporter; at Azusa he fumed against the very African-American style of loose enthusiasm which was the norm for even Azusa's whites. Personality conflicts. Parham wanted status as the chief authority figure while he was there; meanwhile the Azusa elders would not make even reasonable adjustments to Parham's approach to revival.

Rumors were already circulating that Parham was committing sodomy with young males. In 1907, he was charged with it, but the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence. While most of the elders and the pastor kept themselves relatively straight, the scene which revolved around Azusa was increasingly under the sway of magicians, self-appointed preachers, self-styled prophets, and folk religionists -- which would revulse any Holiness devotee such as Parham, or for that matter any sincere Christian. They also triggered most of Seymour's biggest eruptions. Parham stomped off to try to form a church nearby, which quickly became yet another of his failures. His rough personality, his demands to be in charge, his increasingly angry racism, and rumors of sexual misbehavior (spread far and wide by opponents) pushed him further and further out of the picture. Long before his death, Parham had become a marginal figure in Pentecostalism.

This water/oil mix of Parham and Azusa (more like gasoline) was the first sign of something that would plague Pentecostalism and become a part of its character: divisiveness. Two other problems that would infect Pentecostalism showed themselves here : fraud and the influence of occultic mysticism. Parham himself was an example of three other problems which would recur throughout Pentecostalist history : racism, authoritarianism, and sexual scandal. Also, one of the troubles with going by exciting experiences is that much of what went on was not thought through as thoroughly as was needed. So, not only were the glories of Pentecostalism born at Azusa, but also its most serious problems.

Before 1906 had ended, most Azusan leaders had spun off to form congregations, such as the 51st Street Apostolic Faith Mission, the Spanish AFM, and the Italian Pentecostal Mission. These missions were made up mostly of one or another immigrant or ethnic group. The US Southeast was a particularly fruitful area for them, since Azusa's approach gave a useful explanation for things that had already been happening there in fact or in rumor. Other new missions were based on preachers who had charisma or energy. Nearly all of these new churches were founded among the poor, the outcast, the newcomer, and/or the low-wage laborer. The bad news : this meant that Azusa Street started shrinking. The good news was, once people had stopped paying attention to Azusa, those who were there for a piece of the action left there. (Why hang around the has-beens, why not go off to where the new action is?) Azusa was eventually able to straighten itself out and settle itself into being a Black Pentecostal church not all that different from others, doing a brief resurgence and then a slow fade. The bad thing is, the con artists found as many other places to go as the Pentecostal movement had found, causing continued problems for the more legitimate leaders.

The congregation at Azusa continued at a reasonable size until Seymour's death in 1922, at which time Jennie Moore Seymour took over for several years of decline. The congregation folded soon after losing its building in 1931. The building was torn down and replaced by what became the Japanese-American Cultural and Community Center in Los Angeles. 

(Lt) Apostolic Faith News Paper,Seymour and Azusa St Int'l Newspaper; (Rt)Charles Parham, Seymour's teacher at his School in Houston, TX