The Azusa Street Revival and Twentieth-Century Missions
Gary B.McGee

Spiritual awakenings and missionary zeal have long been associated on the American religious scene. Whether one refers to the Haystack Prayer Meeting, which led to the formation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (1810), or to the Mount Hermon Conference and the later estab­lishment of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Mis­sions (1888), spiritual renewals have triggered fresh attempts to fulfill the Great Commission.

To these awakenings should be added the Azusa Street Re­vival of 190~9, in Los Angeles, California. Sparking one of the greatest spiritual awakenings of the twentieth century, its long-range impact has resulted in millions at home and overseas en­tering the ranks of the Christian church. Oddly enough, it has been largely overlooked by most historians of the expansion of Christianity. Notwithstanding, J. Herbert Kane, a prominent evangelical missions scholar, has appropriately described this movement as "the most vital force in world Christianity. Both here in North America and throughout the world the Pentecostal churches are outstripping all others as far as numerical growth is concerned.,'¹ In view of the spectacular number of Pentecostal Christians overseas, now numbering in the tens of millions,² an assessment of the impact of the Azusa Street Revival, sometimes referred to as "the American Jerusalem," on world missions is appropriate in order to understand its distinctive and contributions. ³

Doctrinal considerations weighed heavily in the events that led to the revival. Concern for world evangelism in "the last days" before the prernillennial coming of the Lord spurred many evangelical Christians to pray ardently for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit to empower believers for proclaiming the gospel.⁴ Holiness-oriented Christians, maintaining that another definite work of grace in the believer's life followed salvation (and for some, after an additional experience of sanctification), looked for a mighty "baptism in the Holy Spirit" to provide revolutionary apostolic power for Christian witnessing.<

Many viewed the Welsh Revival of 1904~05 and others that followed as the beginning of this outpouring of the Spirit.⁵ For some, the essential sign of the baptism in the Holy Spirit had become evident in January 1901 during a revival at the Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas. The leader, Charles F. Parham, identified speaking in tongues as the initial evidence for this bap­tism. To Parham and his students, the prophecy of Joel (2:28~29) had been realized in their midst just as the disciples had expe­rienced the power of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. This event, though covered by several newspapers in the region, went largely unnoticed by the larger segment of the American popu­lation. Parham and his followers took their message to other cities in Kansas and Missouri. By 1905 he began to find more success and acceptance in Houston, Texas.

The American Jerusalem

William J. Seymour, a black Holiness preacher and a student of Parham (a white man) in Houston, carried the new message to Los Angeles and became one of the key leaders in the Pentecostal revival, which occurred in a former African Methodist Episcopal Church on Azusa Street.⁶ The revival proceeded non-stop for three years. Blacks and whites worshiped together. Reports cir­culating from the revival noted that men, women, and children received the Pentecostal baptism and spoke in other tongues Singing, shouting, speaking in tongues, healings, deliverances, and expectancy of Christ's imminent return characterized the ser­vices. News of the revival traveled across the United States as the leaders of the revival published thousands of copies of the Apostolic Faith (a newspaper distributed occasionally between Sep­tember 1906 and May 1908). From coast to coast, expectant be­lievers avidly read the testimonies and teachings in the pages of this and similar periodicals.

Since others have chronicled the events at Azusa Street, our purpose is to examine the revival's impact on world missions.' Three important points need to be considered in this regard.

First, the participants at Azusa Street (Seymour, Florence Crawford, A. C. Garr, et al.) considered their newfound tongues to be the languages of the world. Hence one writer in the Apostolic Faith reported "God has solved the missionary problem, sending out new-tongued missionaries."⁸ Previously, Parham had interpreted tongues in the same manner and this view gained currency among many early Pentecostals. W. F. Carothers, the field representative for the Apostolic Faith Movement from Zion City, Illinois, wrote cautiously 'circa 1906:   Just what part the gift of tongues is to ifil in the evangelization of heathen countries is matter [sic] for faith as yet. It scarcely seems from the evidence at hand to have had much to do with foreign mission work in New Testament times, and yet, in view of the apparent utility of the gift In that sphere and of the wonderful missionary spirit that comes with Pentecost, we are expecting the gift to le copiously used in the foreign field. We shall soon know.⁹

Before 1908, however, it had become apparent to most that speak­ing in tongues did not equip people to preach in other languages. Instead they interpreted the phenomenon as being intercession and voicing the praises of God in other languages. In spite of differences about the meaning of the Pentecostal baptism in these early years, all agreed that it brought the empowering of the Holy Spirit for Christian witness.

Second, those who attended the revival services believed that the apostolic "signs and wonders" that had characterized the advance of the early Christians in the book of Acts had been restored in the last days. The gifts of the Spirit, including tongues, interpretations, prophesies, and divine healings were given to aid in the advancement of the gospel. This pneumatological em­phasis, while rejected by many, constituted a unique posture toward the Christian world mission.¹⁰ Reliance was to be upon the Spirit, not the mechanical formulations of mission strategists. Such a wholesale return to the apostolic pattern of first-century Christianity was without parallel on the missionary landscape in the early decades of this century.

Third, the enthusiasm for world evangelization spawned a Diaspora of new missionaries even though the leaders of the re­vival did not organize a missionary society. The urgency of thehour, reluctance to rely on the support of a human agency, naiveté about conditions overseas, and the desire to be completely directed by the Spirit may have been the causes that discouraged the establishment of a mission agency.

Many individuals, recently equipped with the power of the Holy Spirit and a new language, left Los Angeles and traveled overseas on "faith" (without pledged support). Significantly, anyone--men and women, clergy and laity, blacks and white-- could be called for this service.¹ Those who went often returned disillusioned from their attempted missionary work. Some, how­ever, such as the A. G. Garrs, who traveled first to India and then to China, remained abroad, learning the language and cul­ture of the people whom they wished to evangelize.¹² Nevertheless, the initial dispersion of missionaries from Azusa Street is significant for demonstrating the concern for world evangelism and the leveling effect of the revival.

The real impact of the Azusa Street Revival on missions came through others whom it influenced. Although he never visited the revival Thomas B. Barratt learned of the happenings there through correspondence and received his Pentecostal baptism in New York City. Henceforth, Barratt returned home to Norway with the new message. He then carried it to England, Sweden, and other Eu­ropean countries. Pentecostal missionaries from these countries soon traveled overseas. ¹³

Other personalities touched by the revival included Cecil Polhill, founder of the Pentecostal Missionary Union in Great Britain (l909); ¹⁴  Minnie T. Draper, Allan A. Swift, and Christian J. Lucas, founders of the South and Central African Pentecostal Mission (1910); ¹⁵ William F. P. Burton and James Salter, founders of the Congo Evangelistic Mission (1915), now the Zaire Evan­gelistic Mission;¹⁶ Willis C. Hoover, father of the Methodist Pen­tecostal Church in Chile (1910);~~ ¹⁷ Daniel Berg, Gunnar Vingren, Luigi Francescon, Nels Nelson, and Samuel Nystrom, mission­aries to Brazil (1910 and after);¹⁸ G. R. Polman, organizer of the Pentecostal Mission Alliance in the Netherlands (1920);¹⁹ Charles Hamilton Pridgeon, director of the Evangelization Society of the Pittsburgh Bible Institute (₁₉₂₀); ²⁰ and Paul B. Peterson, founder of the Russian and Eastern European Mission (1927). ²¹ While his­torian Vinson Synan proposes that "directly or indirectly, practically all the Pentecostal groups in existence can trace their lineage to the Azusa Mission," contemporary indigenous revivals did occur overseas without its tutelage.²²

The revival sparked Pentecostal awakenings among other believers across the country concerned about fulfilling the Great Commission in the last days. Among other places, significant revivals occurred in Indianapolis, Indiana; Alliance, Ohio; Roches­ter and Nyack, New York; Dunn, North Carolina; Portland, Or­egon; and Toronto, Canada.

The Azusa Street Revival, though never directly resulting in the founding of an organization or mission society, had long-term effects on existing organizations and new ones that developed later. Holiness bodies from the southeast such as the Pentecostal Holiness Church (1898), ²³ the Church of God (Cleveland, Term.; 1886), and the Church of God in Christ (1897) adopted the new Pentecostal theology after their leaders were influenced by the events in Los Angeles.

Many independent Pentecostals across the nation, touched by the Los Angeles revival (either through personal participation, hearing of it from someone who had attended, or by the printed page), eventually organized to achieve their goals more effi­ciently, including the goal of world evangelism.

The first missionary manifesto among independent Pentecostals calling for the establishment of a missionary society surfaced in 1908 at the Pentecostal Camp Meeting in Alliance, Ohio, under the direction of Levi R. Lupton, a Holiness Quaker who experienced the Pentecostal baptism in December 1906. While those in attendance had no interest in establishing another ec­clesiastical organization, they asserted, "such an affiliation of Pentecostal Missions is desirable as will preserve and increase the tender sweet bond of love and fellowship now existing and guard against abuse of legitimate liberty." ²⁵ In the following year (1909), the Pentecostal Missionary Union in the United States of America was formed, with headquarters in Alliance. This effort, however, collapsed a year later.²⁶ Nevertheless, whether through their own initiative or with the encouragement of this agency, over 185 Pentecostals had traveled overseas to engage in mis­sionary evangelism by 1910.

Later successful denominational ventures resulted from the founding and foreign-missions enterprises of the Pentecostal As­semblies of Canada (1919), ²⁷ Pentecostal Church of God (1919), International Church of the Foursquare Gospel (1923), Open Bible Standard Churches (1935),28 and Elim Fellowship (1947). ²⁹ The largest and most successful endeavor in Pentecostal foreign mis­sions has been that of the General Council of the Assemblies of God, organized at Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1914. The largest and most successful endeavor in Pentecostal foreign mis­sions has been that of the General Council of the Assemblies of God, organized at Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1914. ³⁰ In addition, independent and para-church ministries (among others, Christ for the Nations,³¹ Youth with a Mission,³² Last Days Ministries, and Jimmy Swaggart Ministries) have also figured prominently through the years.

Pentecostal Missions Mature

In the years following the Azusa Street Revival and the growth of Pentecostal denominations and independent mission agencies, the efforts to fulfill the Great Commission before the imminent return of Christ have steadily increased.³³ Indeed, this future expectation has continued to spur zeal for overseas evangelism.

Reasons for success have included, but are not limited to, the following factors. The first and foremost pattern of Pentecostal missions has been the belief that New Testament Christianity can be restored and that the same signs and wonders that followed the apostolic proclamation of the gospel can be expected today. In this vein, Pentecostal periodicals have reported thousands of miraculous happenings (healings, deliverances, exorcisms) associated with missionary evangelism. Undoubtedly the emphasis on the supernatural has proved to be one of the key elements.³⁴ It is particularly in this arena that Pentecostal missions must be viewed as a distinctive thrust in the Christian world mission of the twentieth century.

It is also important to realize that while Pentecostals have sought for signs and wonders in evangelism, they have left some related theological issues unresolved. For example, questions about the sovereignty of God and the role of signs and wonders in evangelism and local congregations await further study and ar­ticulation.³⁵ Even the modern-day manifestations of the gifts 6f the Spirit, particularly the interpretation of tongues and the use of the word of knowledge, produces disagreement among ad­vocates.

Spiritual manifestations not specifically referred to in the New Testament or mentioned as gifts of the Spirit have also stirred discussion. Such experiences include "slain in the Spirit" (fall­ing under the power of the Spirit).³⁷ and certain perspectives on exorcism.³⁸ The available literature on these subjects has often been largely based on personal experience and lacking in exe­getical precision. More research needs to be done on these phe­nomena and their theological foundations.

The second factor in growth is the gradual emergence over the past eighty years of the articulation of a Pentecostal missiology to guide the missionary enterprise. Though early Pentecostal missionaries often adopted paternalistic approaches, the trend has been toward fostering indigenous churches. In 1921, for example, the Assemblies of God formally committed itself to planting self-governing, self-propagating, and self-supporting churches abroad; this view of foreign missions had been present since the earliest years of the organization.³⁹

The orientation to the indigenous-church strategy probably stemmed in part from the experience of independent Pentecostals who had often been expelled from their former denominations and hence viewed ecclesiastical structure with mistrust. Other influences included the writings of Roland Allen (as well as other advocates of indigenous principles) and their observation of largely independent congregations in the book of Acts evangelizing their own vicinities. Generally, Pentecostal mission agencies have fol­lowed the indigenous pattern.⁴⁰ This strategy later preserved the fruits of their overseas evangelism in the postcolonial period. 

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