Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944) and The Foursquare Church

The Incredible Disappearing Evangelist was the newspaper headlines in May 1926. She was already a phenomenon before she went missing.

Aimee was born in 1890, in Ingersoll, Ontario,Canada, into a religious Methodist family. Her mother was for the ’ tambourine thumping Salvation Army’. She rebelled by reading novels and attending movies.

Aimee Semple McPherson (nee Aimee Elizabeth Kennedy) married twice.
Aged 17 she married an Irish Pentecostal missionary evangelist Robert J. Semple. They went to China as evangelists. They both caught malaria and Robert died in Hong Kong. A month later she gave birth to Roberta Star.
In 1912, while working with her mother and the Salvation Army, she met and married accountant Harold Steward McPherson. After having given birth to Rolf McPherson she felt a sudden calling to preach the Gospel. In 1915 she ran out on him taking the children with her.

1915 was when Aimee gave her first official sermon. it happened at Mount Forest, Ontario, Canada. Right from the start she worked in spiritual healing and encourages speaking in tongues. Under her mother’s management she travelled through the USA and other countries.

In 1918 she made her headquarters in Los Angeles. For almost 20 years she preached to large audiences in the Angelus Temple built for her by her followers at a cost of $1.5 million. In 1923 she founded there the The Foursquare Church
(Jesus Christ, the saviour, baptizer, Healer, Coming King), seating 5,300 people in Echo Park. She also built what is now known as Life Pacific University close by.

She was a flamboyant celebrity in her day, participating in publicity events, such as weekly Sunday parades through the streets of Los Angeles, along with the mayor and movie stars, directly to Angelus Temple.

Aimee preached every night at the temple and Sunday services were attended by 1000s of worshipers who were spell bound throughout by extravaganzas that included patriotic and quasi- religious music played by a 50 piece band, prayers and singing all climaxed by a dramatic sermon. Her style was light hearted and whimsical at times, yet she spoke and sang with power and passion.

In 1922, In San Diego, more than 30,000 turned up for one of her events.

The temple radio station broadcast her services. She published magazines…

In May 1926 she disappeared for 5 weeks. The newspapers had a field month putting forward theories and rumors. When she reappeared in Agua Prieta, Sonora, a Mexican town she claimed she had been kidnapped. A judge thought there was enough to charge her but the trial , scheduled for January 1927 never happened.The kidnapping was never solved. In the Service of the King: The Story of my Life is her account of the event

She was mocked in the media for my years but the scandal did not diminish her popularity.

In 1944 she died of an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. Rolf, her son, took over the reins.

Sources
Foursquare church
Brtitannica
wikipedia