William J. Seymour the man who was in Azusa Street

Born in Centerville, Louisiana on May 2, 1870, to newly freed slaves, William J. Seymour grew up during a time of racial unrest and injustice. Although they were free, his family continued to work the plantation afraid to go elsewhere. Seymour taught himself to read primarily through studying the Bible. It was there he learned his freedom lay in Jesus Christ. His hunger for the truth of God’s Word increased throughout his youth, and from early in life he experienced divine visions and looked fervently for the return of Christ.

 As a follower of John Wesley, Seymour aligned with his doctrine that there should be no discrimination in Jesus Christ, but the Methodist church in general was moving away from her original roots. Eventually Seymour joined the “Evening Light Saints” which would later become known as the Church of God Reformation Movement.

While with them, Seymour accepted his own call to ministry after a time of wrestling with his calling. He was ordained with the Evening Light Saints after experiencing a painful life trial. Seymour contracted smallpox and, although the disease did not kill him, it did take his sight in one eye. This did not stop Seymour. He launched out in itinerant evangelistic ministry. 

It was in February 1906 that Seymour received the invitation from Neely Terry to move to Los Angeles and take on the small holiness pastorate. Armed with great Pentecostal doctrine but little personal experience he eagerly set out on this new and exciting adventure. In his own words:

“It was the divine call that brought me from Houston, Texas, to Los Angeles. The Lord put it on the heart of one of the saints in Los Angeles to write me that she felt the Lord would have me come there, and I felt it was the leading of the Lord. The Lord provided the means and I came to take charge of a mission on Santa Fe Street.”

Coincidentally, spiritual tremors were beginning to be felt before Seymour arrived. Indeed, it seems the city’s entire Christian populace was eagerly awaiting the outpouring of the Spirit, like water coming to the boil.

For his first Sunday morning sermon Seymour boldly preached on the text in Acts 2:4, preaching in no uncertain terms that ‘tongues’ were the evidence of the true baptism with the Holy Spirit. Without this ‘evidence’ no one could claim that he or she had been baptised in the Spirit. Unfortunately this was not part of the accepted teachings of the holiness movement, which generally taught that sanctification and the baptism with the Holy Spirit were the same experience, an experience that most of them claimed to have had. Seymour’s teaching was taken badly because it challenged one of the most distinctive and cherished doctrines of the holiness church.

The teaching on tongues so upset Sister Julia W. Hutchins, who founded the church, that when Seymour returned for the evening service he found the doors padlocked. Fortunately Seymour had been hosted for lunch at the home of Santa Fe Mission member, Mr. Edward Lee, who took pity on this homeless and penniless preacher and offered him temporary accommodation.

 He invited the Lees to pray with him. Others were joining with them and a prayer meeting developed. Soon, Seymour was invited to move into the home of a Mr. and Mrs. Asberry, who lived on Bonnie Brae Street. 

There was something very special about these prayer meetings. People were profoundly touched by God and many of them had this experience of being baptized in the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues. Although he was not the first one to experience this, Seymour also was baptized in the Spirit and spoke with tongues.

A revival had broken out and the meetings were packed. The meetings were filled with prayer, testimonies, worship and supernatural phenomena. The crowds could not be accommodated in the small house so, in April, 1906, the group moved to an old building on 312 Azusa Street. This facility was also soon maxed out, with many waiting outside for lack of space. A tremendous revival had broken out and there was seemingly no end to the testimonies, healings and supernatural phenomena. Meetings were sustained by God and the revival ran for years.

From his base on Azusa Street he began to preach his doctrinal beliefs. Seymour not only rejected the existing racial barriers in favor of "unity in Christ", he also rejected the then almost-universal barriers to women in any form of church leadership. This revival Meeting extended from 1906 until 1909, and became known as the Azusa Street Revival. It became the subject of intense investigation by more mainstream Prostetant. Some left feeling that Seymour's views were heresy, while others accepted his teachings and returned to their own congregations to expound them. The resulting movement became widely known as "Pentecostalism", likening it to the manifestations of the Holy Spirit recorded as occurring in the first two chapters of Acts as occurring from the day of the Feast of Pentecost onwards.

On a worldwide scale, the Azusa Street revival contributed to a new diaspora of missionaries who anticipated that global evangelization would be achieved by gospel preaching accompanied by miraculous signs and wonders (Acts 5:12). While only a small number of missionaries traveled from Azusa Street to minister overseas, it impacted many more who started other Pentecostal revival centers that surfaced as a result of hearing the news of the outpouring of the Spirit in Los Angeles. For many, the Azusa Street revival had inaugurated at long last the great end-times revival.

Much more could be said about the long-term influence of the revival and that of “Bishop” William J. Seymour (an honorary title that he later received, probably from his congregation). The limitations of this article, however, preclude such a lengthy discussion. We will look specifically at the legacy of Seymour.

In 1921, William Seymour made his last ministry campaign across America. When he returned to Los Angeles in 1922, people began to notice he looked very weary. He attended many ministry conventions, but was never publicly recognized from the platform. Finally, on September 28, 1922, while at the mission, Seymour suffered a heart attack. Later that day his heart failed him completely and he went home to be with the Lord.

Though the legacy and ministry of William J. Seymour seems heartbreaking, the results of his efforts between 1906 and 1909 produced and exploded the Pentecostal Movement around the world. Today, many denominations attribute their founding to the participants of Azusa. Most of the early Assembly of God leaders came out of Azusa—and probably everyone in the Pentecostal Movement today can attribute his or her roots in some way to Azusa. Regardless of doctrinal disputes, William Seymour’s ministry ignited Pentecostal revival around the world.The Azusa Street Revival is commonly regarded as the beginning of the modern-day Pentecostal Movement