About Foursquare

As a denomination, The Foursquare Church has a unique history that stems from missions and evangelism. It began as a powerful evangelistic movement and spread throughout the nations to become the global family it is today.

The term “Foursquare Gospel” came about during an intense revival in the city of Oakland, Calif., in July 1922. To a crowd of thousands, Aimee Semple McPherson explained Ezekiel’s vision in the book of Ezekiel, chapter one. Ezekiel saw God revealed as a being with four different faces: a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle. 

To Sister McPherson, those four faces were like the four phases of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the face of the man, she saw Jesus our Savior. In the face of the lion, she saw Jesus the mighty Baptizer with the Holy Spirit and fire. In the face of the ox, she saw Jesus the Great Burden-Bearer, who took our infirmities and carried our sicknesses. In the face of the eagle, she saw Jesus the Coming King, who will return in power and victory for the church.  It was a perfect, complete Gospel. It was a Gospel that faces squarely in every direction; it was the “Foursquare Gospel.”  

Where It All Began: Our Founding Timeline

  • Nov. 1910 — Our founder, Aimee Semple McPherson, returns from a mission in China as a 20-year-old widow and single mother.
  • Oct. 1918 — Aimee starts cross-country evangelism, traveling by car.
  • Dec. 1918 — Aimee establishes Los Angeles as her home base.
  • Aug. 1921 — Aimee’s prayers to God lead to many miraculous healings, verified by an American Medical Association report.
  • Jan. 1923 — First Foursquare church, Angelus Temple, opens its doors in Los Angeles, and soon hosts services in five languages.
  • Feb. 1923 — First Foursquare Bible Institute (known today as Life Pacific University) opens to train men and women alike and send them out as ministers.
  • Oct. 1923 — The first Foursquare church plant kickstarts in Long Beach, Calif.
  • Feb. 1924 — Aimee becomes the first woman to own a major radio station and uses it to preach the gospel.
  • Feb. 1924 — The first Foursquare missionaries are sent to India to reach people who’ve never before heard about Jesus.
  • Dec. 1927 — After Foursquare established 100 churches, steps were taken to incorporate what would become the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel (ICFG).
  • Aug. 1928 — Angelus Temple commissary opens, which would feed and clothe more than 1.5 million people during the Great Depression.
  • Fast Forward to Today – ICFG, known casually as Foursquare, has over 8.8 million members in over 67,500 churches across more than 150 nations.

We’re thankful for the men and women who have led our movement, including Foursquare U.S. presidents Aimee Semple McPherson (1923-1944), Rolf K. McPherson (1944-1988), John Holland (1988-1997), Harold Helms (1997-1998, interim), Paul Risser (1998-2004), Jared Roth (2004, interim), Jack Hayford (2004-2009), Glenn Burris Jr. (2009-2020) and Randy Remington (2020-present).