Pentecostalism's claim is that the gifts of the Spirit described in Acts — tongues, prophecy, healing, interpretation — did not cease with the apostolic age and are available now. The cessationist position, held by most Reformed traditions, is exactly the counterclaim. The movement began in 1906 at Azusa Street in Los Angeles under a Black preacher, William Seymour, and it grew from nothing to several hundred million adherents within a century, chiefly across the global South.