Foursquare

Outside the enormous, white-domed Angelus Temple in Los Angeles last week, dust-streaked cars from two dozen states stood bumper to bumper. Inside, thousands of men & women, mostly middleaged, were having a wonderful time praying, singing or just looking. The national membership of the late Aimee Semple McPherson's Foursquare Gospel Church was celebrating its 25th anniversary.

If gilt-haired Sister Aimee herself could have been there she might have shouted a big Hallelujah. The temple she built in 1922 buzzed with people and activity. In one part of the main lobby visitors listened to a transcription of Aimee's own attractively earthy voice. In another, a collection of the founder's personal belongings was on exhibition, including her Bible and her drinking cup (for orange juice). The 5,300-seat auditorium and the many other rooms were in almost constant use for rallies, seminars, motion pictures, exhibits. The elevator operator, a leafy orchid in her hair, loudly hummed What a Friend We Have in Jesus. And everywhere ministers and delegates with convention buttons as big as flying saucers were meeting and greeting.

Some 900 ministers and delegates were representing 473 Foursquare Churches with nearly 100,000 members. Under the colorless but canny leadership of Aimee's 34-year-old son, dapper "Dr." Rolf McPherson, the Foursquare Church is doing its best to evolve from cultishness.

Spearhead of this struggle is L.I.F.E. (Lighthouse of International Foursquare Evangelism) Bible College--a coeducational institution in Los Angeles which has maintained an enrollment of 700 or better for the past five years. L.I.F.E. offers a four-year course for the degrees of Bachelor of Divinity, Doctor of Theology, Bachelor of Theology, and a two-year course in "Christian Education." Four-squarism counts on L.I.F.E.'s graduate ministers (about 4,200 so far) to win more & more respectable souls who will build bigger & better temples. Says McPherson: "The bigger we are, the easier it is to grow."

Biggest event of the nine-day meeting was the Bible College's graduation ceremony. Four truckloads of flowers were delivered to the women graduates. When it came time for the hymn-sing, a brass band arrived, diplomas were handed out, and 123 new Foursquare ministers went forth to labor in the vineyard.

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