Click to hide HTML preview
Let the Walls Come Down:
William J. Seymour
William J. Seymour’s ministry has had tremendous impact on Christianity and
the world. His ministry gave birth to the Pentecostal movement, which has
grown to 410 million members today, enjoying the fastest growth rate of any
major religious grouping at 20 million new members a year. Disturbingly,
though influential white Christian leaders have been recognized by the
American Evangelical community, Seymour, an African-American, has been
largely overlooked, even though his emphasis on racial reconciliation, holy
living and the power of the Holy Spirit are lessons desperately needed to
be learned in our modern day.
In preparation for revival
On May 2, 1870, William J. Seymour was born in Centerville, Louisiana, the
son of two freed slaves. Though he received little or no early formal
education, he taught himself to read and write. In his early years, he set
himself to studying the Bible, and he soaked in the spirituality of Black
Christians from the deep South.
When he was twenty-five, he boarded a train for Indianapolis. While
there, he did not attend the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church
which enjoyed the strongest black congregation in Indianapolis. Instead,
Seymour chose a church located seven blocks further from his home, which
was affiliated with the more interracial Methodist Episcopal denomination.
This decision is claimed to be the “first clear indication he gave of
seeking interracial reconciliation.”
In 1900, Seymour moved to Cincinnati, where he eventually ended up
with a local movement called the Evening Light Saints, which was later
known as the Church of God Reformation Movement. The movement’s emphasis,
as given by the founder’s successor, E. E. Byrum, was “Christian holiness
in preparation for the rapidly approaching end of history, divine healing,
and the need to forsake denominationalism in favor of the one true ‘church
of God.’ “ His emphasis on holiness would later cause a person to
remark:
[Seymour] really lived what we had been preaching for years, a
sanctified life. It was the wonderful character of this man whom God
has chosen that attracted the people to keep coming to this humble
meeting [Azusa Street Mission].”
In 1903, he left for Houston as an evangelist. He later accepted an
interim pastorate position in the place of Rev. Mrs. Lucy F. Farrow, an
African-American pastor, who was in Kansas as a governess for evangelist
Charles F. Parham. When Rev. Farrow returned, she explained how she had
spoken in “unknown tongues” in the Parham home, and that this should be
experienced by every Christian. Seymour learned more about this phenomenon
by sitting outside of Parham’s classroom, listening through a door left
carefully ajar because Jim Crow laws kept him from learning with white
students. Here, Seymour learned about glossolalia, though he himself did
not receive it at that time.
While Seymour was the interim pastor, Mrs. Neely Terry had visited
Houston and was impressed with his pastoral and godly demeanor. Therefore,
when her black holiness church needed a pastor in 1906, she convinced her
church to invite Seymour, sending train fare along as well. Seymour,
sensing this as a call from God, left for Los Angeles in January 1906.
God’s instrument of revival
When he arrived in Los Angeles, he began preaching immediately to his eager
congregation at nightly meetings. However, his preaching that glossolalia
could be a part of every believer’s experience had him locked him out the
church on his fifth night. Seymour, without shelter or income, moved into
the home of Edward Lee and his wife, and began a solitary fasting and
praying vigil.
A month later, in response to popular demand, a meeting was held
between Seymour and other holiness leaders to settle this issue, where
President Roberts of the Southern California Holiness Association was
surprisingly persuaded to Seymour’s viewpoint. After these meetings,
Richard and Ruth Asbery invited Seymour to stay at their home, and they
began regular prayer meetings during February and March.
On Monday, April 9, Lee asked Seymour to come over and pray for a
recovery from his illness so that he could attend the evening meeting.
After prayer, Lee felt better immediately, and with further prayer, Lee
started uttering in tongues. Both Lee and Seymour were ecstatic.
That night, they went to their prayer meeting, where Seymour opened
with the text from Acts 2:4, “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
After he gave a testimony of Lee’s experience, glossolalia started to pour
out from Lee’s mouth, electrifying everyone. All of them were swept to
their feet, and at least seven started to speak in strange tongues. This
was the beginning of the Pentecostal movement.
The news about this event spread, and crowds began to gather. As more
and more were being touched by the power of the Holy Spirit, Seymour and
others had truly believed that the outpouring of Pentecost was being
restored to the church as God’s sign for the end of the age. Seymour
himself uttered in tongues three days later, while praying fervently side-
by-side with a European-American man.
As their meetings grew, they needed a larger place to meet, and
leased an old church at 312 Azusa Street. It was here, at the Azusa Street
Mission, that people from many races, nationalities, and classes gathered.
In a time of tumultuous racial prejudice, Seymour desired more than
anything that people of all races would be welcomed and enjoined together
as one church before God, writing, “No instrument that God can use is
rejected on account of color or dress of lack of education. This is why God
has built up the work [at Azusa].” Even the walls of gender were being
broken down, where women were included with full equality in worship,
releasing their talents and leadership.
Great fruit was being wrought for Christ from 1906-1908 at Azusa.
Services began three times a day, every day, and the crowds were piled up
with 750-800 inside and 400-500 more outside, with visitors coming
throughout the day. By January 1908, 25 missionaries had been to
Liberia, South and North China, and Japan. People came from all over the
world came to attend the Azusa meetings. It was a glorious time for Seymour
and the church.
Not everyone accepted the work at Azusa as an awesome work of God.
Many were appalled by the signs and wonders, others were appalled by the
interracial fellowship. But, the movement had began, and would later change
the lives of millions and millions.
The decay of a dream
But, these good times would not last for Seymour. Three major events
wrenched the Pentecostal movement from his influence. In October 1906,
Parham, seeking to claim his “rightful” leadership in this burgeoning
movement, came to Azusa and was repulsed by the display of interracial
fellowship. Parham took the pulpit, and started his rebuke with “God is
sick at his stomach!” Parham’s decision to separate from Azusa
undermined Seymour’s position and seriously weakened the movement.
In 1911, a second trauma would definitively end Seymour’s influence
in this movement. While Seymour was away on a cross-country preaching
mission, William Durham secured permission to preach at Azusa, stirring
controversy. He decried against Seymour’s Wesleyan view and upheld a
“finished work” model. Though a legitimate concern, his polemic style
caused much strife, polarization, and division. He also believed that
glossolalia is the only sign or evidence of Spirit baptism, against
Seymour’s belief that tongues was not the only sign.
Seymour returned from his preaching mission to deal with the issue,
and eventually he was forced to lock Durham out of the mission. Durham then
proceeded to begin a rival ministry, attracting 600 members away from
Azusa. He essentially formed a white-dominated movement with a heavy
emphasis on glossolalia, which wrenched the movement from Seymour’s primary
concern of the unity of the body of Christ, regardless of race. The
Pentecostal movement, which had numerically more whites, had itself
“separated along racial lines and forgot Seymour.”
He continued to pastor at the Azusa Street Mission until his death,
which remained interracial until the end. He died of a heart attack on
September 28, 1922. His followers say that he died of a broken heart.
He had a dream, that people of all colors would worship together, under the
power of the Holy Spirit, during a time period where racial hatred and
strife was at peaking. He spent his life seeking this dream, and he would
not relinquish this dream, even unto the end. Unfortunately, many of the
inheritors of his legacy have steered the course of the Pentecostal
movement away from his original dream, but Seymour himself should be
remembered as the pioneer of this powerful movement.
Bibliography
Connelly, James T. “William J. Seymour.” Twentieth-Century Shapers of
American Popular Religion. Edited by Charles H. Lippy. New York:
Greenwood Press, 1989. Pp. 381-387. A short, encyclopedia-like treatment
of Seymour’s life, with a brief and somewhat unfair appraisal of his
work. The work includes a brief critical analysis of biographies to date.
Cox, Harvey. Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the
Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Addison-
Wesley Publishing Co., 1995. Pp. 45-65. An excellent, compelling
narrative, in describing the events in Seymour’s life at Azusa.
Goff, James R. Jr. Fields White Unto Harvest: Charles F. Parham and the
Missionary Origins of Pentecostalism. Fayetteville, AR: University of
Arkansas Press, 1988. Pp. 9-10, 107-109, 111-120, 128-131. This work is
understandably spare in its treatment of Seymour. He rejects Seymour as
the founder of the Pentecostal movements in favor of Parham, claiming
that glossolalia should be the definitive aspect of Pentecostalism.
McRobert, Iain. The Black Roots and White Racism of Early Pentecostalism in
the USA. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988. Pp. 48-59. A succinct
biography, though heavily dependent on Nelson’s work when describing
Seymour’s life.
. “The Black Roots of Pentecostalism.” Pentecost, Mission and
Ecumenism: Essays on Intercultural Theology. Edited by Jan A. B.
Jongeneel. New York: Peter Lang, 1992. Pp. 73-84. McRobert lambasts the
lack of recognition for Seymour’s role in the Pentecostal movement,
arguing that the African culture has influenced the movement. Again, the
author borrows heavily from Nelson’s account.
Nelson, Douglas J. “For Such a Time as This: The Story of Bishop William J.
Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival: A Search for
Pentecostal/Charismatic Roots.” Ph. D. dissertation, University of
Birmingham, England, 1981. The best, most carefully researched biography
of Seymour. It includes critical analyses of past primary and secondary
biographies, and the author thoughtfully weaves in historical and social
issues contemporaneous with Seymour’s life.
Robeck, Cecil M. Jr. “Pentecostal Origins From a Global Perspective.” All
Together in One Place: Theological Papers from the Brighton Conference on
World Evangelization. Edited by Harold D. Hunter and Peter D. Hocken.
Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press Ltd., 1993. Pp. 166-180.
Delivers a well-written argument for Seymour’s more prominent role in the
origins of the Pentecostal movement.
Tinney, James S. “William J. Seymour: Father of Modern-Day Pentecostalism.”
Black Apostles: Afro-American Clergy Confront the Twentieth Century.
Edited by Randall K. Burkett and Richard Newman. Boston: G. K. Hall
and Co., 1978. Pp. 213- 225. A cumbersome, outdated account arguing
for greater recognition of Seymour’s accomplishments.
Note: Was unable to locate Seymour’s one major work, The Doctrines and
Disciplines of the Azusa Street Apostolic Faith Mission of Los Angeles,
Cal., with Scripture Readings by W. J. Seymour, Its Founder and General
Overseer.
William J. Seymour’s life and ministry
Implications for today’s ministry
What is most striking is his desire to break down walls of race, gender,
and socio-economic class. Though recent movement such as the Promise
Keepers have begun anew to break down these walls, it has been said that
Sunday morning at 11 o’clock is still the most segregated time in America.
I am personally challenged, as I serve both at an ethnic-specific college
ministry and a multi-ethnic church, and am forced to examine my involvement
with the ethnic-specific ministry in light of Seymour’s work.
Secondly, he was a man of prayer. All of what had happened at Azusa
almost a century ago was grounded in prayer. It was his time of solitary
praying and fasting that brought about the beginnings of the prayer
meetings. It was other times of prayer and fasting that allowed the power
of the Holy Spirit to come. Through his heart of praying, he allowed the
movement of God to pour itself out at Azusa.
Lastly, his character was impeccable. He was seen as a pastor to all,
without fault or reproach, no doubt in part due to his background with the
holiness movement. Even when betrayed by his own colleagues, he showed a
great deal of humility, dignity, and pursued to be like Christ in what he
did. And, in his humility, he did not limit the work of God. He allowed the
movement of the Holy Spirit to lead, and did not presume to know more about
God than God himself. It was this humility that allowed the Spirit of God
to fall on Azusa and to touch the lives of many, eventually to peoples all
throughout the world.
———————————-
[1] Cox, xv; Patrick Johnstone, Operation World: The Day-by-Day Guide To
Praying For the World. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993,
p. 23.
[2] Nelson, 161.
[3] Ibid., 164.
[4] Ibid., 200.
[5] Ibid., 161.
[6] Ibid., 191.
[7] Ibid., 200.
[8] Ibid., 197.
[9] Ibid., 196.
[10] Ibid., 209.
[11] Ibid., 211.
[12] In Seymour’s Wesleyan model, sanctification was a second experience of
grace after conversion. In the “finished work” model, both sanctification
and conversion occurred at the same time.
[13] Ibid., 250.
[14] Ibid., 271.
Click to see HTML preview
