The church was founded by Benjamin Hardin Irwin and Bishop William Edward Fuller, Sr. (1875–1958). The Fire-Baptized Holiness Association originated in Iowa in 1895 under the leadership of Benjamin H. Irwin of Lincoln, Nebraska. Irwin expanded this into a national organization as the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church at Anderson, South Carolina in August 1898. At age 23, William E. Fuller, Sr., a member of the African-American New Hope Methodist Church, attended the founding of that body in 1898. Blacks and whites were admitted with equality. Fuller returned to New Hope from the 1898 meeting, resigned his offices, turned in his license, and cast his lot with the Fire-Baptized Holiness. After Irwin left the church in 1900, Joseph Hillery King became the general overseer. Fuller served as Assistant General Overseer to King in 1905.