Aimee Semple McPherson: Biography Aimee Semple McPherson was an evangelical leader in the 20th Century. McPherson was determined to spread her Pentecostal faith, developing followers from all over the United States and Canada. A recognized religious leader in American history, McPherson has long been the subject of films, poems, novels and songs. Despite being known as one of the most influential evangelist of her time, McPherson was also a complex, uncontainable and contentious public figure. She was a woman advanced of her time, defying traditional roles for women. McPherson established an evangelistic ministry, wildly known worldwide as the Foursquare Church. Perhaps one of McPherson’s appealing characteristics was her ability to identify with ordinary people, drawing myriads of loyal followers throughout her evangelical journey. Born in a farm on October 1890 in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada, McPherson was brought up in a devoted Christian home. Her father, James was a farmer and her mother Minnie worked with the poor in Salvation Army soup kitchens. When Darwinism was introduced in her school during her teenage years, McPherson began to question the Bible. When she was seventeen years old and still in high school, she attended a revival service conducted by Pentecostal evangelist Robert Semple, where she heard the message of repentance and a born-again experience. Although she resisted the message, the Holy Spirit continued to speak to her heart, convicting her of the sin in her life and of her need for a Savior (Foursquare Church). Semple helped McPherson strengthen her faith and both fell in love with each other. The two married and became missionaries in China. Unfortunately, Semple died in China of dysentery, leaving McPherson with a one-month old child (Robertson). Upon returning home, McPherson remarried to a grocery clerk, Harold S. McPherson, but the marriage ended after five years. Subsequently, she began to pursue her calling as an evangelist despite her lack of training. McPherson’s health began declining, and God continually asked her, “Now will you go? Being convinced that it was either “go” into the ministry or “go” through an untimely physical death, she answered, “yes” to God's call. Almost immediately, she was healed, and she never again questioned the call of the Lord to preach the gospel (Foursquare Church). Devoted to obeying her promise to God, McPherson became an itinerant evangelist, preaching tent revivals in the East Coast. Her tent-show triumphs would bring an evangelist corporate power, and responsibility she did not desire (Epstein). Her preaching style was not “fire and brimstone,” which was typical in her days, but rather she showed people the love of God and His unconditional love for people. According to Edith L. Blumhofer, author of Aimee Semple McPherson, McPherson became increasingly popular in both the west and east coast of the United States:
By the early 1920s, the allure of the Golden State attracted her to Los Angeles, where her flair for publicity and blend of piety and pageantry drew crows by the tens of thousands. Calling for a return to a simply biblical Christianity, McPherson strongly identified with ordinary folk, and they in turn remained passionately loyal to her. At the same time, she intuitively understood the advertising and media revolution that was transforming California and the nation. The first American woman to hold a radio broadcast license, Sister Aimee used everything from speaking at boxing matches to sponsoring floats in the Tournament of Roses Parade to stimulate interest in her message.
McPherson possessed great charisma and stage presence that engaged her crowd. She welcomed everybody in her meeting, encouraging people to offer their lives to Jesus Christ to experience true satisfaction in life. She did preach to the social elite of the day, but she also reached out to the poor and to the disenfranchised members of society. She evangelized in the South at a time when segregation was rampant. She broke down racial barriers everywhere she ministered. (Foursquare Church). Sister McPherson also established Hispanic ministries in Los Angeles. She regarded every individual as a unique creation of God; thus, everyone was equal in her eyes. For years she traveled to raise funds to build Angelus Temple in Los Angeles. Her aspiration came true and on January 1923 Angelus Temple was dedicated with over five thousand churchgoers. The Angelus Temple became the center of her ministry. She established an educational organization that helped those who were interested in ministry:
Over the next few years, Aimee created a crusader magazine called Bible Call (monthly) and the The Foursquare Crusader (weekly). She reorganized the church as a "Salvation Navy," establishing over 400 branch churches, or "lighthouses," and sponsoring 178 mission stations throughout the world. Throughout her lifetime she traveled on over 250 foreign missions. In 1925, the LIFE (Lighthouse of International Foursquare Evangelism) Bible College was opened to train young men and women for service in ministry (Robertson).

Sister Aimee’s act of faith to pursue a life in ministry impacted the lives of many individuals not only in her generation, but the generations to follow.

On May 1926, McPherson further sensationalized her popularity when she mysteriously disappeared after swimming in the ocean. Her loyal followers were terrified and quickly camped on the beach where she was allegedly kidnapped. McPherson’s kidnappers allegedly demanded $500,000 for her release. Minnie Kennedy, her mother believed that her daughter was dead. Boats patrolled the water, one heartbroken girl dove into the water after Aimee and killed herself, and scuba divers searched for her body underwater-one even died of exhaustion (Robertson). After much assumption and speculation, Aimee appeared in Agua Prieta, weeks following her disappearance. Daniel Mark Epstein, author of Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson, gives further details on McPherson’s kidnapping:

On the afternoon of May 18 she was wading in the surf, watching the lifeguards drill in the distance down the beach, when she heard someone call her name. She turned and saw a man and a woman. The woman sobbed. “Our baby is dying, Sister. The doctor has given it up. We’ve come all the way from Altadena to have you pray for the Child. Please come to our car.” This sort of thing happened so frequently that Aimee never thought twice about it. The engine was running. There was another man at the wheel. The woman hurried to the door before Aimee, seating herself in the shadows and cradling a blanketed bundle. “Just step in,” she said the main behind Aimee. Then she shoved her. Somebody held the back of her head while the woman forced a compress to Aimee’s face. Aimee smelled chloroform. The back door slammed and the car took of.

Although this is what Sister Aimee had claimed, many skeptics believe that she staged her disappearance. Simultaneously, Kenneth G. Ormiston, McPherson’s engineer for her radio station was not seen during her disappearance. Many believed that the two were having an affair. After her alleged kidnapping, a crowd of about fifty thousand, assembled for her homecoming. Additional investigation of her disappearance unveiled that chambermaids, room clerks, hotel registers, and scraps of paper in her handwriting indicated that Aimee and Ormiston met over several months in a seaside cottage during the month she claimed to be a prisoner in the desert (Robertson). However, the truth of her disappearance remains a mystery. Other controversies followed McPherson throughout her preaching career. It was highly speculated that she underwent a face-lift and had surgery to have her legs slimmed. She was also married three times. Despite being surrounded by controversies, Sister Aimee continued to draw followers. McPherson started relief efforts in the 1930s such us, soup kitchens, free clinics and donations. The Temple began to grow tremendously and began to have different branches around the United States. In 1927 the Temple had 44 branches and by 1935 it drastically increased to 344 across the United States and Canada. Additionally, in the mid-1930s some 185 missionaries served at outposts around the globe (Blumhofer). Sister Aimee left a significant impact on furthering the Kingdom of God. She also encouraged younger female evangelists to pursue their calling from other denominations. On September 1944, she was found unconscious in her hotel room after speaking the night before to a crowd in Oakland, California. The coroner's verdict was an “overdose of barbital compound,” or sleeping pills, which was ruled to be “accidental” (Robertson). Sister Aimee’s life is an example of obedience to Christ. She pursued her calling regardless feeling a sense of inadequacy. Her life teaches us the concept of conquering the world for Christ; when we do that, we: Change lives and more importantly change the world. As Christians, we sometimes become comfortable of the world and become complacent. We forget that our life is not our own, but a gift from Christ. Sister Aimee understood this.
The Bible is filled with individuals who felt that they did not have the capacity to fulfill greater things, but 2,000 years forward we learn that God used such individuals as instruments to further His Kingdom, and He is no different today. God used Sister Aimee to move mountains that others would have thought impossible, but she knew that all things are possible with Christ. Her obedience led her to become one of the most influential evangelists in the 20th century.

Works Cited

1. Blumhofer, Edith L. Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody's Sister. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1993. 2. Epstein, Daniel Mark. Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1993. 3. Foursquare Church. OUr Story. The History and Future of the Foursquare Church. 2012. 8 September 2012 <http://www.foursquare.org/about/aimee_semple_mcpherson>. 4. Robertson, Anna. Aimee's Life. 1999. 8 September 2012 <http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug00/robertson/asm/background.html>. 5. Sutton, Mathew Avery. The Resurrections of Aimee Semple McPherson. 28 September 2011. 8 September 2012 <http://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2011/09/the-resurrections-of-aimee-semple-mcpherson.html>.