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Spreading fires: the globalization of pentecostalism in the twentieth century.

Article Excerpt
The rapidly spreading "fires" that characterized the growth of global Pentecostalism are directly attributable to the efforts and visions of its pioneers, who were by no means always Westerners. The early years of Pentecostalism represent more than just its infancy--this period was also the decisive heart of the movement, the formative time when precedents were set for posterity. Whatever happened later was because of the founders who blazed the way. This article considers five of the main features of global Pentecostalism, illustrated by historical narrative from its early years.

The Role of Premillennialism

The first feature of global Pentecostalism is the role of premillennial eschatology. One of the convictions of early Pentecostals was that their experience of Spirit baptism was a "fire" that would spread all over the world, a last-days universal revival to precede the return of Jesus Christ. This conviction was part and parcel of the prevalent premillennialism that pervaded the radical fringes of Protestantism--a belief in the imminent return of Christ to set up a thousand-year reign on earth. Not only were those from the English-speaking world motivated by "Great Commission" texts in the King James Version of the Bible like Matthew 28:19 ("Go ye therefore, and teach all nations") and Mark 16:15 ("Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature"), but they were even more often fired up by the eschatological text of Matthew 24:14 ("This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come"). These texts were both the motivation and the justification for their evangelistic activities. The newsletters from Pentecostal missionaries in the periodicals were filled with one overriding concern: to evangelize the nations of the world before the imminent return of Christ. This focus permeated the activities of the missionaries and their converts almost to the exclusion of all other activities.

Although this "second coming" did not materialize during their lifetime, the Pentecostals were not altogether wrong about the global fires. By 1960 these Spirit manifestations were spreading to the older Protestant and Anglican churches, and by 1967 to the Catholic Church itself. By 1980 what had become known as the charismatic movement in almost all forms of Christianity was well established, and new forms of independent charismatic churches were beginning to emerge, now proliferating all over the world. By the end of the twentieth century, Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity in all its diversity had expanded into almost every country on earth. It had become an extremely significant movement within global Christianity, affecting Catholics, Anglicans, Protestants, evangelicals, and especially the independent churches in China, India, Africa, and Latin America. It is probably the fastest expanding religious movement in the world ever, certainly the fastest within Christianity.

Intercultural Origins

A second main feature of global Pentecostalism is that it, by all accounts, had interracial and intercultural beginnings. The first decade of the twentieth century was one of unprecedented revival activity in the evangelical world. One century ago, in April 1906, one of these revivals broke out in a ramshackle church on Azusa Street in inner-city Los Angeles. Several manifestations of ecstasy came upon a group of African-Americans at the time in the Holiness, Methodist, and Baptist churches. But the most unusual and distinctive sign of this religious enthusiasm was an experience called baptism in the Spirit, usually accompanied by speaking in tongues. Led by William Seymour (1870-1922), a son of former slaves, the Azusa Street revival became a catalyst in the emergence of a new kind of Christianity that would transform the global religious landscape in the twentieth century. The revival movement's monthly periodical, the Apostolic Faith, declared six months later that "the fire is spreading" and that they "expected to see a wave of salvation go over this world." (1)

The racial integration in the Azusa Street meetings was unique for that time, and people from ethnic minorities discovered "the sense of dignity and community denied them in the larger urban culture." (2) The Apostolic Faith exulted:

We prayed that the Pentecost might come to the city of Los Angeles. We wanted it to start in the First Methodist Church, but God did not start it there. I bless God that it did not start in any church in this city, but out in the barn, so that we might all come and take part in it. If it had started in a fine church, poor colored people and Spanish people would not have got it, but praise God it started here. God Almighty says He will pour out of His Spirit upon all flesh. This is just what is happening here.... Tell the people wherever you go that Pentecost has come to Los Angeles. ... It is noticeable how free all nationalities feel.... No instrument that God can use is rejected on account of color or dress or lack of education. This is why God has so built up the work. (3)

Back in those days of enforced segregation and Jim Crow laws, the Azusa Street Mission saw its interracial and intercultural nature as one of the reasons for its success. This feature also facilitated Pentecostalism's remarkable expansion across the globe. The mission and purpose of this new movement was clear: to stand for "the restoration of Apostolic faith, power and practice, Christian unity, the evangelization...