Assemblies of God USA

=== Background ===

==== Charles Parham ====
[[Charles Parham]] was a leading figure in the early development of the Assemblies of God. Parham was a member of the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]] and served as an [[Ordination|unordained]] supply pastor in Eudora, Kansas, from 1893 to 1895.{{Sfn|Blumhofer|1993|p=45}} Parham believed in the Methodist doctrine of [[entire sanctification]] as a [[second work of grace]]. He was also an adherent of the [[holiness movement]] and believed that [[faith healing]] was provided for in [[Atonement in Christianity|Christ's atonement]]. Parham had some contact with the [[Fire-Baptized Holiness Church]] led by Benjamin H. Irwin. He accepted Irwin's teaching of a third experience of grace identified with the "baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire".{{Sfn|Synan|1997|p=89}}

After 1895, Parham left the Methodist Church and became a nondenominational [[Itinerant preacher|evangelist]].{{Sfn|Synan|1997|p=89}} As a [[Restorationism|restorationist]], he rejected traditional denominations as incompatible with true, biblical Christianity, which he referred to as the "apostolic faith". By 1900, he concluded based on his study of the Bible that [[glossolalia]] (speaking in tongues) was the evidence of receiving [[baptism with the Holy Spirit]]. While other people had claimed to speak in tongues before Parham, he was the first to connect glossolalia with Spirit baptism. His Apostolic Faith Movement was strongest in southwest Missouri and southeast Kansas. He established several congregations around Galena, Kansas.{{Sfn|Blumhofer|1993|pp=45–47 & 51–56}}

In 1905, Parham moved his headquarters to Houston, Texas, and opened a Bible training school. One of his students was [[William J. Seymour]], an African American holiness preacher. In 1906, Seymour moved to Los Angeles, California, where his preaching ignited the interracial [[Azusa Street Revival]]. Seymour initially considered himself under Parham's authority, but Parham's criticism of the revival led to a permanent split between the two men.{{Sfn|Synan|1997|pp=93 & 102}} The Azusa Street Revival soon eclipsed Parham’s influence over the nascent Pentecostal movement.{{Sfn|Blumhofer|1993|p=55}}

In 1906, Parham's movement had an estimated 8,600 members concentrated in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas.{{Sfn|Robeck|2005|loc=II.A. The Church of God in Christ and the Assemblies of God: Siblings or Offspring?}} In that year, he appointed Warren Fay Carothers as general field director for the United States. [[Howard A. Goss]] was appointed field director for Texas to supervise around 60 full-time evangelists. Around this time, L. C. Hall and D. C. O. Opperman joined the movement. Both men were prominent former members of [[John Alexander Dowie]]'s Christian Catholic Apostolic Church.{{Sfn|Blumhofer|1993|p=82}} Parham attempted to gain control of [[Zion, Illinois]], the utopian community established by Dowie. As a result, a number of Dowie's followers accepted the Pentecostal message.{{Sfn|Creech|1996|p=416}} 

In 1907, Parham was charged with [[sodomy]] while in San Antonio, Texas. The scandal led evangelists to renounce his authority, and his organization dissolved.{{Sfn|Blumhofer|1993|p=82}}

==== Apostolic Faith Movement reorganized ====
[[File:E.N. Bell.JPG|thumb|right|E.N. Bell, first General Superintendent of the AG]]

Parham's former associates reorganized the Apostolic Faith Movement. Prominent leaders of the new movement were Howard A. Goss, L. C. Hall, D. C. O. Opperman, and A. G. Canada. They were later joined by [[Eudorus N. Bell]], previously a [[Southern Baptist]] minister. They began to identify themselves as Pentecostals.{{Sfn|Blumhofer|1993|p=82}} The Apostolic Faith Movement played a leading role in organizing and institutionalizing Pentecostalism in the Midwest and Southwest and from 1909 to 1912 absorbed smaller Pentecostal groups.{{Sfn|Creech|1996|p=413}} The Apostolic Faith Movement was a mostly-white organization, but it had some black and Hispanic ministers and missionaries.{{Sfn|Rodgers|2008|pp=54–55}}

The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) was a predominantly African American Holiness church headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1907, its founder, [[Charles Harrison Mason]], visited Azusa Street and adopted the Pentecostal message. Mason's group was the first Pentecostal denomination to incorporate, which gave its clergy privileges such as railroad discounts.{{Sfn|Robeck|2005|loc=II.A. The Church of God in Christ and the Assemblies of God: Siblings or Offspring?}} Mason led the church until his death in 1961. He was highly respected by both black and white Pentecostals. COGIC was interracial with many white members, and many white Pentecostal ministers sought ordination from Mason.{{Sfn|Blumhofer|1993|p=74}}{{Sfn|Synan|1997|p=126}}

Early Pentecostal groups were loosely organized. Historian Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. notes, "While a person might hold primary allegiance to one organization, she or he could hold credentials with a second organization as well."{{Sfn|Robeck|2005|loc=II.A. The Church of God in Christ and the Assemblies of God: Siblings or Offspring?}} In 1907, Goss had received a license to preach from Mason's group, and he claimed that Mason had given him permission to issue ministerial credentials under the Churches of God in Christ name for the "white work".{{Sfn|Blumhofer|1993|pp=43, 81–84}} In 1910, the Apostolic Faith Movement was renamed “Church of God in Christ and in Unity with the Apostolic Faith.” This change was part of a movement within Pentecostalism at that time to adopt church names that appeared in the Bible, such as Church of God, Church of God in Christ, and Assembly of God.{{Sfn|Rodgers|2008|pp=54–55}}

In the Church of God in Christ, white ministers were supervised by the African-American leaders of the denomination.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Burgess |first=Katherine |title=Bishop Mason built COGIC out of revival, the faith of former slaves |url=https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2019/09/10/church-god-christ-bishop-mason-built-cogic/2220079001/ |access-date=2022-09-03 |website=The Commercial Appeal |language=en-US |quote="You have this very interesting phenomena that at the beginning of racial segregation, the Church of God in Christ as a larger body is interracial," Daniels said. "This interracial impulse will continue to shape the Church of God in Christ in various ways all the way up until you get to the 1950s. … It's this interesting situation where African Americans are supervising white clergy, white pastors during this time of segregation."}}</ref> Though in some instances, the relations between Mason's church and white ministers were more informal.<ref>{{harvtxt|Robeck|2005|loc=II.A.}} writes: "On paper, at least, there were over 350 such ministers which made it appear that these white ministers composed roughly half of all Church of God in Christ leadership. What now seems quite apparent is that while these white ministers received ordination from the Church of God in Christ, they continued to function along segregated lines. For them, it was a marriage of convenience, not an integrated fellowship. Howard Goss who negotiated with Mason for the ability to sign these credentials would later label it 'an association...mainly for purposes of business.' But was it only a business proposition for Mason?"</ref>{{Sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=54}} Beginning in 1911, many white ministers affiliated with COGIC expressed dissatisfaction with African American leadership.<ref> Cecil M. Robeck, Jr, Amos Yong, ''The Cambridge Companion to Pentecostalism'', Cambridge University Press, UK, 2014, p. 78</ref> In 1913, 353 white ministers formed a new church, which gave its own credentials, although still using the same name as Mason's organization.{{Sfn|Synan|1997|pp=153–155}}

==== Chicago revival ====
By 1910, the center of the Pentecostal movement had moved from Los Angeles to Chicago, Illinois. According to historian [[Vinson Synan]], "for the next decade, Chicago served as the de facto worldwide missions and theological center for the fast-growing movement".{{Sfn|Synan|1997|pp=132–133}}

The two most important Pentecostal congregations were the Stone Church and the North Avenue Mission. Both churches had contacts with the Apostolic Faith Movement.{{Sfn|Creech|1996|p=416}} The Stone Church was established in 1906 by William Hamner Piper, a former follower of Dowie who had joined the Pentecostal movement. Due to its strategic location in Chicago, the church often hosted large conventions and rallies.{{Sfn|Blumhofer|1993|pp=79–80}}

The North Avenue Mission was pastored by [[William Howard Durham]], who received Spirit baptism at Azusa Street in 1907.{{Sfn|Synan|1997|p=132}} Unlike other early Pentecostal leaders, Durham did not believe in entire sanctification as a second work of grace. He believed in the [[finished work]] doctrine, teaching that "when God saves a man, He makes him clean".{{Sfn|Blumhofer|1993|p=81}} Durham had a direct influence on many of the founders of Pentecostal movements around the world. A. H. Argue of Winnipeg, Canada, received Spirit baptism under Durham's ministry. Argue returned to Canada, and his preaching led to the founding of the [[Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada]], the Assemblies of God's sister denomination.{{Sfn|Synan|1997|p=133}}

==== Christian and Missionary Alliance ====
The Stone Church and the North Avenue Mission were the "main exporters" of Pentecostalism to [[Christian and Missionary Alliance]] (CMA) churches of the Midwest and Northeast. The CMA was a [[Higher Life movement|higher life]] denomination founded by [[A. B. Simpson]].{{Sfn|Creech|1996|pp=416–417}}

Simpson and other Alliance leaders were cautiously receptive to the new movement. In the spring of 1907, the Alliance's annual council was convinced "that God [was] now visiting His people in many places with a special manifestation of power".<ref>''Christian and Missionary Alliance'', 8 June 1907, 205, quoted in {{harvtxt|Blumhofer|1993|p=103}}</ref> Throughout the summer of 1907, aspects of the Pentecostal revival were on display at CMA events. At the Beulah Park Convention in Collinwood, Ohio, it was reported that "God poured out His Spirit upon the people in general and upon others in particular, so that they spoke with new tongues and magnified God. The sick were healed and demons were expelled".<ref>"Beulah Park Convention," ''Christian and Missionary Alliance'', 14 September 1907, 128, quoted in {{harvtxt|Blumhofer|1993|p=103}}</ref>

While Simpson was not opposed to speaking in tongues, he opposed the doctrine of evidentiary tongues. In 1914, the Alliance adopted an official position stating, "the consecrated believer may receive the Spirit in His fulness without speaking in tongues or any miraculous manifestation whatever."<ref>"Official Statement of the Board of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Setting Forth Its Position with Reference to 'Tongues' and the Baptism of the Spirit," Alliance Collection, AGA, quoted in {{harvtxt|Blumhofer|1993|p=105}}</ref> Afterwards, CMA members who believed strongly in evidentiary tongues left the Alliance. After Simpson's death, the Alliance became more hostile to tongue-speaking. [[A. W. Tozer]] coined the phrase "seek not, forbid not" that summarized the CMA stance on speaking in tongues.{{Sfn|Blumhofer|1993|p=105}}

The CMA had a profound influence on the Assemblies of God. According to historian Joe Creech, the Assemblies of God derived its "hymnody, healing doctrine, ecclesiology, and organizational structures" from the CMA.{{Sfn|Creech|1996|p=417}} While the Apostolic Faith Movement drew its adherents from the rural Southwest, the CMA and Chicago Pentecostals were primarily Northern middle-class evangelicals. Many of the AG's future leaders had CMA backgrounds.{{Sfn|Creech|1996|p=418}}