Origin from 1906
The revival that began in April 1906 at a former livery stable on Azusa Street in Los Angeles, under the African American preacher William J. Seymour, is commonly regarded as the beginning of modern Pentecostalism, though the movement's own momentum at that specific site had faded by 1913 to 1915. Over the following century Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity took its strongest and most lasting root not in North America but across the Global South: by the year 2000, Pentecostal and charismatic Christians numbered over five hundred million worldwide, growing at roughly four times the rate of Christianity as a whole, and today close to half of the world's Pentecostals live in sub-Saharan Africa and over a third in the Americas, a demographic outcome the Los Angeles revival's own early participants could not have anticipated.
Facts
Dates
End Year1913 to 1915 marks the fading of the revival's own momentum at the Azusa Street site itself; the wider global Pentecostal and charismatic movement it launched continued growing for the rest of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. Learn More
How the Azusa Street Revival Began Modern Pentecostalism
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
The revival that began in April 1906 at a former livery stable on Azusa Street in Los Angeles, led by the African American preacher William J. Seymour, is commonly regarded as the beginning of modern Pentecostalism. The movement's own momentum at that specific site had faded by 1913 to 1915, a comparatively short burst confined to less than a decade at its point of origin.
What followed over the following century took root far beyond Los Angeles and mostly outside North America altogether. Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity grew fastest across the Global South, and by the year 2000 Pentecostal and charismatic Christians numbered over five hundred million worldwide, growing at roughly four times the rate of Christianity as a whole across the same period.
Today close to half of the world's Pentecostals live in sub Saharan Africa and over a third in the Americas, a demographic outcome the revival's own early participants on Azusa Street, gathered for a few short years in a converted stable, could not have anticipated. What this changed for Christianity's spread was the founding, from one small and short lived Los Angeles congregation, of a movement that within a century would count hundreds of millions of adherents concentrated overwhelmingly outside the country where it began.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Africa directly: "Azusa Street in Los Angeles, under the African American preacher William J."
This source names Americas directly: "Africa and over a third in the Americas, a demographic outcome the Los Angeles revival's own early participants could not have anticipated."
This source names Global directly: "not in North America but across the Global South: by the year 2000, Pentecostal and charismatic Christians numbered over five hundred million worldwide, growing at roughly four times the rate of..."
This source names Los Angeles directly: "livery stable on Azusa Street in Los Angeles, under the African American preacher William J."
This source names Pentecostalism directly: "Seymour, is commonly regarded as the beginning of modern Pentecostalism, though the movement's own momentum at that specific site had faded by 1913 to 1915."
This source names William J. Seymour directly: "African American preacher William J. Seymour, is commonly regarded as the beginning of modern Pentecostalism, though the movement's own momentum at that specific site had faded by 1913 to 1915."
Occurred In
312 Azusa Street, Los Angeles, California.
Spread Event Of
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