Apostolic Faith Mission

The Apostolic Faith Church is a worldwide Wesleyan Pentecostal-holiness religious organization, with headquarters in Portland, Oregon. This is a distinct body from the Church of God of the Apostolic Faith headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Although some claim that it is associated with the Open Standard Churches, this is not true.

History

In the early part of the century, southern churches were segregated by race, but this was not so in the Pentecostal movement in Los Angeles, U.S.A. In 1906, William J. Seymour, an African American holiness preacher, received an invitation to preach there. In April of that year, he, along with a small group of interdenominational persons, arranged for prayer meetings in a home located on Bonnie Brae Street in Los Angeles, California. Their purpose was to seek for the infilling of the Holy Spirit, having heard, through Seymour, Charles Fox Parham (a white Pentecostal pioneer and teacher), and others, of this Pentecostal experience being received by believers in the Midwest. When a number received this experience, the word spread, and shortly the meetings were transferred to larger quarters in an old Methodist church on Azusa Street.

Among those attending the meetings on Azusa Street was Florence L. Crawford, a Methodist laywoman. There she received the experience of sanctification and the power of the Holy Spirit. At her baptism in the Holy Spirit, she related that God "permitted me to speak in the Chinese tongue, which was understood by a Christian Chinese who was present." She also testified to receiving a miraculous healing of her eyes, which had been damaged by spinal meningitis.

Although Parham soon denounced the revival as a "darky camp meeting," saying, "God is sick at His stomach!" and "What good can come from a self-appointed Negro prophet," Crawford, a dynamic white woman, entered wholeheartedly into evangelistic work, assisting Seymour. Thousands of inquiries had begun coming in from people who wanted to know more about the Pentecostal outpouring, so Crawford, with the help of secretary Clara Lum and others, began putting the record of what was being said in the meetings into a newspaper format, using Seymour's mission press. The publication was called The Apostolic Faith.

In addition to her efforts in the publishing work, Crawford felt God's call to travel beyond the boundaries of Los Angeles with the Pentecostal message. Her first ministries were along the West Coast where she worked as an itinerant home missionary. On December 25, 1906, she made her initial visit to Portland, Oregon, where she had been invited to preach in an independent church on Second and Main Street. Subsequently, the pastor of that church offered her his pulpit permanently, and in 1908, Crawford moved to Portland, taking the Los Angeles mailing list along. Lum soon followed with another copy.

The publication continued uninterrupted, with the final edition from Los Angeles being printed in June, 1908. The Apostolic Faith Mission recently wrote, "The first edition of the 13th issue of The Apostolic Faith paper . . . contained this note: 'For the next issue of this paper address The Apostolic Faith Campmeeting, Portland, Oregon.'" Nothing was written regarding any subsequent editions of this 13th issue.

The first edition from Portland came out in July-August, 1908.

In the meantime, Seymour quit publishing. While some are silent about this, others have stated that the reason was that he no longer had his mailing list, which was also his list of supporters from all over the United States. However, the Apostolic Faith has replied to this that Crawford and Lum only took two lists, leaving twenty other copies of the list with Seymour.

Regardless, without supporters, the Los Angeles Apostolic Faith quickly declined, and in 1909, Seymour's wife Jennie Seymour, with two others (not Mr. Seymour), signed the papers making Crawford's organization an independent entity.

While the Apostolic Faith Church marks Crawford's arrival in Portland as their beginning, it began sometime earlier with Seymour opening his "Apostolic Faith," its name emblazoned upon the clapboard side of an old, forgotten Methodist church on Azusa Street. Seymour continued to preach to his fast-dwindling congregation until his death in 1922, after which Mrs. Seymour took over the services. The first Apostolic Faith building was demolished in 1931 and the land lost in foreclosure in 1938, two years after Mrs. Seymour's death.

Portland was established as the headquarters of the growing movement. In 1922, the headquarters building, a landmark in downtown Portland, was erected. A large neon sign with the message "Jesus the Light of the World," first displayed in 1917, was transferred to the new structure.

Church doctrine

Through the years, the Apostolic Faith work has maintained the doctrines outlined in the first editions of the Apostolic Faith papers printed in 1906. As a Trinitarian and fundamental church, their doctrinal position centers on a belief in a born-again experience, supports the Wesleyan teaching of holiness, and stresses the need of sanctified believers to receive the Pentecostal experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They hold to a somewhat-Arminian teaching of salvation rather than the Calvinistic belief of predestination and eternal security. Among other prohibitions, worldly amusements, such as card playing, dancing, drinking, and smoking, are not allowed, nor is the wearing of jewelry which touches the person, other than most watches. Once severely frowned upon, higher education, televisions, sports, and pants worn by women (outside of the church grounds) are now somewhat reluctantly accepted.

Organization

The church is governed by a board of five trustees headed by a Superintendent General, with Rev. Darrel Lee currently serving in that position. Both home and foreign missions have emerged on a large scale, with works in Africa, Asia, the West Indies, and Europe. American congregations are under the leadership and direction of the international headquarters work in Portland, where they maintain a campground and a publishing house.

Church motto

"Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints." (Jude 3)

Periodicals

• Higher Way
• The Light of Hope

Website

Membership

In 1997 the church reported approximately 4,000 members, in 50 congregations with 160 ministers in the United States, and 10 congregations and 25 ministers in Canada. There are approximately 50,000 members in foreign lands. The largest mission field is in Nigeria, where there are approximately 20,000 members in about 600 churches. Membership is only an estimate; the church counts those who regularly attend as members.