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Frank Bartlemen
Frank Bartleman (December 14, 1871 – August 23, 1936) was an American preacher, evangelist, and writer whose ministry ignited and chronicled the 1906 Azusa Street Revival, a cornerstone of modern Pentecostalism. Born near Carversville, Pennsylvania, to Frank Bartleman, a strict German Catholic immigrant, and Margaret Hellyer, an American Quaker of English-Welsh descent, he was the third of five sons in a farming family. Converted at 22 on October 15, 1893, in Philadelphia’s Grace Baptist Church under pastor W.W. White, he briefly studied at Temple University and Moody Bible Institute before leaving formal education for ministry, shaped by Salvation Army and Holiness influences. Bartleman’s preaching career began in 1894 with the Salvation Army, Wesleyan Methodists, and Pillar of Fire, evolving into a Pentecostal focus after his 1905 move to Los Angeles. There, his fervent prayer and sermons sparked the Azusa Street Revival under William J. Seymour, where he preached racial unity and Spirit baptism, documented in over 550 articles, 100 tracts, and six books, including How Pentecost Came to Los Angeles (1925). His global ministry included China (1908–1916) and Europe (1912–1914). Married to Anna Ladd in 1900, a Bulgarian adoptee of Methodist missionaries, they had four children—Esther (died infancy), George, Ruth, and John—before her death in 1929. Bartleman died at age 64 in Los Angeles, California.
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Frank Bartleman emphasizes the dangers of dictatorship and lawlessness in churches, highlighting the importance of organized fellowship and unity. He warns against the pitfalls of sects that start with good intentions but end in division. Bartleman stresses the need for churches to maintain their 'first love' to avoid decline. He calls believers to live like Jesus, embodying love, humility, and holiness, rather than being dominated by the human spirit. The sermon underscores the significance of humility, love, and faith over self-centeredness and radical movements.
Love & Humility
There are two errors to be avoided - dictatorship and lawlessness. Unorganized churches frequently have a tighter ring of fellowship than those organized. Sects generally begin with an honest effort to preserve and restore some long lost truth, but they end in division. History repeats itself. No religious body has ever recovered itself after loosing its "first love". To be like Jesus is the standard that God has set for us. If Heaven is real, we should live like it, this will produce "Pentecost". The human spirit too often dominates, while love and humility are clothed in rags and sit by the wayside begging. The gentle Jesus is often pushed aside and knocked down in church meetings. Sin and the "flesh" will kill any "Pentecost". The doctor looks at the tongue first. Have you been speaking evil? Evil speaking denotes a bad heart and every radical movement for God has ultimately failed on the test of love. We need holiness of heart. It is a vital error to substitute light for heat. "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity (love), edifieth." Read I Cor. 13 once more. Be not drawn away from "the simplicity that is in Christ." Faith gets the most, love works the most, humility keeps the most. God's vision comes to humble men. He who seeks to make footprints and do sublime things is a failure. A self-conscious poser is a loser. Let self intrude and the whole is spoiled. Excellency is proportioned to the oblivion of self. A fisher for compliments has lost God. Self-consciousness must go. We are too conscious of the other fellow, we need a God-consciousness. Humility, not infallibility, becomes fallen creatures. Infallibility is the apex of Satan's proposition to man. The deepest repentance and humility and our own frailty and weakness must be realized before we can know God's strength. Receding guns vanish out of sight after firing and so must we, for safety. WE NEED TO BE BROKEN!
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Frank Bartleman (December 14, 1871 – August 23, 1936) was an American preacher, evangelist, and writer whose ministry ignited and chronicled the 1906 Azusa Street Revival, a cornerstone of modern Pentecostalism. Born near Carversville, Pennsylvania, to Frank Bartleman, a strict German Catholic immigrant, and Margaret Hellyer, an American Quaker of English-Welsh descent, he was the third of five sons in a farming family. Converted at 22 on October 15, 1893, in Philadelphia’s Grace Baptist Church under pastor W.W. White, he briefly studied at Temple University and Moody Bible Institute before leaving formal education for ministry, shaped by Salvation Army and Holiness influences. Bartleman’s preaching career began in 1894 with the Salvation Army, Wesleyan Methodists, and Pillar of Fire, evolving into a Pentecostal focus after his 1905 move to Los Angeles. There, his fervent prayer and sermons sparked the Azusa Street Revival under William J. Seymour, where he preached racial unity and Spirit baptism, documented in over 550 articles, 100 tracts, and six books, including How Pentecost Came to Los Angeles (1925). His global ministry included China (1908–1916) and Europe (1912–1914). Married to Anna Ladd in 1900, a Bulgarian adoptee of Methodist missionaries, they had four children—Esther (died infancy), George, Ruth, and John—before her death in 1929. Bartleman died at age 64 in Los Angeles, California.