Apostolic Faith Church - History

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. While the exact date of Crawford's break with Seymour is disputed, it was complete by 1908. 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.

This considerably weakened Seymour's undisputed leadership of the Apostolic Faith movement as most of the churches which had fed the movement chose alignment with Crawford. According to Crawford, the separation was necessitated by rumors that Seymour had abandoned the Wesleyan position that entire sanctification was a second work of grace after conversion. Crawford's mission gained further influence when Clara Lum, editor of The Apostolic Faith, transferred the paper, under controversial circumstances, to the Portland mission in mid-1908. The Apostolic Faith would become the Higher Way at a later date and is still published.