Pentecostal & Related Denominations

Overview

The Pentecostal movement, though it has its roots in the teachings of John Wesley, got its start in the early 1900s with two primary events. The first took place in Topeka, Kansas in 1901, where a man named Charles Parham had a church and Bible school. While praying and laying his hands on a student, Agnes Ozman, she began to speak in tongues—this is regarded as the birth of the Pentecostal movement. The Second event took place in Los Angeles in 1906 with a man named William Seymour, who was pastor to a church on Azusa Street. Seymour had listened in to some of Parham’s lectures at one of his schools (in Texas), though as black man during that time, he was not allowed to attend the class officially. Following in Parham’s footsteps, he taught very similar doctrine and shortly after he started pastoring the church in Azusa, many instances of healings and speaking in tongues occurred. These occurrences were the beginning of what became known as the Azusa Street Revival, from which the Pentecostal movement took off.