Coulter to Present Azusa Lecture on Seymour; Alexander to Receive Azusa Award
Dr. Dale M. Coulter will present the Sixteenth Annual Azusa Lecture on Tuesday, November 9, at 7:00 p.m., in the North Cleveland Church of God’s Dixon Chapel. Coulter will speak on “The Azusa Street Revival and William Seymour’s Pentecostal Vision.” Following Coulter’s presentation, the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center will honor the Dr. Estrelda Y. Alexander with the Spirit of Azusa Award and a reception for her life-long leadership among minority Pentecostal communities. Those unable to attend in person may view the lecture and award presentation livestream at nccog.com or facebook.com/dixonprc.
Coulter
An Ordained Bishop in the Church of God, Coulter has distinguished himself as a teacher and scholar of the Pentecostal movement. Currently Professor of Historical Theology at Pentecostal Theological Seminary, he previously taught for thirteen years at Regent University and for eight years at Lee University. While at Regent University, he also served as Associate Dean for Academics and Program Chair for the Ph.D. Program in the School of Divinity. At Lee University, he also was director of Graduate Studies in Religion. He received the Excellence in Scholarship Award from both Lee University and Regent University.
Among Coulter’s publications is Holiness: The Beauty of Perfection (Pathway Press), and he co-edited The Spirit, the Affections, and the Christian Tradition (Notre Dame Press), and Trinity and Creation (New City Press). In addition to serving as president of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, Coulter was co-editor of Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. He is currently co-editor of a series with Cascade Press entitled Word and Spirit: Pentecostal Investigations in Theology and History and is on the Advisory Board of the series Studies in the Holiness and Pentecostal Movements. With numerous articles in popular and academic journals, he contributes regularly to the online publications First Things and Firebrand Magazine.
Coulter earned his B.A. in Theology from Lee University, his M.Div. from Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida, and his D.Phil. from Wolfson College at the University of Oxford in England. He also studied at the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of Oxford.
Along with the Azusa Lecture, the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center will present the Spirit of Azusa Award to Dr. Estrelda Y. Alexander. A distinguished scholar and leader of Pentecostalism among minority communities, Alexander is president of William Joseph Seymour Foundation, editor-in-chief of Seymour Press, and executive director of the Pan-African Pentecostal Archive in Lanham, Maryland.
Alexander
Alexander served as Professor of Theology at Regent University for eight years, and has taught as an Adjunct Professor at Virginia Union University, Seattle Pacific University, Wesley Theological Seminary, Trinity College, and Pentecostal Theological Seminary. She also was Associate Dean for Community Life at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.
An ordained minister in the Church of God, Alexander has been pastor of congregations in Virginia and Maryland. She currently serves as a member of the Church of God General Board of Education.
Alexander’s books include Women of Azusa Street, Dictionary of Pan-African Pentecostalism, The Letter to the Seven Churches, and Black Fire: 100 Years of African American Pentecostalism, which won the Society for Pentecostal Studies Book of the Year Award in 2011. She has served as president of the Society of Pentecostal Studies, which presented her with their Life Time Achievement Award in 2014.
Alexander earned her B.A. from Howard University, her M.A. from Columbia University, her M.Div. from Wesley Theological Seminary, and her Ph.D. from Catholic University of America.
The purpose of the Azusa Lecture is to celebrate the rich heritage of the Pentecostal Movement. The Dixon Pentecostal Research Center launched the annual lecture in 2006 on the occasion 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 throngs of seekers and was moved to an abandoned church 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. In addition to students at Lee University and the Pentecostal Theological Seminary, numerous scholars utilize the center’s holdings. Dr. David G. Roebuck serves as director, and the Reverend David “Gene” Mills, Jr is archivist.
For more information about the Azusa Lecture contact the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center at 423-614-8576 or [email protected].
(SOURCE: Pentecostal Research Center)
