Florence L. Crawford
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While Florence Louise Crawford is not the founder of the Apostolic Faith Mission, she was rightfully given credit for having begun that movement in the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States. Initially, it was a satellite church from the original Apostolic Faith Mission, begun by William J. Seymour.
Seymour’s Azusa Street movement, also named the Apostolic Faith Mission, began in Los Angeles in 1906. After several evangelistic trips which took her up the West Coast, Crawford broke away from the Azusa Street group to concentrate on the Portland, Oregon, mission. Apostolic Faith historians list the birth of their separate organization as 1907.
Amid much ado regarding women being Christian spiritual leaders and pastors, Crawford stood her ground and built her church into a small but thriving organization that kept an eye on the “mission” part of the name. She continued Seymour’s tradition of no collection plates in the church, using discreet boxes at the entrances of the churches to collect offerings.
From these offerings, Crawford managed to send a few missionaries to several countries “to spread the gospel,” to build and maintain several churches, to build a substantial printing plant, and to send, free of charge, a voluminous number of publications: numerous tracts, bimonthly church newspapers, books of church teachings, and a complete Sunday school curriculum.
Crawford died on 20 June 1936 and was succeeded as leader of the Apostolic Faith Mission by her son Raymond Robert Crawford.
