Explosion, Motivation, and Consolidation: The Historical Anatomy of the Pentecostal Missionary Movement

Abstract

In 1986 America's oldest Pentecostal denomination will celebrate its centennial, and the events at Azusa Street in 1906 will be recalled in an eighty-year celebration. It is significant, then, that this article recalls some of the early dynamics of the beginnings of the modern Pentecostal movement. The article demonstrates how the Pentecostal movement was decidedly missionary from its birth and asserts that the history of Pentecostalism cannot be rightly appreciated and understood apart from its missionary vision. Some of the theological motivations which produced the missionary fervor of early Pentecostals are integrated with a synopsis of how the movement eventually was consolidated into more organized missions structures.