A glorious dedication day - on this date in 1949

This is a photo of the sanctuary of Bethesda Missionary Temple in Detroit.

In 1949, this date - February 13 - fell on a Sunday. It was a glorious day for the congregation of Bethesda Missionary Temple in Detroit, Michigan, as it dedicated its new sanctuary located on Van Dyke and Nevada avenues.

Mom Beall

The congregation had already experienced an outbreak of revival (what came to be known as the Latter Rain Revival) two months before on December 5, but the building dedication just took the congregation yet higher in revival blessing - so much so that, from February 13 on, Bethesda was to have services virtually every day for the next three and one-half years! (That is one of the telltale signs of a heaven-sent revival - people want to be in church).

Bethesda's founding pastor M. D. "Mom" Beall wrote about the momentous dedication in her memoir A Hand on My Shoulder [the passages quoted in this article are used by permission from the memoir's editor, Joy Hughes Gruits, and may not be quoted elsewhere without her permission]:

Not only was the Temple filled to capacity with people, but it was also filled with the glory and presence of God. Such singing, such worshiping of God, such prophecies, such supernatural utterances as we heard from the lips of God's ordained ministers will always remain the greatest wonderment of our lives. It seemed the time just flew. People were being saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, confirmed, and delivered. Everyone was ministering to one another. God let us see by actual demonstration before our very eyes the ministry of the Body of Christ. The teaching of the Body of Christ had not been much in evidence up until this time, but God began to teach through His ministers by precept and example the tremendous truths of the hour. Never had we heard such preaching.

The intensity of the revival's impact at Bethesda, the kind of revelation Pastor Beall mentioned in the paragraph above, the seating capacity (1,700+) of its sanctuary, and the giftedness of Bethesda's ministerial staff, all served to put the church in the vanguard of the Latter Rain Revival.

That leadership role had been prophesied when Pastor Beall traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia in November 1948 to hear ministers from Saskatchewan, Canada who had experienced revival at their Bible school earlier that year. She wrote in her memoir,

Among the many things that were prophesied, one part of the prophesy was almost more than I could receive. These men, who had never been to Detroit, who never at any time had seen the building that God called an Armory, a building almost in a state of completion, began to prophesy concerning it.

"They shall come to thee from the ends of the earth and shall go forth from thee as lions equipped as from a mighty Amory."

As many pastors and congregations across the United States - and even the world - could testify, that prophecy certainly came to pass. During the intense three and one-half years of daily revival services that began on February 13, 1949, believers came from the ends of the earth to experience a fresh outpouring of God's Holy Spirit - and went home equipped to minister to a hurting world.

Pentecostal historian Vinson Synan says, "The Pentecostal movement was at a low ebb in 1948, with a growing dryness and lack of charismatic gifts. Many who heard about the events in Canada believed that it was a new Azusa Street, with many healings, tongues and prophecies. A large center of the revival outside of Canada was the Bethesda Missionary Temple in Detroit, Michigan pastored by Myrtle Beale [sic]. From Detroit, the movement spread across the United States like a prairie wildfire" (in An Eyewitness Remembers the Century of the Holy Spirit, Chosen).

[NOTE:  Readers will notice that the Detroit Free Press item below mentions a cost of $200,000 and seating of 3,000. Church sources indicate that the cost ended up $350,000 and an editor's note in A Hand on My Shoulder adds, "The actual seating in the sanctuary turned out to be less than 3,000 people - much to Myrtle's dismay. When Bethesda moved from Detroit to Sterling Heights, an essential requirement of the building program was for the sanctuary to seat 3,000 people to fulfill the number God had given Myrtle so long ago." Pastor Beall's full name was Myrtle Dorthea Beall. Her memoir can be purchased in either paperback or Kindle format at this link. It can also be read for free online at this link.]

Freep - May 29, 1948 $200,000 Sat, May 29, 1948 – Page 8 · Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, United States of America) · Newspapers.com