He earned a minister's license from the Southwest Kansas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and when he was 20 he became a temporary pastor at the Eudora Methodist Church near Lawrence, Kansas. But Parham was often at odds with his Methodist superiors. Conflicts arose because Parham's theology veered in the direction of the Holiness movement, a revivalist offshoot of Methodist theology with tenets that included sanctification, baptism by the Holy Spirit, and divine healing.
Started Own Ministry
By 1895, Parham broke with Methodism---in fact, all denominationalism---for good. He started his own independent evangelical ministry in Kansas, where he held revival meetings that emphasized personal salvation. He also advocated a return to the fundamental teachings of the scriptures, or "primitive Christianity."
In 1886, he married Sarah Thistlethwaite, the daughter of Quaker parents. A year later they had a son. In 1898, as his ministry grew, Parham moved his family to Topeka, Kansas, where he established his base of operations. His other activities included running a rescue mission for the poor and sinners, an employment agency, and an orphanage service and publishing the Apostolic Faith, a Holiness periodical.
For much of this period, Parham took his evangelistic mission through parts of the United States and Canada.
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