(Los Angeles, CA 2006) Recently, I
participated in a momentous Pentecostal event in Southern
California—the Azusa Street Centennial in Los Angeles. It was with
great anticipation that I entered the LA Convention Center to
celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Azusa Street
outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I would not be disappointed.
I had heard of the 1906 Azusa
Street revival ever since I began attending a Pentecostal church
over 30 years ago. Most Spirit-filled Christians in the world today
can trace their spiritual genealogy back to the revival that “caught
fire” at that tumbled down livery stable on a dusty LA street. That
makes this obscure spot, in what now is known as “Little Tokyo,”
significant to about 600 million people in the world today. Tens of
thousands of them would attend the celebration of 2006. I was
privileged to be one.
Historic Azusa Street
 Being an aficionado of the
historical, it was a delight to begin my conference experience with
a presentation on the historical facts in one of the finest prepared
productions I had ever seen on any event. Entitled, “The Azusa
Street Project,” it is the story of William Seymour’s founding of
the prayer meeting that would become the revival. It was a
standing-room only presentation, and many of those in the hall went
immediately and purchased the DVD, as I did.
I would experience the history up
close and personal, however, with a wonderful tour of two important
sites. The first, the house on Bonnie Brae Street, is the
beautifully restored modest home that was the site of the first
 Spirit outpouring of the Azusa era and the meetings that immediately
followed. Many original furnishings are still in place in this
house, which averted destruction in the ‘70s thanks to a few
committed individuals and is now owned by the Church
 of God in
Christ. Next, our tour moved to the site of the Azusa Street
Mission. The 1906 meetings moved here because crowds exceeded
capacity at the house, eventually causing the front porch to
collapse. At the site, renowned church historian Dr. Mel Robeck led
an inspiring lesson on the history of the Mission, with assistance
from others who were well prepared to help those of us attending
feel as though we were part of the original meeting.
Global gathering
Services
were held each evening in four different venues in the Los Angeles
area, featuring some of the most popular international Pentecostal
and Charismatic speakers of our time. (My personal favorite venue
was the beautifully restored Angelus Temple, site of Aimee Semple McPherson’s meetings dating back to the 1920s.) But it
was the truly international nature of this gathering that excited me
above all else. I met people from around the globe with whom I had
little in common other than salvation by the blood of Jesus
accompanied by a subsequent Pentecostal infilling by the Holy
Spirit. It is amazing how these common bonds build fast ties among
complete strangers. I found myself standing in line to enter one
event between a gentleman from Tennessee and another from Zambia,
talking, laughing and sharing experiences like old friends after
just moments. Certainly this is just a bit of what heaven will be
like as well!
From Azusa street to your street
I am thankful for the opportunity to experience this year’s Azusa
Street Centennial. But I am far more thankful for a much more
important event that happened some thirty years prior—my own
personal Azusa Street experience. Yes, my real experience at Azusa
wasn’t in a dusty livery stable but rather on my knees in the choir
loft of a small church in Georgia. However, it was the very same
experience! It happened in an Upper Room in Jerusalem, on Azusa
Street, then to me, and to someone else today. The Pentecostal
Baptism has not changed, praise God, from that time to this!
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