Apostolic Faith Church

The Apostolic Faith Church, formerly the Apostolic Faith Mission, is a Pentecostal Christian denomination with headquarters in Portland, Oregon, United States. The Apostolic Faith Mission of Portland was founded in 1906 by Florence L. Crawford,[1] who was affiliated at that time with William J. Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival of Los Angeles, California. By 1908 Crawford had founded what would become the Apostolic Faith Church. Since July 2000, the President and Superintendent General of the Apostolic Faith Church has been Darrel D. Lee, who also pastors the headquarters church.

The Apostolic Faith Church has a presence in the United States, Canada, Africa, Asia, Europe, Central and South America, and Australia.[2] In 1997, the AFC had 2,013 members in 115 local churches served by 188 clergy in the United States.[3] There are ten churches in Canada, several hundred in Africa (six-hundred in Nigeria alone), twenty throughout the Philippines and Korea, nine in Europe (centrally Romania), and over sixty in West Indies.[2] Church-affiliated groups also regularly assemble in other parts of the world and recently include India. In some locations, member churches carry instead the name Trinity Apostolic Faith Church in order to differentiate themselves from non-affiliated churches in the same area.[2]

History

The founder of the Apostolic Faith Church was Florence L. Crawford. Crawford was a participant in the Azusa Street Revival. This revival began in 1906 at the Apostolic Faith Mission in Los Angeles. The Azusa Street Mission, as it was called, quickly became the center of the Apostolic Faith movement mainly through the publication of The Apostolic Faith newspaper. Seymour appointed Crawford as the state director of the Pacific Coast Apostolic Faith movement where she would help other missions and churches join the movement. Crawford's break with Seymour was complete by 1911. She began an independent work in Portland, Oregon, with the same name as Seymour's mission and most of the churches under her supervision followed her.[4]

Florence L. Crawford was of three original missionaries ordained from the Azusa Street Revival. There was one other woman and Dr. Joseph P. Widney who was one of two men who were the first general superintendents in the Los Angeles area for the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene. Florence was called Mother Crawford and her son Ray Crawford took over after her death as Brother Crawford as overseer. After his death, Brother Carver was appointed. After him, Brother Dwight Baltzel took over as General Superintendent. However, he stepped aside for Brother Darrel Lee to become the Leader after some time. He (Brother Baltzel) is currently in charge of African Missions.

Doctrine

Through the years, the Apostolic Faith Church's leaders have maintained the doctrines outlined in Seymour's editions of the Apostolic Faith papers printed in 1906 through 1908. As a Trinitarian and fundamental church, their doctrinal position centers on a born-again experience, supports the Wesleyan teaching of holiness (Christian perfection), and stresses the need of sanctified believers to receive the Pentecostal experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Their teachings are in direct conflict with Calvinistic beliefs regarding sin, predestination, and eternal security.

The doctrinal statement of the Apostolic Faith Church can be found on the headquarters' website.[5] The text of the page is reprinted below:

The denomination differentiates itself from other Pentecostals by teaching that Speaking in Tongues is only acceptable in known languages and there must be someone there who can interpret.

Membership is not by formally joining the church but when you are Saved you are considered a member.

While they are pacifist members can do things that are not non-violent they served in hospitals and other such services.

They are one of the early groups that had bus ministries, ministries to ships, nursing homes, street meetings and jail meetings.

Literature is printed in many languages and is free. All literature is prayed over and can be used for healing and answers to prayers.

Services are composed of the music and they have an orchestra and choir. At the end was an altar call, with the altar being a bench on either side of the front of the church.

Ministers are not formally trained but were chosen by elders who laid hands on the person after it was believed they were called.

Camp meetings in Portland are two weeks, but used to be longer.

Members are expected to pay ten per cent of their income which is put in a box instead of passing a plate or bag. Expenses for the local church are paid out of this and ten per cent is sent to Portland which also used that to run the headquarters. There were never any sales of cakes, dinners or other fund raisers.

Among the missionary trips was a trip by boat every year to Alaska.

References

  1. ↑ Blumhofer, Edith L. (2002). "Apostolic Faith Mission (Portland, OR)". In Stanley M. Burgess. The new international dictionary of Pentecostal and charismatic movements. (Rev. and expanded ed.). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Pub. House. p. 327. ISBN 0310224810.
  2. 1 2 3 http://apostolicfaith.org/OurChurches/ChurchLocations.aspx, Retrieved April 23, 2012.
  3. ↑ The Association of Religious Data Archives profile on the Apostolic Faith Mission
  4. ↑ Robeck, Cecil M. (2006). The Azusa Street Mission and Revival: The Birth of the Global Pentecostal Movement. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc. pp. 297–310. ISBN 978-1-4185-0624-7.
  5. ↑ http://apostolicfaith.org/OurFaith/Doctrines.aspx, Retrieved April 23, 2012.

External links

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