100 Years of Azusa Street

It went largely unnoticed here in Austin and on campus, but last week was the 100th anniversary of the Asuza Street Revival. The revival marked the birth or Pentacostalism in the United States. Since 1906, Pentacostalism has exploded across the globe.

Professor Cecil M. Robeck Jr. (of Fuller Theological Seminary)

Once you have been touched by God at such a deep level, right down to the tongue that you speak, and your ability to speak the language that you've been trained in all of your life leaves you, there is no turning back.

Krista Tippett:

Outsiders often focus their attention on the aspects of this movement they find most puzzling, especially its ecstatic forms of worship. I am more struck this week on Azusa Street by the improbable mix of humanity this faith can bring together. And the transformative power of its whole-body spirituality is visible and palpable. It is difficult, nearly impossible, to apply a lens of rationality and objectivity to the experiential faith of Pentecostalism. But all of us — journalists, policymakers and citizens — must find new ways to understand and take this movement seriously, for it is changing our world.

I might add that future leaders of other denominations must pay close attention as well.

More here at Speaking of Faith.