Episode 03 - Aimee Semple McPherson

Aimee Semple McPherson was a 20th Century leader in the Pentecostal movement. Her church services at the Angelus Temple in California were a forerunner of the modern evangelical worship services. Whether you know of her or not, there's a good chance that Aimee has had an influence on your life.


RESOURCES

Challies: https://www.challies.com/articles/facts-about-aimee-semple-mcpherson/

The Revival Library: http://www.revival-library.org/index.php/pensketches-menu/american-pentecostal-pioneers/aimee-semple-mcpherson

Cyberjournal for Pentecostal-Charismatic Research: http://www.pctii.org/cyberj/cyberj13/Hudson.html

God's Generals and Revivals: http://godsgeneralsandrevivals.com/?p=1426

Intro Music: Country Strumstick Mountain Hop, by Andy Slatter

Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 03 of the Giants of the Faith Podcast. This is the podcast where we look at individuals from the age of the Church who have lived out their faith in a unique or interesting way. People who are giants in the history of Christendom; hall of famers, if you will. My name is Robert Daniels and I'm the host of this podcast. Today, we're joined by a very special guest – my wife Jennifer, will help present today's episode as we are profiling our first female subject.

Jennifer, do you want to quickly introduce yourself?

JENNIFER: Hi everybody, as Robert said my name is Jennifer Daniels and I'm going to help present today's episode of Giants of the Faith. I'm currently the Preschool Director at our church in Florida. I love reading my Bible and I love the Lord. I'm excited to help out because today we are featuring a woman who, like it or not, has had a huge impact on Christianity in America.

That's great, thank you Jennifer. A preacher friend of mine suggested that I should make it known that just because someone is featured on this podcast doesn't mean I support or endorse all of their views. Some folks we discuss on this podcast may hold liberal or unorthodox views on some subjects and I'm definitely not theologically liberal but I still think their stories deserve to be told and folks can draw their own conclusions. As Forrest Gump said, "That's all I have to say about that."

For the third episode running we're looking at someone born in the 19th century. This time it's the Canadian-American populist preacher, Aimee Semple McPherson, who founded the Foursquare Church. There aren't that many notable things to come out of Canada. Ice hockey and peanut butter probably headline that list but we won't let that stop us from profiling a Canadian, especially since the bulk of the interesting things she did took place in the United States.

JENNIFER: Aimee was born Aimee Elizabeth Kennedy on October 9, 1890 in the tiny village of Salford, Ontario, Canada to parents James and Mildred Kennedy. Aimee grew up as a farm girl attending a Methodist church with her parents. Mildred "Minnie" was the primary spiritual influence in Aimee's life. She was involved in the ministry of the Salvation Army but always wished she could do more. Before Aimee was born Mildred dedicated her to the Lord's service. Mildred promised  to give Aimee “unreservedly into your service, that she may preach the word I should have preached, fill the place I should have filled, and live the life I should have lived in Thy service.” That sounds a lot like Hannah promising to give Samuel into God's service.

It does sound a lot like Samuel and Hannah. As a 17 year old girl in 1907 she attended a meeting held by Pentecostal evangelist Robert Semple. Semple's Pentecostal meeting was unlike anything she'd ever experienced. She later said, "I had never heard such a sermon. Using the Bible as a sword, he cut the whole world in two." She fell in love with Christ and with Robert all in the same week. Robert was 10 years her senior but the couple were married in 1908. They moved around working in church plants for the first two years of their marriage. Both were ordained into the ministry in 1909 and in January 1910 they left for China as missionaries.

They must have been full of hope and optimism as they headed to the Far East to spread the gospel. Aimee was pregnant at the time and spirits were high. The Semple's traveled to China by way of the United Kingdom. They stopped in Northern Ireland where Aimee met Robert's family for the first time. While in Northern Ireland Robert preached at a revival in Belfast. 

They continued on to London, England, where they met Cecil Polhil at a gathering of the Pentecostal Missionary Union at the Royal Albert Hall. It was Polhill that invited Aimeee to preach her first sermon. This wasn't your typical first sermon experience as there were about 15,000 people in attendance.

JENNIFER: Wow, that's a lot of people for a first-time preacher. Well, they continued on from London and finally arrived in China in June. Hong Kong was quite an adjustment for Aimee. She and Robert shared a small apartment and had to adjust to the Chinese way of doing things – which included a diet of bugs and caterpillars as well as animals not normally consumed in the West. China in the early 20th century was a place of extreme unrest. At one point, Aimee and Robert watched a man being burned to death alive outside their apartment window.

JENNIFER: It's no surprise, then, that both Aimee and Robert contracted malaria shortly after arriving in China. They were hospitalized separately but were allowed, because of Aimee's pregnancy, to spend some time together. Unfortunately, Robert was not to recover and died on August 19th, 1910, at just 29 years of age. Aimee was a 19 year widow and single mother in a foreign land. Her baby, daughter Roberta Star Semple, was born in September. The other missionaries encouraged her to return home and in November Aimee and Roberta left for San Francisco with monies provided by her mother, Minnie. 

Aimee eventually made her way to New York City where she joined her mother, who was working for the Salvation Army there. While in New York Aimee visited the Glad Tidings Church where she eventually met Harold McPherson. McPherson was soon in love and courting Aimee toward marriage. Before she would agree, she made Harold promise that if she were called into the ministry that she would heed the call, no matter when or where. Harold agreed to those terms and they were married February 28th, 1912.

Harold and Aimee moved to the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. She didn't meet Trever Sharp there but they were happy for a time. They were near Harold's family and had a home for themselves. Roberta grew strong and all was well. A second child, Rolf McPherson was born in March, 1913. During this time, however, Aimee felt an internal nagging to go into evangelistic ministry. 

In 1914, Aimee grew ill and was not expected to live. Her mother prayed and prayed that God would spare her so she could fulfill Minnie's promise to give Aimee into the ministry. Aimee was placed in hospital in a death room, where those not expected to recover went. Here Aimee believed she heard the Lord asking her if she would relent and enter the ministry seriously. She finally relented and became instantly pain free. Within two weeks she was fully recovered.

Despite his earlier agreeance, Harold wasn't keen on the idea of Aimee entering the ministry full time. He expected a housewife but she did not believe she could fulfill that role. One day, while Harold was at work, she gathered the children and left for Toronto. She tried to convince Harold to follow her, saying "I have tried to walk your way and have failed. Won’t you come now and walk my way? I am sure we will be happy." but Harold wasn't interested. The couple could not resolve their differences and eventually divorced in 1921, though Harold did briefly join Aimee in ministry in 1917.

JENNIFER: In 1915 Aimee began preaching in earnest. Her mother agreed to keep the children so that Aimee could dedicate herself to the ministry. She purchased a second hand tent and travelled all over North America for seven years, often preaching to tens of thousands. She was a media darling and in 1917 she began publishing the Bridal Call magazine. Bridal Call was part of her effort to change the image of the Church from one of hellfire and brimstone to a kindler, gentler one more focused on the second coming and the bride/bridegroom relationship between the Church and Christ.

By 1921, Aimee began to make plans for a life in ministry apart from that of a travelling evangelist. In 1923 she founded Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, California. Aimee would preach as many as 21 sermons a week there. The church could hold more than 5,000 souls and was often filled to capacity and beyond.

JENNFIER: Aimee began to refer to her version of Pentecostalism as the Foursquare Gospel, based on four ideas: baptism in the Spirit, regeneration of the believer, divine healing, and the second coming. The Foursquare movement wasn't confined to the Angelus Temple. Churches began springing up all over the western United States.

JENNIFER: Aimee was a leader in transforming the worship service experience. She integrated lavish stage performances, contemporary music, props, brass bands into her services. Her services were often a spectacle and Aimee would entertain almost any idea to bring in the crowds. She also embraced radio as a medium for getting her message out and was eventually heard on over 45 different radio stations across the country.

1926 brought about the most mysterious event of Aimee's career in the ministry. On May 18 she was swimming in Venice, California, when she disappeared. Confusion reigned at the Angelus Temple where Aimee was scheduled to preach. Her mother filled in and told the attendees that Aimee was with Jesus. The newspapers were filled with articles about her disappearance and vigils were held at Venice Beach, waiting for her body to wash up on the shore. Two men died during the search and recovery operations. 

Stories were spread that Aimee had run away with a lover and reported sightings were many. The cranks came out claiming to have information on the disappearance and Aimee's whereabouts. Ransom notes and bounties aplenty were bandied about.

On June 23 Aimee reappeared. She came walking out of the desert in Mexico, across the Arizona border. She claimed she was  kidnapped by three men and one woman and held in a shack in Mexico for ransom. She said they cut her hair and burned her fingers with cigars. She asserted that she managed to escape only when the woman left to go shopping. With her help, police retraced her steps but could find no shack matching her description and the supposed kidnappers were never found.

Police and other officials doubted her story almost from the start. Grand juries were convened and ended. There were investigations into the possibility that Aimee had been staying in a cottage in Carmel-by-the-sea with a former employee of the Angelus Temple. No fingerprints or other conclusive evidence could be found to place McPherson at the cottage and in January 1927 the charges and investigation into the disappearance were dropped. Damage had been done to her reputation, however, and many in the public convicted her of some wrongdoing in their own minds.

JENNIFER: By the spring of 1927 Aimee was back on the road, travelling across the country for a three month tour. Results were mixed with some stops performing well and others having disappointing attendance. In 1931 Aimee married for the third time. This husband was David Hutton, one of the performers at the Angelus Temple. This marriage raised a scandal inside the Temple as Aimee's previous husband, Harold McPherson, was still living. The marriage wouldn't last long and ended in divorce in 1934. 

Aimee's popularity had waned quite a bit and in 1937 she surrendered control of her public and private life to Reverend Giles Knight, a business manager at the Temple. She did not make appearances without his approval nor did she receive visitors, even her own children, without his say-so. Her media profile dipped significantly.

It's unclear why she gave Knight such control but Knight remained in command of her until her death of a sleeping pill overdose on September 27, 1944. An inquest ruled out suicide and settled on accidental overdose and liver failure. Her body lay in state at the Angelus Temple for three days and 45,000 people paid their respects. She is buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Her Foursquare Gospel Church continues today and has a membership between eight and nine million. The church was run by her son Rolf for 44 years after her death. No matter what you think of Aimee Semple McPherson there is no denying the impact she has had on the American Church and the Pentecostal movement. Her legacy continues not only in the institutions she founded but in the manner in which modern worship services are conducted. 

That concludes another episode of the Giants of the Faith Podcast. I hope you enjoyed this brief look into one of the often overlooked giants of 20th century Christianity. I'll provide links in the show notes to the online resources I used while preparing for this episode. And, as always, feel free to drop a line to podcast@giantsofthefaith.com with any comments or corrections. I'd like to give a special thank you to my wife for helping make this episode possible and, as always, thank you for listening.

RESOURCES

Challies: https://www.challies.com/articles/facts-about-aimee-semple-mcpherson/

The Revival Library: http://www.revival-library.org/index.php/pensketches-menu/american-pentecostal-pioneers/aimee-semple-mcpherson

Cyberjournal for Pentecostal-Charismatic Research: http://www.pctii.org/cyberj/cyberj13/Hudson.html

God's Generals and Revivals: http://godsgeneralsandrevivals.com/?p=1426

Intro Music: Country Strumstick Mountain Hop, by Andy Slater