Aimee Elizabeth Semple McPherson, also known as Sister Aimee or Sister, was a Canadian Pentecostal evangelist and media celebrity in the 1920s and 1930s, famous for founding the Foursquare Church. McPherson pioneered the use of broadcast mass media for wider dissemination of both religious services and appeals for donations, using radio to draw in both audience and revenue with the growing appeal of popular entertainment and incorporating stage techniques into her weekly sermons at Angelus Temple, an early megachurch.
A megachurch is a church with a very large membership that also offers a variety of educational and social activities. Most megachurches are Protestant, and particularly Evangelical, although the word denotes a type of organization, not a denomination. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research defines a megachurch as any Protestant Christian church that draws 2,000 or more people in a weekend.
The term Full Gospel or Fourfold Gospel is an evangelical doctrine that summarizes the Gospel in four aspects, namely the salvation, sanctification, faith healing and Second Coming of Christ. It has been used in various Christian traditions, including Keswickian, Pentecostal, Anabaptist, and Baptist denominations.
The Dream Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit Christian Pentecostal network of community centers based in Los Angeles, California, established in 1994. The president of Dream Center is Matthew Barnett.
The Foursquare Church is an international Evangelical Pentecostal Christian denomination founded in 1923 by preacher Aimee Semple McPherson. Its headquarters are in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Dr. Rolf Potter Kennedy McPherson was the pastor of Angelus Temple and president of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, serving in that capacity from 1944 to 1988. By his retirement, the evangelical Pentecostal denomination had grown from 29,000 members in 410 churches to 1.2 million members in more than 19,000 churches located in 63 countries.
Life Pacific University (LPU) is a private Christian Bible college endorsed by the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and located in San Dimas, California. LPU serves as the denomination's flagship institution for higher education.
Los Angeles temple may refer to:
The Beaverton Foursquare Church, known also as B4Church or B4, is a Foursquare Pentecostal church located in Beaverton, Oregon, United States. Currently, worship services at B4Church draw approximately 3,000 people weekly from a congregation numbering nearly 6000.
Wesley A. Swift was a minister from Southern California who was known for his white supremacist views and was a central figure in the Christian Identity movement from the 1940s until his death in 1970.
Roberta Semple Salter was the daughter of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson and half-sister to Aimee's other child, Rolf McPherson. Roberta was the original heir to her mother's ministry, which was later taken over by Rolf.
William Howard Durham was an early Pentecostal preacher and theologian, best known for advocating the Finished Work doctrine.
Matthew Barnett is co-founder of the Dream Center and senior pastor of the Angelus Temple, the central house of worship of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in the Echo Park district of Los Angeles, California.
Rev. Robert Edward McAlister was a Canadian pastor and evangelist who was one of the founding members of The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada.
Francisco Olazábal (1886–1937) was a Pentecostal evangelist, who conducted an evangelistic healing ministry and founded the Interdenominational Mexican Council of Christian Churches in 1923, later renamed as Latin American Council of Christian Churches or Concilio Latino Americano de Iglesias Cristianas (CLADIC). Francisco Olazábal committed 30 years to his evangelistic healing ministry. Olazábal held healing campaigns across the United States, Puerto Rico, and Mexico.
Emma Cotton was an evangelist and preacher born of Creole descent in the U.S. state of Louisiana. She first appeared in history in 1906 during the Azusa Street Revival. She was the founder of the Azusa Temple as well as other Pentecostal churches across the United States. Cotton's preaching and involvement in the Pentecostal circuit, as well as her friendship with famous evangelist, Aimee Semple McPherson, paved the way for women in church leadership in the 1900s.
On May 18, 1926, Christian evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappeared from Venice Beach, California, after going for a swim. She reappeared in Mexico five weeks later, stating she had escaped from kidnappers there. Allegations arose that the kidnapping story was a hoax carried out to conceal a tryst with a lover, leading to court inquiries. Her disappearance, reappearance, and the resulting allegations precipitated a media frenzy that changed the course of McPherson's career.
Edith Lydia Waldvogel Blumhofer was a Harvard educated historian whose teaching and publications gave the study of American Pentecostalism a respected place in the history of religion and scholarly research.
Irene Rebecca "Rheba" Crawford, known as "the Angel of Broadway", was an American Christian religious figure and social worker. She was associate pastor of the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles. Her romances and her bitter rivalry with head pastor Aimee Semple McPherson were covered in newspapers nationwide. "Publicity pursued her," commented a 1948 profile, "and she never ran away from it very fast."
