Research Paper On The Assemblies Of God

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction...........................................................................Page 1

Charles Parham.......................................................................Page 1-2

Agnes N. Ozman......................................................................Page 2

Introduction to W.J.Seymour........................................................Page 3

Azusa Street Revival..................................................................Page 3-6

Call to General Counsel...............................................................Page 6-7

NAE......................................................................................Page 7-8

National Sunday School Association................................................Page 8

Origin of Species.......................................................................Page 8

J.W.Welch...............................................................................Page 8-9

Conclusion...............................................................................Page 10

Bibliography..............................................................................Page 11

Many people think that the Assemblies of God is a fairly new denomination with little history. They are greatly mistaken, the assemblies of God has a rich and eye opening history. The age in which the assemblies of God was born was a difficult time. Many different ideas were coming into the Christian world. Just as Martian Luther, we struggled and sought God's will and face while others plotted against us. Through all these things God blessed our fellowship and now we prosper. There we many important people God used for the advancement of His kingdom in the beginning years. One of the most important was Charles F. Parham.

Charles F. Parham was born in Muscatine, Iowa, on June 4, 1873. (Menzies 34) At 9 even before his conversion he felt called to the ministry. Four years later he professed salvation while attending the Congregational Church. Later he seemed to shift his view and denomination. Later he enrolled at Southwestern Collage in Winfield, Kansas to further his education to become a minister. While he was in collage, he was mediocre with his mission in life, but that was about to change. Parham became very sick with rheumatic fever, he believe it was because his rebellion against God's call on his life. He made a promise to God that if he survived he would serve God in the ministry.

Finally at age 19 Parham entered full time ministry in the Methodist Church. Unfortunately he immediately had problems with the ecclesiastical discipline. God still used him anyway in great ways. The first step that he accomplished that effected the Assemblies of God was establishing a "faith home". (Dayton 14) Eventually the people who attended the "faith home" where being healed and Parham decided to go a step further and he established Bethel Collage.

At this point Parham may not seem very important to the Assemblies of God's formation, but this collage is where the Assemblies of God was branched from. The students at Bethel Collage were mostly from the Holiness groups and the Methodist Church, totaling 40 in all.(Menzies 36) It was late December just before Parham was leaving for a series of meetings in Kansas City, when he told his students to pray about the biblical evidence as in Acts. When he returned on the morning or December 31, 1900, he was stunned to find out that the Holy Spirit had fallen on the students. This made the students and Parham believe in the evidence with all their hearts. They had heard from God and had a genuine encounter with Christ! One student seemed to be especially touched. Her name was Agnes N. Ozman.

Agnes was a student who had been at Bethel Bible collage for sometime. She was an active participant of the late night downtown outreach. Even in these early years of the Pentecostal faith we were already establishing our outreach and home missions. Later this would be one of the main "pillars" of the Assemblies of God. (www.ag.org/about/history) Another reason she was used by the holy spirit was her urgency in prayer. It seems today that we don't have the time or yearning for talking to God. We seen to God work so many things throughout time. I amazes me that he gives up permission to breath and live well. He could have wiped the world clean instead of crucifying His Son. God has grace though, he wants us do be happy. We must do as Agnes and seek His face, it's what he wants. God wants to hear His children so He can work through us. That's why he worked through Agnes. She couldn't speak for three days (Menzies 37 ) God came upon her so richly. Eventually the spirit overflowed her and the others had received the Holy Spirit with the evidence by January 3. This phenomenon didn't just stay in Kansas.

Parham didn't just open a "faith home" in Kansas but also in Houston, Texas. He had one more student that came from his collage who would be a great influence on the Pentecostal movement and the Assemblies of God. His name was W.J. Seymour. Seymour became known as the link between Houston and Azusa street. As time went on in his life at the Houston collage he became more and more convinced of the Pentecostal truth while listening to Parham every week. (Menzies 49) He had not received the initial evidence of the Holy Spirit yet, but it did not deter him. God had a great plan for him and especially the world and the Pentecostal community.

Seymour went to L.A. to start a small church. People who had visited him told of how he was an incredible leader and a "godly man", (Menzies 50) he was definitely getting positive responses from the Pentecostal community. Seymour also constantly preached Acts making sure that whatever happens during their services was of God.

Not all people were happy that Seymour was preaching the message of acts. In one instance he went to a holiness church and preached his sermon from acts. The next service in the afternoon we was locked out and told he was preaching false doctrine. This did