Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. is Senior Professor of Church History at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he has taught since 1974. Previously, Robeck served as an instructor in religion at Southern California College (now Vanguard University) and as a trustee for Bethany Bible College in Scotts Valley, California. At Fuller, he has served in numerous administrative positions including director of the David J. du Plessis Center for Christian Spirituality and associate dean for Academic Programs in the School of Theology. Robeck is an ordained minister in the Assemblies of God.
     Robeck has written more than 300 articles, and his long-term historical research centers on the Azusa Street Mission and Revival and its African American pastor, William Seymour. He has authored The Azusa Street Mission and Revival: The Birth of the Global Pentecostal Movement (recipient of the Society for Pentecostal Studies’ Pneuma Award) and Prophecy at Carthage: Perpetua, Tertullian, and Cyprian. He is editor of Witness to Pentecost: The Life of Frank Bartleman and Charismatic Experiences in History, and coeditor of The Azusa Street Revival and Its Legacy (with Harold D. Hunter) and The Suffering Body: Responding to the Persecution of Christians (with Harold D. Hunter). He also coedited the Cambridge Companion to Pentecostalism (with Amos Yong). For nine years, he was editor of Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. His recent publications have focused on the Holy Spirit, the Church, unity in the Pentecostal perspective, and potential contributions the Pentecostal Movement can make to the world Christian Movement.

     Spirit of Azusa Award Recipient Evangelist Jacqueline E. Smith has been in full-time ministry for 45 years and is ordained in the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) having left a prominent position in the secular world to pursue the work of the Gospel. She has preached in 39 countries and 48 states and is a frequent keynote speaker in camp meetings, conferences, retreats, youth camps, revivals, and singles seminars. In 2001, the Church of God appointed Smith as the denomination’s first female National Evangelist. The Pentecostal Theological Seminary inducted her into their Hall of Prophets in 2018 and awarded her with the honorary Doctor of Divinity in 2025.
​     As an African-American woman, Smith’s ministry has afforded her opportunities to cross racial, cultural, and gender barriers. As a content single woman, she has developed a distinctive ministry conducting singles seminars in local, regional, and national settings. Most recently she has been invited to speak numerous times with students on the campus of Lee University. Though preaching is her primary focus, she is an anointed soloist as well.

     The purpose of the Azusa Lecture is to celebrate the rich heritage of the global Pentecostal Movement. The Dixon Pentecostal Research Center launched the annual lecture in 2006 in recognition of the centennial of the revival at the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles. Church of God Historian Charles W. Conn noted that the Los Angeles revival, which lasted from 1906 to 1909, “is universally regarded as the beginning of the modern Pentecostal Movement.”
     The Los Angeles revival began when African-American Pastor William Joseph Seymour preached a message of Spirit baptism following salvation and sanctification. What started as a home prayer meeting attracted crowds of seekers and was moved to an abandoned building at 312 Azusa Street. Hundreds traveled to the Azusa Street Mission, received a personal baptism of the Holy Spirit, and took that message to their homes, churches, and communities. The Pentecostal Movement quickly became a great missionary movement, and the twentieth century came to be called the “Century of the Holy Spirit.”
     Founded by Charles W. Conn on the campus of Lee University, the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center is one of the world’s significant collections of Pentecostal and Charismatic resources as well as the archives of the Church of God. The center interprets the Pentecostal Movement through teaching, publications, and historical exhibits and is a resource for Church of God ministries throughout the world. In addition to students at Lee University and Pentecostal Theological Seminary, numerous scholars utilize the center’s holdings. Dr. David G. Roebuck serves as director, and the Reverend David “Gene” Mills, Jr. as archivist.
     For more information about the Azusa Lecture contact the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center at 423-614-8576 or [email protected].

August 19, 2025—On the 139th birthday of the founding of the Church of God, General Overseer Gary Lewis, members of the Executive Committee, and representatives from the Church of God Historical Commission, dedicated a historic marker on the site of the location of the Barney Creek Meeting House, the place where in 1886 a small group of believers began what would become the Church of God.

Barney Creek is in the southeast corner of Tennessee and in the vicinity of small towns connected with the early history of the Church of God, such as Coker Creek and Camp Creek. It was on August 19, 1886, when a handful of people searching for a deeper relationship with Christ banded together in discussion and prayer for divine direction. Eight persons came forward to form the Christian Union and church historians point to the gathering at Barney Creek as the initial event that sparked what would develop into the establishment of the Church of God of today.

The Tuesday dedication was symbolically chosen to coincide with the anniversary of the event, and on the property which is now owned by the Church of God. The field trip was part of the agenda of the monthly Executive Committee meeting and of the Church of God Historical Commission, who took the day prior to their annual meeting to join in the ceremony.

Cleveland, TN—One of the Church of God’s most prolific missionary educators celebrates his 100th birthday today, January 30, 2025.

Saved and filled with Holy Spirit on April 14, 1940, in Smithfield, N.C., James Beaty looks back to that day when he was just 16 and “delivered from the power that had held me in bondage.” From that day forward his life would be dedicated to serving his Lord and the Church of God.

His first missionary assignment was to Haiti in 1946, a country to which he would return to later in his ministry. The trip followed his studies at Atlantic Christian College and beginning at Vanderbilt University School of Religion. In 1948 he married Virginia Green, who would be his faithful partner in ministry for 67 years until her passing in 2015.

After earning the M.Div. from Vanderbilt, the newlyweds left in 1949 to serve as missionaries to the Dominican Republic for three years where the young James located and supervised the purchase of property that later became the campus of the Bible School there.

In 1952, the Beatys returned to Haiti as missionaries where James was the country’s overseer, educational director, supervised 100 day schools, and coordinated the purchase of seventeen acres and building of the Seminaire Biblique campus. In years to follow, he would serve as superintendent of South America (1959-67) and represented the Pentecostal movement on the Board of the Communidad Teologica, a cooperative effort among evangelical and Pentecostal churches, serving as vice president and interim president.

In 1963, he earned a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from Vanderbilt and from then on carried the prestigious title of Dr. James Beaty. He would begin a seven-year career at Lee College (University) in 1967 where has a member of the faculty member involved in teaching and assisting with accreditation. In the days when not many possessed a doctoral degree, Dr. Beaty was the first teacher of religion in the Humanities Department before the Bible College was merged with the Liberal Arts College in 1968.

In other areas, Dr. Beaty served as a charter member and secretary on the General Board of Education (1968-74) and assisted in the development and implementation of the Ministerial Enrichment Institutes, the Spanish Institute of Ministry (president, 1974-80), and what would become the Pentecostal Theological Seminary. Joining PTS in 1980, Dr. Beaty was the third full-time faculty member, Academic Dean (1980-96), director of the extension program in Puerto Rico, and director of the Special Training Program in Haiti. He remains a member of the PTS faculty today.

Earlier this month, Dr. Beaty attended a luncheon in his honor. In attendance were all five members of the Church of God Executive Committee, their spouses, and other special guests.
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“Dr. Beaty is one of those rare individuals who is gifted in multiple areas of ministry,” stated General Overseer Gary Lewis. “His inspiration has influenced thousands called to the mission field, and his academic credentials have made him a legend at both Lee University and Pentecostal Theological Seminary. Now, as a centenarian, he has solidified his legacy even greater in Church of God history. Happy Birthday, Dr. Beaty!”