In rare transition, church considers becoming Pentecostal congregation
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, April 21, 2005
The story of the Foursquare Church, with which a California Presbyterian congregation will vote on June 5 whether to affiliate, is a mixture of flamboyance and revivalism – an offshoot of a young woman’s falling in love with an Irish Pentecostalist.
From the outset, it had all the ingredients of a “here-today, gone-tomorrow” sect, but the Foursquare Church – often called a movement – has thrived and grown.
Today, the group’s international following is estimated at 2.1 million members, 27,943 ministers, 20,404 churches and 14,373 home meetings, including (as of 1996) 1,773 congregations with 229 members and adherents, 4,146 ministers and two Bible colleges in the United States.
Mark Slomka, the pastor of Mount Soledad Presbyterian Church in La Jolla, Calif., has already said he is leaving the Presbyterian Church to become a Foursquare minister. The Mount Soledad session voted to recommend that the congregation join him – setting the stage for the May 1 congregational meeting.
While no arrangements, property or otherwise, have been made with the Presbytery of San Diego about what it will do if the congregation votes to join the Foursquare movement, the normal transition for a congregation leaving the PCUSA is to join another branch of Presbyterianism and remain in the Reformed family.
Reformed churches and denominations generally follow the pattern of the Reformation in Europe – “reformed and being reformed according to the Word of God” – and emphasize some distinctives that are not priorities in other denominations.
The Book of Order of the PCUSA’s constitution outlines some of those distinctives: the sovereignty of God; providence; election; the covenant life; and the obligation to work for the transformation of society. Foursquare is not considered a Reformed movement.
The founder of the movement was Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944), who was a 17-year-old Methodist when she and her father attended a “Holy Ghost Revival” led by Robert Semple, the Irish evangelist. She was converted both to his view of the Christian faith and him personally. They were married in 1908 when she was 18, but he died two years later.
Four years later, she married Harold McPherson, but that didn’t last. McPherson wanted a stay-at-home wife; she wanted to follow in the footsteps of her first husband. The couple were divorced, and McPherson began laying the groundwork for the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.
She said she adopted the name “Foursquare” because of a vision with four symbols: the cross, the crown, the dove and the cup, which she interpreted to be the regeneration of the church, the second coming, the baptism in the Spirit and divine healing.
At a time when few women preached, McPherson became a national sensation. In 1923, she founded her own Angelus Temple in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles. With seating for 5,300, McPherson preached to capacity crowds three times a day, seven days a week.
McPherson was ahead of her time. She used illustrations for her sermons and developed elaborate stage productions that attracted many from the entertainment industry in Hollywood. Angelus Temple is still a large congregation, and the original sanctuary was completely renovated in 2002 to maintain its historical character with a modern twist – including cushioned theater seats.
She was a born promoter and the first woman to use radio to broadcast her sermons. After Herbert Hoover, then secretary of Commerce, closed her radio station in 1925, she sent him a telegram: “Please order your minions of Satan to leave my station alone. You cannot expect the Almighty to abide by your wavelength nonsense. When I offer my prayers to Him, I must fit into His wave reception. Open this station at once.”
Intending to run for president, Hoover complied.
Although successful, McPherson was highly controversial, partly because she was a female preacher. Critics accused her of being a Pentecostalist – a theological genre that most Protestants then debunked – and making unsubstantiated claims about miraculous healings. The most serious charge against her was that she arranged her own “kidnapping” to get attention.
In May of 1926, she disappeared, but was found a month later in Mexico. She claimed she was kidnapped. The press, which kept a close eye on her work, suggested otherwise, including a tale that she had taken off with a lover.
In 1930, McPherson suffered a nervous breakdown, and, in 1931, she married David Hutton, an actor. This time, she ran afoul of her own church’s position that prohibited remarriage as long as a former spouse was alive. The marriage with Hutton lasted two months.
Even so, McPherson continued to lead Angelus Temple until she died in 1944. Her son took over and was the pastor of the congregation for 44 years.
And what was her legacy? Today, the Foursquare Church publishes an abbreviated Declaration of Faith that includes the following:
- THE HOLY SCRIPTURES
We believe the Bible is God-inspired (2 Timothy 3:16,17).
- THE ETERNAL GODHEAD
We believe God is Triune: Father, Son and Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:14).
- THE FALL OF MAN
We believe that man was created in the image of God, but that by voluntary disobedience he fell from perfection (Romans 5:12).
- THE PLAN OF SALVATION
We believe that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, signing the pardon of all who believe on Him (John 3:16; Romans 5:8).
- SALVATION THROUGH GRACE
We believe that we have no righteousness and must come to God pleading the righteousness of Christ (Ephesians 2:8).
- REPENTANCE AND ACCEPTANCE
We believe that upon sincere repentance, and a whole-hearted acceptance of Christ, we are justified before God (I John 1:9).
- THE NEW BIRTH
We believe that the change which takes place in the heart and life at conversion is a very real one (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 2:20).
- DAILY CHRISTIAN LIVING
We believe that it is the will of God that we be sanctified daily, growing constantly in the faith (Hebrews 6:1).
- BAPTISM AND THE LORD’S SUPPER
We believe that baptism by immersion is an outward sign of an inward work (Matt. 28:19). We believe in the commemoration of the Lord’s Supper by the symbolic use of the bread and juice of the vine (I Corinthians 11:24, 25).
- BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe that the Baptism with the Holy Spirit is to endue the believer with power; and that His incoming is after the same manner as in Bible days (Acts 2:4).
- THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE
We believe that it is the will of God that we walk in the Spirit daily (Ephesians 4:30-32).
- THE GIFTS AND FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
We believe that the Holy Spirit has gifts to bestow upon the Christian; and that we should show spiritual fruit as evidence of a Spirit-filled life (I Corinthians 12:1-11; Galatians 5:22).
- MODERATION
We believe that the experience and daily walk of the believer should never lead him into extremes of fanaticism (Philippians 4:5).
- DIVINE HEALING
We believe that divine healing is the power of Christ to heal the physically sick in answer to the prayer of faith (James 5:14-16).
- THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
We believe that the second coming of Christ is personal and imminent (I Thessalonians 4:16, 17).
- CHURCH RELATIONSHIP
We believe it is our sacred duty to identify ourselves with the visible Body of Christ (Acts 16:5; Hebrews 10:25).
- CIVIL GOVERNMENT
We believe that rulers should be upheld at all times except in things opposed to the will of God (Romans 13:1-5).
- THE FINAL JUDGEMENT
We believe that all shall stand some day before the judgement seat of God, and there receive eternal life or death (2 Corinthians 5:10).
- HEAVEN
We believe that Heaven is the glorious eternal home of born-again believers (John 14:1-3; Revelation 7:15-17).
- HELL
We believe that hell is the place of eternal torment for all who reject Christ as the Savior (Revelation 20:10,15).
- EVANGELISM
We believe that soul winning is the most important responsibility of the Church (James 5:20).
- TITHES AND OFFERINGS
We believe that the method ordained of God for the support and spread of His cause is by giving of tithes and free-will offerings (Malachi 3:10; 2 Corinthians 9:7).