The Kingdom of the “Not Likely”

The following is an article that I wrote for the RFC Newsletter's May edition:

Dear Redeemer Family,

This trimester in Redeemer Ministry School I am teaching about places in history where God's presence has seemed to manifest and linger. My favorite movement to teach about is the one that began on Azusa Street (in Los Angeles) in April of 1906. William Seymour was the pastor and leader of The Azusa Street Mission. He was a black man in his mid-thirties with only one working eye. His parents were still slaves when he was born in Louisiana a few years after The Civil War ended.

Azusa Street has been mostly forgotten by both secular and church historians. The great German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer called groups like Seymour's at Azusa Street the "step-children of Christian history" because of the lack of attention paid to them. Those who do remember their story usually think glossolalia (speaking in tongues) was the major contribution made to Christendom by Seymour and Azusa Street. While speaking in tongues were a substantial part of the worship times at Azusa there is a different contribution I would like to note.

 Azusa Street was the first recorded integrated congregation ever led by a black man in the United States.  In 1906 the Jim Crow laws were in full effect and many cities even had a special earlier curfew for blacks. In fact, the Apostolic Faith ministry school that Seymour had previously attended required him to sit outside of the classroom in a separate room segregated from the Caucasian students. He was not allowed to do any ministry to whites while attending that school. Seymour believed that "the blood of Jesus washed away the color line" and his leadership practices matched that belief. The church was comprised of blacks, lower and upper class whites, Mexican migrant workers and a community of Russian immigrants. Both whites and blacks served as elders. He had many women serving in evangelism and teaching ministries. The multi –ethnic congregation and leadership team of Azusa was a microcosm of the melting pot Los Angeles had become.

The newspaper reports of Azusa almost always had openly hostile racist language. Many of the headlines feel too inappropriate to even quote here. The thought of a black man in America placing his hands on and praying for a white woman in a church a century ago was abhorrent to societal norms. In fact, the integration at Azusa Street caused Seymour's former mentor to claim that all of the manifestations expressed there were the work of Satan.

The upside down kingdom of Jesus so often takes the least likely of people and turns them into world changers. Who was less likely to bring about a multicultural revival than a son of slaves in "Jim Crow" America? The story of Azusa reminds me that the upside down kingdom of Jesus still wants to use the least likely people to shape the world. I look around and wonder, what seemingly impossible things do You want to do with us God?

Love, 

Josh