Pentecostal revival
The Azusa Street revival led to one of the most powerful Christian movements in the twentieth century.
The Azusa Street revival led to one of the most powerful Christian movements in the twentieth century.
In addition to the many programs and institutions Moody established and the countless people he led to Christ, he and Sankey created a model for teamwork that influenced future evangelists like Billy Sunday and Billy Graham.
Without the tireless efforts of Christian missionaries, the young nation would have had no moral compass and many of the important social programs that helped protect immigrants, women, children, Native Americans, and newly freed slaves would have never existed.
The opportunity for social gatherings had a powerful appeal to people who were starving for companionship. They were stirred by the evangelistic drive of the preachers, who encouraged emotional expression. The same exhibitions of tearful remorse and exuberant joy that appeared in England under Wesley’s preaching and in the Great Awakening in America appeared on the frontier. Out of the conversions of the camp meetings, the churches gathered recruits and the morals of the region showed dramatic improvement.
Dwight Lyman Moody (1837-1899) was one of the great 19th century American evangelists. He was born in East Northfield, Massachusetts to a family of modest means. His father died when Moody was four and financial circumstances and his own unruly nature kept him from receiving more than a superficial education.
Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875), the great 19th-century revivalist, abolitionist, and educator was born in Warren, Connecticut but moved as a youth to New York and later New Jersey, where he went to school.
The formation of an independent evangelical congregation often springs out of a home Bible study group that has prospered.