Aimee Semple McPherson
(1890 –1944) Canadian American Pentecostal evangelist who founded the Foursquare Church and did significant charitable work
Aimee McPherson was a celebrity preacher in the 1920s and 1930s. Her theatrical revival events attracted up to 30,000 attendees. Aimee’s Angelus Temple in Los Angeles seated 5,300 people. McPherson’s Foursquare Church ran soup kitchens, free clinics, and a free school-lunch program. Today, the Foursquare Church has 8.8 million members.
Aimee Semple McPherson had early exposure to religion through her mother, Mildred, who worked with the poor in Salvation Army soup kitchens. In 1908, McPherson married Robert James Semple, a Pentecostal missionary from Ireland, at a Salvation Army ceremony. In 1918, McPherson moved to Los Angeles and rented the 3,500-seat Philharmonic Auditorium. Los Angeles was a popular vacation destination so her ministry to tourists allowed her message to spread nationwide. McPherson raised $250,000 and built her Los Angeles megachurch, the Angelus Temple.
McPherson mobilized people to get involved in charity and social work, saying that "true Christianity is not only to be good but to do good." Doctors, physicians, and dentists staffed her free clinic that trained nurses to treat children and the elderly. Drawing from her childhood experience with the Salvation Army, in 1927 McPherson opened a commissary at Angelus Temple offering food, clothing, and blankets. She became active in creating soup kitchens, free clinics, and other charitable activities during the Great Depression, and fed an estimated 1.5 million. When the government shut down the free school-lunch program, McPherson took it over. Her giving alleviated suffering on an epic scale.
McPherson preached a conservative gospel, but used progressive methods, taking advantage of radio, movies, and stage acts. Her Foursquare Gospel Church joined the National Association of Evangelicals in 1952 and helped organize the Pentecostal World Fellowship.
