Wisconsin minister celebrates 100th birthday

Photo: Wisconsin-Northern Michigan District Superintendent Arden Adamson presents a Certificate of Recognition to retired Assemblies of God minister Lillian Flessing Adamson on her 100th birthday.

May 3, 2008, was a day of joy as family members gathered around retired minister Lillian Flessing Adamson to celebrate a fruitful life spanning an entire century—100 years! Adamson holds ministerial credentials with the Wisconsin-Northern Michigan District of the Assemblies of God. District Superintendent Arden Adamson, who is her nephew by marriage, presented her with a Certificate of Recognition, signed by Assemblies of God General Superintendent George Wood.

Born on May 3, 1908, in Athens, Wisconsin, Lillian received missionary appointment to Brazil in 1939. A graduate of North Central University, Lillian, along with her coworker, Ellen Miller, did evangelism and church planting in Brazil. Their first work was in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil. They were also involved in ministry in Porto Alegre and Florianopolis. In 1941 they had two works in the Sao Paulo area—Sao Carlos and Araraquara. According to articles in the Pentecostal Evangel, they reported many salvations, healings, deliverances and Holy Spirit baptisms.

Following their return to the United States, Lillian spent several years teaching and helping in various church ministries. She was asked to start an elementary school at Ebenezer Assembly of God in Chicago where she taught and served as the principal for 22 years. In 1973, at the age of 65, she married Earl Adamson. They pastored in Madison, Wisconsin, and Collinsville and Yorkville, Illinois, prior to moving to Oshkosh to be near family. Earl passed away in 2003 and Lillian now resides at the Omro Care Center in Omro, Wisconsin.

When she married Earl after the death of his wife, Josie, Lillian became, and continues to be, an integral part of the Adamson family. She holds a place of honor in their family for the love, care and acceptance she has shown to Earl, his children, and their spouses and grandchildren, who all call her “Grandma Lillian.”

2008 Heritage hot off the press

The 2008 annual edition of Assemblies of God Heritage magazine is hot off the press and will shortly be mailed to all credentialed Assemblies of God ministers. Additional copies may be ordered online or by phone: 877.840.5200 (toll free).

Download selected free articles from the 2008 edition from the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center website. If you like what you read, consider ordering the entire 2008 edition of Heritage for yourself, or as a gift for your friends or relatives. We think you will agree that Heritage magazine is a keepsake!

The 2008 edition features the following articles:

Dr. Charles S. Price: His Life, Ministry and Influence
This Oxford-educated pastor became one of the most noteworthy Pentecostal evangelists of the twentieth century.
BY TIM ENLOE

Teen Challenge: 50 Years of Miracles
What began as an outreach by David Wilkerson to the gangs of New York City has developed into one of the largest and most successful Christian drug-treatment programs.
BY DAVID BATTY AND ETHAN CAMPBELL

Conflicted by the Spirit: The Religious Life of Elvis Presley
The “King of Rock ‘n Roll,” the most famous Assemblies of God Sunday school prospect from the 1950s, experienced an all-too public struggle between his religious upbringing and the temptations of the world.
BY JAMES R. GOFF, JR.

Rare Kathryn Kuhlman transcripts donated to FPHC

Produced by iFPHC

Kathryn Johanna Kuhlman (1907-1976), possibly the world’s most prominent female evangelist and faith healer (although at times she objected to these titles), was a catalyst for the emerging charismatic renewal in the 1950s and 1960s. Her life and ministry — and her impact on the broader Christian church — remain the focus of much popular and scholarly attention.

Three unique and significant notebooks focusing on Kathryn Kuhlman’s ministry during the years 1949 to 1952 have been donated to the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC).

A new convert, Gay Luchin, took shorthand notes during Kuhlman’s meetings in Pittsburgh and spent many hours transcribing her eye-witness notes, placing them in three notebooks. The donation also includes correspondence from Kuhlman to Luchin, in which she encouraged Luchin in her work to develop these accounts.

Luchin’s notebooks contain well over 1,000 carefully-recorded pages of typescripts, detailing Kuhlman’s unvarnished thoughts on theology, social issues, politics, ethics, and spirituality. This major donation, unexamined by the scholarly world, promises to throw new light upon an era of Kuhlman’s life that heretofore has been sparsely documented.

The FPHC invites you to visit Springfield to view these items for yourself. They are being released today, May 9th, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kathryn Kuhlman. Please call for an appointment.

“Sister Aimee” documentary airs on PBS

SplashCast with Flickr photos
Produced by iFPHC

After months of diligent research, organizing the story line, and working with a film crew, Public Television’s national broadcast of “Sister Aimee” is less than two weeks away. This film, written, produced and directed by Linda Garmon, is part of the American Experience series. It will air on PBS stations nationwide on Monday, April 2 at 9 p.m. in most markets.

A PBS website for the film includes a synopsis of the film, a gallery of photos, interview excerpts, and other features.

About a year and a half ago the FPHC learned of this upcoming documentary on the life of Aimee Semple McPherson. It is based on the book Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America by Matthew Avery Sutton (Harvard University Press, 2007). A review of Matthew Sutton’s book on Aimee can be found at the Harvard University Press website.

Linda Garmon, a producer with WGBH TV (Boston), first contacted us and came to Springfield, Missouri to do research at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center in December 2005. For two days she pored over a large number of newspaper clippings, books by and about “Sister Aimee,” issues of the Bridal Call and the Foursquare Crusader, as well as a number of tracts, photographs, and miscellaneous items relating to the popular yet controversial, charismatic Pentecostal evangelist.

During the course of this project, Garmon and her staff interviewed Aimee’s biographers and noted religious scholars to better present the complex and revealing portrait of one of the most significant religious figures of the early twentieth century. These interviews and insights are part of the film. Garmon’s staff also visited Angelus Temple and the archives of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in Los Angeles as well as other repositories.

While at the FPHC, Garmon was especially intrigued by any possible documentation or theories surrounding the disappearance of Aimee in 1926. And to flesh out a broader picture of Pentecostalism, she also studied primary source materials relating to the Azusa Street revival and other early Pentecostal events. According to Garmon, “Aimee was equal parts evangelist, movie star and social activist. She offered a brand of old time religion that people could connect with at a time when Americans were craving something to hold onto.”

A favorable review of the film and comments by Foursquare President Jack Hayford are included in Foursquare News Service #279.

Be sure to watch this first-class documentary!

To view the photoset of Aimee Semple McPherson at Flickr click on the link below:

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Roberta Semple Salter (1910-2007), Sister Aimee’s daughter, with the Lord

Roberta Star Semple Salter was born in Hong Kong on September 17, 1910, the daughter of Rev. Robert James Semple and Aimee Semple McPherson. Her father passed away with malaria shortly before her birth, and her mother, who later became the founder of Angelus Temple and the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, returned to the United States, marrying Harold S. McPherson in 1912 and then David L. Hutton in 1931. At the tender age of 12, Roberta and her younger brother, Rolf McPherson, were preaching in the Children’s Church at Angelus Temple in Los Angeles. Following in her mother’s footsteps, she continued to preach during her teenage years. Roberta married Harry Salter, who became an orchestra conductor for radio and television programs, and they made their home in Manhattan, New York. She passed away January 25, 2007 at the age of 96 and is survived by her brother, Dr. Rolf McPherson of Los Angeles, her daughter, Victoria Salter, two granddaughters, and three great-grandchildren. A private service was held. Donations may be sent to the Goddard Riverside Community Center in New York City.

An obituary appeared in the New York Times, January 28, 2007, Late Edition, p. 23, and in the Los Angeles Times, February 4, 2007, Home Edition, p. B-12.

See also “Roberta Semple Salter–In the presence of the Lord” from Foursquare News Service.