in Los Angeles founded the Pentecostal Church of
the Nazarene in 1895 in an attempt to preserve the
teaching of holiness which he felt was dying out in the
Methodist Church, a denomination in which he had
served as a leading minister for some thirty years.
poorest section of the city, Bresee was repeating
Wesley's work of a earlier century in England by
ministering to the disinherited of Los Angeles society. His
Nazarene followers were rapidly becoming the largest
holiness church in America.
and even pastored. William Seymour was initially
inspired by a black woman pastor in Houston, Texas,
Lucy Farrow. He attended her church in 1903.
Significantly, she was the first to expose Seymour to the
practice of speaking in tongues.
in California (Church of the Nazarene) on Santa Fe Street which had been founded by Julia W. Hutchins.
Seymour traveled to Los Angels bearing the message that speaking in tongues was the necessary
evidence of the Pentecostal experience, but Hutchins rejected his preaching and locked him out. He
found refuge in the home of Richard and Ruth Asberry on Bonnie Brae Street, where he conducted
several weeks of prayer meetings.
Note: We have come full circle. Although The Church of the Nazarene was open to women in ministry, which
prompted Julia Hutchinson to affiliate with them, initially they rejected the pentecostal message. Today one of
our own, Lavonne Barnett, daughter of Supt. Edgar Barnett, is leading a spirit filled praise and worship session
in the Church of the Nazarene Los Angeles.
