Toledo Foursquare Church

Rooted in the Word

Bearing Fruit in the Spirit

Toledo Foursquare Church

About Us

Church History

Toledo Foursquare Church had its first service on August 1, 1993 with 34 people in attendance. The only available location to be found was a room at the Toledo Public Library for $30 a week! We met there for three months since this was the term of the rental agreement with the city. We also needed to move because the room was too small. We had service in the room and Sunday school on the sidewalk! We often prayed for no rain! God was faithful!

We then moved to the Arcadia Elementary School Gym for about $30 a service! We were always amazed at how the Lord blessed us with affordable rent! Service was held downstairs and we had Sunday school upstairs in the cafeteria area. Every Saturday we would pull our equipment trailer up to the school and set up for church on Sunday. We had it down to a science. We would then go to the pizza parlor in Toledo for dinner. It was work but we made it fun! After church on Sunday evening we would pack up all our equipment and park the trailer down at our vacant church lots until the next Saturday.

In the summer we would run into problems with using the gym because of maintenance issues. We would have to find places to have church. We had a few services out at the Hill's residence in Logsden to be followed by barbecues. We met at Toledo City Hall for two summers.

In 1997 the Toledo Hospital was put up for public auction. The minimum bid had to be $125,000. Our church council felt that we should offer a little more in case there were other bids, thus a bid for $131,000. No one else put in a bid and we bought the building for $131,000 dollars! It was a miracle by the hand of Jesus! Needless to say we were excited. We worked on the building for a year before we had our first service on November 22, 1998. It was an amazing day! Tom Ferguson our district superintendent came to dedicate the building.

We have been a church for thirteen years and continue to remodel the property. We have done so with voluntary labor and debt free. It is not because we are good but it is because Jesus is good! All the honor and glory is His. There are so many stories to tell it would be impossible to remember and write them all.

Foursquare History

The term "Foursquare Gospel" came about during an intense revival in the city of Oakland, California in July 1922. As thousands had gathered to hear the gospel, the evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson described a vision God had given her, taken from Ezekiel's vision in the book of Ezekiel, chapter one.

Ezekiel saw the revelation of a totally powerful God. He saw four faces--those of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle. To Sister McPherson, those four faces were like the four phases of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the face of the man, she saw Jesus our Savior, the "man of sorrows" (Isaiah 53:3); in the face of the lion, she saw Jesus the mighty Baptizer with the Holy Spirit and fire. In the face of the ox, she saw Jesus the Great Burden-bearer, who Himself took our infirmities and carried our sicknesses. In the face of the eagle, she saw reflected the Coming King--Jesus the Bridegroom, who is returning in power for His bride, the church.

It was a perfect, complete gospel for the body, soul, spirit and eternity. It was a gospel that faces squarely in every direction: thus, the name Foursquare.