The Pentecostal Movement

The Pentecostal movement is the largest and most important religious movement to come alive in the United States. The first Pentecostals appeared in 1901 in the city of Topeka, Kansas and consisted of a few students taught by Charles Fox Parham who was a holiness teacher and former Methodist pastor.

He taught with the emphasis on the Pentecost baptism with the Spirit and speaking in tongues as he referred to in Acts 2. The first student to speak in tongues was Agnes Ozman on January 1, 1901. This Pentecostal movement was called the Apostolic Faith and began a great revival tour of the American middle west to promote its new experience.

The Pentecostal movement achieved worldwide attention in 1906 at the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, California by a African American preacher called William Joseph Seymour. He had learned about speaking in tongues from Parham. For over three years, the Azusa Street “Apostolic Faith” Mission had three services a day every day of the week and thousands received the baptism of tongues.

During this time color segregation was in the United States and the concept of Blacks and Whites worshiping together under a black pastor seemed impossible and awesome! Evidently the color line was washed away by the Blood of Jesus in Los Angeles, “The American Jerusalem” which it is called by Fran Bartleman, where all ethnic minorities were represented at Azusa Street.

Besides the speaking in tongues baptism, they expressed their worship and praise in shouting and dancing as the blacks music and worship and this combination with the baptism of speaking in tongues and the other charisms created this form of Pentecostalism and became popular all over the world.

Seymour and Parham were called the “co-founders” of the modern world Pentecostal movement which was called “The Classical Pentecostal Movement.” The next Pentecostal Movement was the “Neo-Pentecostal Movement” that was started in 1960 in Van Nuys, California under Dennis Bennett, the Rector of the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.

In ten years this Pentecostal Movement spread to all major Protestant families of the world while reaching a total of fifty-five million people by 1990.

The next Pentecostal Movement was the “Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement” that was started in 1967 in the city of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

This Pentecostal movement began among the student and faculty of DuQuesne University and by 1993 this Pentecostal movement has touched over one hundred million Catholics in over two hundred and thirty-eight nations.

The last Pentecostal movement was the “Evangelicals” which was started in 1981 at the Fuller Theological Seminary and was led by John Wimber.

By 1990, there were thirty-three million worldwide that were moving in signs and wonders, even though they do not want to be labeled as Pentecostal or Charismatic.

When we get to Heaven we will know what the actual impact these Pentecostal movements brought forth and how many souls they really did point in the right direction toward Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord. That will be the day of reckoning.

Interesting links:

Pentecostal Movement

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