The Azusa Street Mission and Revival: The Birth of the Global Pentecostal Movement

I can only imagine that the missing footnotes would very much give additional information of importance.

This book is the best I have read so far on the Pentecostal revival that started in a blacksmith's barn at the turn of the last century. Today that revivals sons and daughters are the largest group within protestant Christianity, dominating Africa, South America, Asia, and Mexico/Central America. Its beginning is especially important in discerning what was God's purposes for those people, and for us who might consider ourselves their spiritual descendants. As for the book itself, its author is the current authority on this movement's beginning. The scholarship is first rate, even, and very readable. This book focuses on the first five years of the the Azusa Street Ministry as it was led by William Seymour. As this was at first a fringe movement within the church, the documentation is hard, and chiefly firsthand accounts, testimonies, and newspaper reports. Robeck's work is much appreciated for both its thoroughness and fairness. The author's writing style is very readable, which is rare considering most church histories and current church historians are written in a wooden and scholarly air. This author has chosen to do it differently to reach a wider audience. That being said, I wish there had been a bibliography for further reading, as well as more extensive footnotes. That is my preference, and not everyone would agree. I also hope that there could be a further book describing the next twenty years of the "pentecostal revival" as it swept across our nation, and then the world. Thank-you Doctor Robeck for treating us to a wonderful treatment of the birth of this important movement within the church.

Just like the Savior was born in a manger, the Pentecostal movement was born in former horse stable. What now comprises some half-a-billion Christians started in this humble church. A must-read for anybody who wants to understand what will soon be the main expression of Christianity.