Aimee Semple McPherson

Geoff Thurling

Aimee Semple McPherson was born Aimee Elizabeth Kennedy on October 9, 1890 in Ontario, Canada. She was raised in a Christian home and her father was the organist and choir director in the local Methodist Church. During the winter months of 190708 she made a firm commitment of faith in Christ at storefront meetings held by a Pentecostal evangelist, Robert James Semple. On August 12, 1908, she and Robert were married in a simple Salvation Army ceremony.

For a short time they settled in Stratford, Ontario before moving on to London, Ontario where they pioneered a church. January 1909 found them in Chicago where they were ordained by William H Durham, with whom they travelled for several months on evangelistic tours in the US and Canada.

In 1910 they arrived in Hong Kong with the view to working as missionaries, but soon after arriving Robert contracted malaria and died. After giving birth to their daughter, Roberta Star, on 17 September that same year, Aimee returned to New York City and worked with the Salvation Army.

During this time of working in the city, she met Harold Stewart McPherson and they were married on 24 October, 1911. They had a son, Rolf Potter Kennedy McPherson on 23 March, 1913. A short time later, Aimee returned to Canada and became actively involved in ministry with her husband Harold acting as the advance man. He would obtain the necessary permits for the tent meetings at which Aimee would preach. The pressures and stresses of an evangelistic lifestyle soon took their toll however, and the couple were divorced in August 1921.

1917 saw Aimee publishing a magazine called The Bridal Call which contained many articles written by herself. In 1919, she was ordained an evangelist with the Assemblies of God, but in 1922 she returned her fellowship papers over a dispute regarding the property ownership of the Angelus Temple, a tabernacle that she had begun to build.

Aimee had a unique ability to appeal broadly across denominational lines and had built a solid constituency of followers, especially along the Eastern Seaboard. Because of her popularity, she was granted credentials with the Methodist Episcopal Church and the First Baptist Church in San Jose.

In order to cater to her growing following, she decided in 1921 to build her own facility. She purchased land in Los Angeles and designed and built the Angelus Temple, a 5,300 seat temple which was completed in 1923. In order to fund the project, she travelled extensively, preaching the gospel and in 1922 she even held an evangelistic crusade in Australia.

Foursquare Gospel

Becoming affectionately known as Sister, she settled down and began to pastor her growing flock. In 1927, she incorporated The Church of the Foursquare Gospel and henceforth preached Christ as the Saviour, Baptiser in the Holy Spirit, Healer and Coming King.

Aimee's reputation spread far and wide and a large part of her appeal was that she was different. She caused a storm when she became the first woman to wear makeup and jewellery while preaching. She was also known for being dramatic and creative and Hollywood even sent people to check out her stage shows to see what new, theatrical innovations she had come up with.

As an example of her originality, she once had a giant whale built on the stage and she dressed up as Jonah, while preaching a sermon related to this theme. Another time she held a meeting specifically for the Los Angeles police which she entered dressed as a police woman and riding a police motorcycle. Upon stopping and dismounting from the motorcycle, she blew a whistle and shouted, "Stop! You're all going to hell!"

Aimee became the first woman to receive a licence to operate a radio station and in 1924 and preached her first radio sermon from her own station, KFSG. In 1923 she established the Lighthouse for International Foursquare Evangelism to train and send out evangelists and in 1927, opened the Angelus Temple Commissary. During the Depression, the Commissary catered to the physical needs of over 1.5 million people.

Her life was not without controversy. In 1926 she disappeared and was thought drowned off Venice Beach, but was found a month later in Mexico, claiming that she had been kidnapped. She was subsequently investigated by a grand jury and ordered to stand trial on charges of obstruction of justice and suborning perjury. The charges were later dropped because of lack of evidence.

The gruelling challenge of overseeing her burgeoning work began to take its toll and in 1930, Aimee suffered a nervous breakdown. The following year she entered her third marriage to David L Sutton.

During her years of ministry, Aimee wrote numerous books, over 180 songs and seven full length sacred operas. She was tireless in her efforts for the poor and needy and during the war, paid special attention to military personnel, even sending her magazine, The Foursquare Crusader to many Army camps.

1943 saw Aimee taking a well deserved vacation in Mexico, where she contracted tropical fever which often left her incapacitated for weeks. Sensing her physical limitations, she named her son Rolf as vice president of Foursquare in 1944. Later that same year she passed away in her sleep, seemingly from an accidental overdose of a medical prescription. In one of the largest funerals ever seen in Los Angeles, she was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery on October 9, 1944.

The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel continues to grow and prosper. According to figures released in 1998, Foursquare had over 24,000 churches in 99 countries with a worldwide membership of over 2.8 million.

Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ said in Matthew 7:16 "You will know them by their fruits". The fruits of Aimee Semple McPhersons' ministry demonstrate without a doubt that she was indeed an anointed minister of the Gospel. This is further testified to by the remark made by Smith

Wigglesworth who said that the greatest unction of the Holy Spirit that he had ever felt was at her meetings. Need we say more?

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