How to End Racial Division in the Church

During the period of the most intense racial tension in 20^th Century America, God sent an earth-shaking revival marked by interracial worship and led by Bill-an unlikely catalyst.

Bill sat weakened in a chair dictating a letter after suffering a heart attack, Thursday, 28 September 1922.  Hours later, a second heart attack ended his life. 

I wonder what Bill was thinking in the hours before he went to be with Jesus?

Many looked at him as a failure. The Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) that he pastored now ran less than 30 in attendance, and he was struggling financially.    

Bill started holding services at AFM on 14 April, 1906, at an old dilapidated, two-story frame building after a house church gathering grew too large and too loud.  The neighbors complained to the police so something had to be done.

At first Bill pastored a small black congregation, but God showed up so powerfully that white Christians began crossing the color line seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:4)

AFM became the epicenter of Pentecostalism. From this humble location, the movement spread to the entire world. 

I imagine Bill marveled at how he, the son of former slaves, pastored an interracial congregation at the height of the Jim Crow era.

After all, the revival took place only seven years after Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court decision that legalized segregated facilities across America.

The basis of the decision was that separate facilities were not unconstitutional as long as they were equal, but in practice, the facilities were rarely equal. 

White supremacist terror groups like the Ku Klux Klan thrived during this era.  Between 1889-1922, 3,456 blacks were documented as being lynched to include 83 women in 44 of 48 states.  Many lynchings went unreported. 

This was a time when theories like Social Darwinism were used to argue that certain groups achieved dominance in society because of their innate superiority. 

Closely associated to this “doctrine of devils” was a new “science” called eugenics which aimed at improving the human race by removing “undesirables.”  Adolph Hitler embraced both theories but he was not alone.  

 Against this backdrop, AFM held services three-times-a-day, seven days a week for 3 1/2 years! You may want to read that again. 

All nations, all races, and all social classes worshipped at AFM.  Within two years over 50 nations had been impacted. 

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” (Acts 2:1).

Bill believed that Pentecost marked the beginning of a new order where all people were accepted, and where God’s love prevailed.  

AFM’s newspaper, The Apostolic Faith, had a mailing list that grew in circulation to 50,000 worldwide.  Bill himself wrote and taught a global audience about the baptism of the Holy Spirit through this periodical. 

AFM church’s building at 312 Azusa Street was located in downtown Los Angeles and is regarded as the most famous address in Pentecostal-Charismatic history.  Why? 

Today there are 600 million Pentecostal-Charismatics in the world.  Nearly all of the church organizations that serve these individuals can trace their roots directly or indirectly to Azusa Street.

The LA Times and others newspapers wrote scathing, racially-stereotyped accounts of the events that took place at Azusa Street. Many theologians denounced the movement.

A favorable view of Pentecostals regarded them as Christians who spoke in tongues, believed in divine healing, and the soon return of the Lord Jesus. 

Bill spoke in tongues.  Bill prayed for the sick.  Bill believed Jesus was coming soon.  But the defining characteristic of AFM was social and ethnic diversity in worship.    

Breaking with many Pentecostals of the era, Bill viewed tongues as a sign of the Holy Spirit baptism and not the sign.  Bill taught that love was the real evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit:

“If you get angry, speak evil or backbite. I don’t care how many tongues you may have.  You have not the Holy Spirit.” 

Bill believed that walking in the fruit of the Spirit -love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control -was the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  (Galatians 5:22-23)

Incredibly, God empowered Bill to put his beliefs into practice before a worldwide audience, 50 years before Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement.

God’s presence overcame Jim Crow and racism.  Pentecostal historian Frank Bartleman put it this way, “the color line was washed away in the blood.”

Gaston Barnibus Cashwell, a white man born in Sampson County, NC visited Azusa Street.  He reacted with alarm and discomfort when black people laid hands on him for prayer in a service led by a white woman.

Cashwell later reported that God “crucified” his racial prejudice.  Cashwell returned to the East Coast and began conducting interracial meetings of his own that drew thousands in Dunn, NC. 

All moves of God have a shelf life and Azusa Street was no different. Internal strife and division led to the demise of the revival.  Loss of the mailing list was a critical factor.

AFM secretary, Florence Crawford became upset when Bill got married to Jennie Evans Moore, 13 May 1908.  Florence believed that the imminent return of Jesus made marriage a distraction.

Crawford stole the mailing list and joined another Pentecostal fellowship in Portland, Oregon that survives to this day.  The loss of the list was devastating in terms of promoting the revival.

In my opinion, analyzing the decline of the revival is of less importance than understanding why God visited AFM, and why God chose to use Bill.

I believe God poured out His Spirit on AFM to declare to a global audience that there is a solution to racism, tribalism, and biases based on class distinctions and gender inequities.

I believe God chose Bill to show the world that He is no respecter of persons. I believe he chose Bill because of his humility and his willingness to yield to the Spirit of God.

Bill is Reverend William Seymour, the catalyst of the Azusa Street Revival.

I believe you can capture the essence of Reverend Seymour’s message in this way. 

The purpose of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is to empower believers with the love of God to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth.  (Acts 1:8)

Reverend Seymour was a strong advocate for spiritual gifts, but as the Apostle Paul stated:

“Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.” (1 Cor 13:8)

Fast forward to today.  Azusa street offers a practical expression of the Biblical solution to racial division in the church in America:

In Christ, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) 

Revisiting the life and ministry of William Seymour gives new meaning to these familiar words:

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

I don’t know what Reverend Seymour was thinking in the waning moments of his life.  He was isolated, alone, and marginalized by men, but he was no failure.

“If you were to ask who is the Luther, Calvin or Wesley of the Pentecostal Movement, it would have to be William Seymour” -Dr. Vinson Synan

Reverend William Seymour was one of the greatest and most impactful Christian leaders of the 20^th Century. 

His enduring legacy is that Pentecost is not about tongues.  Pentecost is about heavenly empowerment to walk in love and bring men and women into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. https://dreamprayernetwork.com/gods-plan-of-salvation/

“You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”  (John 8:32) God Bless! Press On!! Kevin

Video References on William Seymour, AFM & Azusa Street:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRjYbSNIQ28&t=2372s; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn2CScpoHyo&t=21s; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPtGJ35jIwA; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXti6tqkX9E