[I am working on a project that may become a book on the most influential evangelicals leaders of our generation, since 1976, and the impact they’ve had on the church and their times. I will introduce them briefly on this blog from time to time. Who should be on this list?]

# 24.  Brian McLaren, Nonconformist on the Edge  b. 1956

Last year, one of the pastors at our conservative church handed me a list of must-read books, including more than one by Brian McLaren. Later, one of my Baptist acquaintances explained to me that McLaren was apostate because he thought you could be a Buddhist Christian or a Muslim Christian. That pretty well describes the range of opinion of McLaren among even the most orthodox, faithful evangelicals. McLaren was one of the early leaders of the emergent movement and its best known figure; his written and spoken words have come under scrutiny and criticism from figures both inside and out of the movement.

McLaren has great appeal among young people seeking spiritual answers but hesitant to jump into a traditional evangelical church, or buy into its political inclinations or its positions on social issues. His fearlessness to think out loud and his willingness to unhinge his theological wonderings from historic orthodoxy or modern accountability has made him not only controversial, but quite possibility so far outside of the evangelical mainstream that he may soon be considered something other than an evangelical believer. As one observer opined: “Brian McLaren has been on a heretical trajectory for quite some time.”

McLaren’s written and spoken words have come under scrutiny and subsequent criticism from figures both inside and out of the emerging church movement. Generally these criticisms claim that McLaren’s theology provides no basis for doctrine and that without any basis, doctrine is abandoned in favor of “generosity” and “conversation.” Conservatives in the emergent movement have joined mainstream evangelicals in protesting that McLaren’s philosophical posture has led him to entertain and even embrace un-orthodox or perhaps even apostate doctrinal positions. One leader of the emerging church movement, Mark Driscoll, has complained about McLaren’s calling God a “chick,” his advocacy of open theism, his downplaying of substitutionary atonement,  and his denial of hell. Reviewing McLaren book A New Kind of Christianity in 2010, Scot McKnight, a professor at North Park University and a former supporter of Emergent Village wrote:  

“I want to turn the following comment from McLaren back on him: “Sociologists sometimes say that groups can exist without a god, but no group can exist without a devil.” Brian’s devil is Western evangelicalism, which he caricatures often, and his poking is relentless enough to make me say that he needs to write a book that simply states in positive terms what he thinks without using evangelicalism as his foil.”

Most prominent evangelical leaders have criticized McLaren writings and positions. D.A. Carson, professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, said of McLaren’s doctrinal views: “As kindly but as forcefully as I can, that to my mind, if words mean anything, McLaren has largely abandoned the gospel.”[1]

Some are harsher. One fundamentalist wrote: “McLaren rejects absolute truth, authority, theology, objectivity, certainty and clarity. He embraces relativism, inclusivism, deconstructionism, stories (to replace truth), creative interpretation of Scripture, neo-orthodoxy, and tolerance.”[2]

McLaren points to three differences in his approach to Christianity.”The first,” McLaren says, “is an understanding of the Gospel that centers on Jesus’ teaching of the Kingdom of God. I think just about everyone agrees the message Jesus proclaimed is the message that the Kingdom of God is at hand. I grew up in the church, and I never heard about that. When I heard about the Kingdom of God it was always interpreted as going to heaven after you die.”

Second: “An eschatology of engagement rather than abandonment. The idea that the world is going down the toilet and that we should just abandon and prepare for evacuation, I think, creates horrible possibilities of injustice. And so, we’re trying to have an eschatology that thrusts us into the world as agents of justice and peace and reconciliation and service, rather than one that makes us stand on the edge with condemnation and judgment, because we’re always planning to depart.”

Third: “We’re interested in integrating things that previously have been seen as polarities. So that involves, for example, finding the strengths of mainline Protestants and strengths of evangelicals and saying we’re better off with the strengths of both than strengths and weaknesses of only one.” [3]

But two other views have got him in the most hot water in evangelical circles.

He approaches faith from what he considers a more Jewish perspective, which allows faith to exist without objective, propositional truth to believe. “”I believe people are saved not by objective truth, but by Jesus. Their faith isn’t in their knowledge, but in God,” McLaren said.

And, he wrote famously that new Christian converts should remain within their specific contexts:

“I don’t believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu or Jewish contexts … rather than resolving the paradox via pronouncements on the eternal destiny of people more convinced by or loyal to other religions than ours, we simply move on.”[4]

McLaren is married and has four children. He started and pastored Cedar Ridge Community Church in Maryland until 2006. He has traveled extensively in Europe, Latin America, and Africa, and his personal interests include ecology, fishing, hiking, kayaking, camping, songwriting, music, art, and literature.

[2] http://www.wayoflife.org/files/8366a78fea5d3961b7ccb0d184c66109-143.html

[3] http://www.thepomoblog.com/papers/10Q7.htm Terry L. Heaton

[4] More Ready Than You Realize, Brian McLaren

That’s the good news, for all of us.  Crime is down pretty much across the nation, in all sorts of environment.  But Richard Cohen notes that this has some ramifications for an enduring liberal assertion.

This is a good news, bad news column. The good news is that crime is again down across the nation — in big cities, small cities, flourishing cities and cities that are not for the timid. Surprisingly, this has happened in the teeth of the Great Recession, meaning that those disposed to attribute criminality to poverty — my view at one time — have some strenuous rethinking to do. It could be, as conservatives have insisted all along, that crime is committed by criminals. For liberals, this is bad news indeed.

I have always wondered how this assertion has endured when there was a very clear, very stark historical example contradicting it.  If it was true, crime should have exploded during the Great Depression with so many folks reduced to poverty who weren’t there before.

Cohen asks the question:

What’s going on? A number of things, say the experts. As is always the case, the police credited the police for magnificent police work, while others cited the decline in crack cocaine usage. Those answers, though, are only partially satisfying because, believe you me, if and when crime begins its almost inevitable ascent, the very same police authorities will blame economic or social conditions beyond their control — not to mention the inevitable manpower shortage.

Whatever the reasons, it now seems fairly clear that something akin to culture and not economics is the root cause of crime. By and large everyday people do not go into a life of crime because they have been laid off or their home is worth less than their mortgage. They do something else, but whatever it is, it does not generally entail packing heat. Once this becomes an accepted truth, criminals will lose what status they still retain as victims.

Seems this economic explanation is more often a convenience used by liberals to create victims (and potential voters) of those they insist they care about.  Cohen wraps up, after a “West Side Story” reference you’ll need to Read The Whole Thing to see, with a conclusion that may be news to some, but shouldn’t be at all.

Common sense tells you that the environment has to play a role and the truly desperate will sometimes break the law — like Victor Hugo’s impoverished Jean Valjean, who stole bread for his sister’s children. But the latest crime statistics strongly suggest that bad times do not necessarily make bad people. Bad character does.

The good news is, crime is down.  The … good news is, it’s possibly another counter example that could (hopefully) soon fully discredit this liberal article of faith.

Back in the day, at my blog New Covenant, I would periodically run a set of posts highlighting various current events or issues at hand, known as Rusty Nails. Similar to Mark’s Things Heard and Doug’s Friday Link Wrap-Up, I’ll be starting up a Stones Cry Out version of Rusty Nails.

###

I’m looking through you. So, Sir Paul is happy to have a President who knows what a library is? Has Sir Paul become a U.S. citizen or is he simply giving us some unsolicited opinion? Anyway, maybe our current President knows what a library is, but he also thought:  we have 58 states, Switzerland has its own language, England and the U.K. are interchangeable, the word “Orion” is pronounced “Ore-EEon”, the U.S. constitution was written 22 centuries ago, the word “corpsman” is pronounced “corpse-man”, and… Please, Paul, stick to singing.

###

Why do I need to learn math, after all, I’ll NEVER use it! Maybe. Or maybe not. It seems that 20% of borrowers with poor math skills experienced foreclosure, while only 5% of those with strong math skills did.

The inability to perform simple mathematical calculations is likely to negatively impact a borrower’s ability to manage a household budget. In addition, such an inability may adversely affect the borrower’s ability to choose the appropriate type of mortgage given his or her current financial status and expected future financial situation. Both of these scenarios would likely put a borrower at risk of falling behind on his or her mortgage.

###

Well, then, take a numeracy quiz. Better yet, have your children take the quiz.

###

What happens when the populace has more guns? 14,000,000 guns sold in the U.S. in 2009.

Good Morning.

1. Our Administration, providing work for those out-of-work Soviet 5 year planners.
2. Well, duh.
3. Yikes … or perhaps heh should be the tag-line.
4. Well, when the Administration and Congress critters start considering cost impacts of their policies, I’ll eat my socks. 
5. Public and private.
6. Not giving Obama a pass on the spill from the left.
7. and from the middle.
8. The Sestak thing and the buck apparently doesn’t stop there.
9. Economics meta-link.
10. Gitmo. Oops.
11. Ms Kagan and the stare decisis that didn’t bark in the night?
12. Taxing the rich.

 [I am working on a project that may become a book on the most influential evangelicals leaders of our generation, since 1976, and the impact they’ve had on the church and their times. I will introduce them briefly on this blog from time to time. Who should be on this list?]

#15. D. James Kennedy. Evangelism Exponent  1930-2007 

 A young D. James Kennedy arrived at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, in 1959, and after just three years brought change to the congregation of 45: attendance declined to 17!

Recalling those difficult times, Kennedy said, “Extrapolation made it clear that I had two-and-a-half months of ministry left before I was preaching to only my wife—and she was threatening to go to the Baptist Church down the street!”

 It was then that a pastor friend, Kennedy Smartt, invited Kennedy to assist him in–of all things–a series of evangelistic services in Scottdale, Georgia. “I who had decimated one church was being asked to ship my technique across state lines. Have plague will travel!” quipped Kennedy.

During those 10 days of meetings, Kennedy watched Smartt—future president of the Presbyterian Church in America—engage people spiritually. By the end of the meetings, 54 people made professions of faith in Christ. Kennedy returned to Fort Lauderdale with the seeds that built a thriving church. Coral Ridge began to grow, and after 12-years church membership increased to 2,000.

 More broadly, Kennedy made witness-training the bedrock of his ministry, and launched what the evangelistic program called Evangelism Explosion. By 1996 Evangelism Explosion was planted in all nations of the world. Materials have been translated into more than 70 different languages and clinics have been held in many nations.

 Kennedy, who died in 2007, became one of the best known Christian ministers in the world by way of his television, radio, and the Internet broadcasts. A televangelist of a different stripe, Kennedy’s formal—almost arrogant to some–Presbyterian bearing, preaching in robes and traditional language, set him apart from the histrionics of some of the TV preachers and from the informality of a new generation of talkers.

 Kennedy served for 47 years as Senior Minister of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. A modest mission church when Kennedy arrived in 1959, the rocketing growth of the church made it, for 15 years, the fastest growing Presbyterian church in America. Decision magazine named the church one of the “Five Great Churches of North America.” In 2005, Dr. Kennedy was inducted into the National Religious Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

 Well regarded for his evangelism program and his television preaching, Kennedy was drawn like others of his generation to divert time and resources to political and cultural renewal. He did this through personal involvement, but through the development of the Center for Christian Statesmanship in Washington, D.C., and the Center for Reclaiming America. 

 Both efforts were shuttered as his health declined and preceded Kennedy in death.

 When both were closed in early 2007 a Coral Ridge spokesperson explained: “We’re getting back to our core competency, the production of media. Our heart and soul is the teaching of Dr. Kennedy, and getting it to more people than those who come to church.”

 Conservative commentator Cal Thomas wrote: “One hopes that will be preaching the unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ, unencumbered by the allures of the political kingdoms of this world, because that is where the greatest power lies to transform lives and ultimately nations. It does not lie in the Republican Party, with which Kennedy’s organization was almost exclusively associated.”

 Kennedy was not able to resume his preaching after December 2006 heart attack and died in September 2007. 

In addition to the church and Evangelism Explosion, Kennedy leaves two educational legacies: Westminster Academy, a Pre-K to 12^th grade private school in Ft. Lauderdale, and Knox Theological Seminary, a reformed seminary begun in 1989 to prepare and equip Christians for ministry.

 “When all is said and done and my life is finished,” Kennedy said late in life, “I believe that the most significant thing God will have done through me will be Evangelism Explosion.”

 It is likely that EE was his unique and most significant accomplishment and his enduring legacy from a life lived large.  For this had great influence on the church’s evangelistic priorities, while his other ventures produced, to be charitable, mixed results.

If it was simply about getting aid to the folks in Gaza, first of all there are plenty of ways to do that, and Gaza has been getting it.  About 15,000 tons of aid per week enter Gaza through means that assure there are no weapons in it.  (By the way, the flotillas total cargo was 10,000 tons, less than a week’s worth.)

And secondly, if it was all about the aid, this wouldn’t be happening.

Israel has attempted to deliver humanitarian aid from an international flotilla to Gaza, but Hamas — which controls the territory — has refused to accept the cargo, the Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday.

Palestinian sources confirmed that trucks that arrived from Israel at the Rafah terminal at the Israel-Gaza border were barred from delivering the aid.

Ra’ed Fatooh, in charge of the crossings, and Jamal Khudari, head of a committee against the Gaza blockade, said Israel must release all flotilla detainees and that it will be accepted in the territory only by the Free Gaza Movement people who organized the flotilla.

So Hamas is holding up aid to its own people for a PR move.  This is not about the aid.  It’s about opening up a means of transporting more and larger weapons, via ships, than via the means that are currently available to Hamas.  And these "peace" activists are, at least, simply the "useful idiots" being duped or, at worst, complicit in the charade.

Good morning.

1. Regarding the prospects of one Ms Pelosi.
2. Mr Obama and his ‘blackness’, here and here. My remark to the second is that this is not indicative of WASP-ness but just being a jerk, which comes in any color.
3. Holodomor. 
4. Something to remember when talking heads talk about job recovery.
5. Regarding my short morning post.
6. Heh.
7. Remember this for the next time Mr Obama is touted as post-partisan.
8. Child mortality.
9. Not just for warding off Vampires.
10. Crucifix ban.
11. And God said, “heh“.
12. The addendum to the memo.

Mr Obama is in a pickle. He “says” he is thinking morning, noon, and night and obsessing about the what to do about the oil leak in the Gulf. And there’s a little problem here. A subterranean tactical (20-40 kiloton) nuclear device activated in the vicinity of the leak would stop the leakage with almost no danger of any excess nuclear material being released to the environment. I’m betting this won’t be done. Why?

• Mr Obama is religiously anti-nuclear. He holds to an unstated (unexamined?) ivory tower plan toward a nuclear free world. Using a nuclear device to stop one of the larger modern ecological disasters has no part in that plan. The notion that a nuclear device might do anything but harm would be a fatal flaw for his dream.
• If it works then it would have worked it two months ago. Which means the longer we wait to do that … the more obvious that doing it earlier would have been better is all the more compelling. Which is why, now two months down the road this won’t be done. Every day, every hour makes the chance of acting decisively less easy.

So remember, as you look at pictures of ecological impacts of the oil spill in the upcoming months. Mr Obama could have fixed this and even prevented it but didn’t because it would hurt his case for non-proliferation and because it would make him look a little stupid.

So when you gaze on the gulf disaster you’re looking at the results of Mr Obama’s pride and folly.

In the superb movie "Awakenings", Leonard Lowe (Robert DeNiro) is woken up from his catatonic state by a drug administered by Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams).  All goes well until Leonard starts to exhibit some side effects.  While this is happening, he insists that Dr. Sayer continue to film him, which Sayer is doing as part of the research.  We see Leonard from the perspective of the movie camera, almost yelling at it, "Learn from me!  Learn from me!"

It’s hard to watch this experiment demonstrating, in the body of Leonard, what could be a huge flaw in what otherwise appears to be a promising treatment for his illness.  It is a turning point in the story.

We are at such a turning point in another medical story, but I wonder if we’ll notice it and learn from it.

Pressured by an aging population and the need to rein in budget deficits, Canada’s provinces are taking tough measures to curb healthcare costs, a trend that could erode the principles of the popular state-funded system.

Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, kicked off a fierce battle with drug companies and pharmacies when it said earlier this year it would halve generic drug prices and eliminate "incentive fees" to generic drug manufacturers.

British Columbia is replacing block grants to hospitals with fee-for-procedure payments and Quebec has a new flat health tax and a proposal for payments on each medical visit — an idea that critics say is an illegal user fee.

And a few provinces are also experimenting with private funding for procedures such as hip, knee and cataract surgery.

It’s likely just a start as the provinces, responsible for delivering healthcare, cope with the demands of a retiring baby-boom generation. Official figures show that senior citizens will make up 25 percent of the population by 2036.

"There’s got to be some change to the status quo whether it happens in three years or 10 years," said Derek Burleton, senior economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank.

"We can’t continually see health spending growing above and beyond the growth rate in the economy because, at some point, it means crowding out of all the other government services.

"At some stage we’re going to hit a breaking point."

A government handout (or, really, a redistribution of wealth)  running way over budget?  (See "Stop the ACLU" for a discussion of costs in the Canadian system that the Democrats pretend they can keep at half.)  Why do we keep hearing this tune and yet be surprised when it ends exactly the same way?  Why do politicians say that this kind of system will reduce costs when…

Ontario says healthcare could eat up 70 percent of its budget in 12 years, if all these costs are left unchecked.

The answer for Canada is cut back on benefits, which they’re seriously considering.  But that is fraught with trouble.

Scotia Capital’s Webb said one cost-saving idea may be to make patients aware of how much it costs each time they visit a healthcare professional. "(The public) will use the services more wisely if they know how much it’s costing," she said.

"If it’s absolutely free with no information on the cost and the information of an alternative that would be have been more practical, then how can we expect the public to wisely use the service?"

That’s the problem with separating the payment from the service.  It’s not absolutely free; it’s paid for with huge national taxes.  But thinking it’s free, or even just using it more knowing that you won’t be charged more, creates additional demand that the system can’t handle.

But once you’ve made that mistake, there’s no going back.

But change may come slowly. Universal healthcare is central to Canada’s national identity, and decisions are made as much on politics as economics.

"It’s an area that Canadians don’t want to see touched," said TD’s Burleton. "Essentially it boils down the wishes of the population. But I think, from an economist’s standpoint, we point to the fact that sometimes Canadians in the short term may not realize the cost."

These economic decisions are now even more political than they ever were, but the thought of damaging something so much identified with Canada is just unthinkable.  So Canada must either go bankrupt, reduce services, or raise taxes.  And all this from a program that was supposed to reduce costs. 

This, folks, is the future of ObamaCare(tm) if it gets implemented or, worse, if the removed provisions get implemented piecemeal later on.  Canada is suffering from the experiment.  Learn from it.

Good morning.

1. Comparing the outrage.
2. More on the Israeli/blockade kerfuffle here and here. Some questions asked.
3. St. Justin Martyr, here and here.
4. SCOTUS, Tuesday.
5. Frogs.
6. Meth and memory.
7. Looking at “yes, but” as strategy.
8. Zooom.
9. PC fixin’s. 
10. Freedom of speech.
11. and religion.
12. Range time.
13. Social security. Phase it out wasn’t an option. Darn.

From Michael Ramirez (click for a larger version):

This pretty much sums up the whole flotilla situation.  There are videos going out about how the captain and other members of the ship, before leaving, chanted about times when Muslims wiped out Jews.  Yeah, "peace" activists indeed.  This was a set-up, plain and simple.

Good morning.

1. Credibility and Mr Clinton share much in common.
2. When cops over-reach … those who are quick to criticise forget this sort of thing.
3. Mr Sestak and the scandal, here and here. I’ve seen nothing at all on this from the left blogs. Odd that.
4. Memorial day.
5. Another memory.
6. Give it a nifty name, its still a really really bad idea.
7. The spill and some statistics.
8. I got a 14.
9. Empathy measured and found wanting. A suggestion as to why.
10. Where to start.
11. Mr Boyd and the Israeli/blockade kerfuffle.

A question regarding promotion of Democracy. During the Iraq reconstruction, the Iraqi people came together and wrote their own Constitution. Critics in this country soundly criticised that document because it didn’t establish freedom of religion, that is Islamic religious principles and separation of Church and State was not firmly established. In the recent National Security Strategy document released by the Administration the same curious thing occurred. In adjacent sections Mr Obama states that two primary objectives with regard to promoting human rights abroad include supporting democracy and women’s rights. These two ideas are in conflict.

The document states the importance of:

Recognizing the Legitimacy of All Peaceful Democratic Movements: America respects the right of all peaceful, law-abiding, and nonviolent voices to be heard around the world, even if we disagree with them.

and

Supporting the Rights of Women and Girls: Women should have access to the same opportunities and be able to make the same choices as men.

It seems to me quite clear that one of the notions held throughout much of the world is that women should not have the same access to the same opportunities as men. And this is an idea expressed by peaceful, law-abiding, and non-violent voices in places around the world, one with which however we disagree. This is just the same as the criticisms rendered after a democratic government forms a Constitution which does not separate Church and State.

Here’s the thing, you can support the idea that people should be free and able to set up their communities and the laws and customs by which they are run. You can want people to have certain ways of governing themselves and modes of setting up those communities. You can’t have both.

[I am working on a project that may become a book on the most influential evangelicals leaders of our generation, since 1976, and the impact they’ve had on the church and their times. I will introduce them briefly on this blog from time to time. Who should be on this list?]

#17 Jack Hayford. Pentecostal standard b.1934

Most Pentecostal leaders are known as firebrands because of their high-octane presentation and spiritual zealotry. But the dean of the Pentecostal and charismatic movement, Jack Hayford, is often described as gentle, careful, and diplomatic. He served for more than 30 years as pastor of Church on the Way near Los Angeles and recently completed a term as president of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. Hayford is also widely known for his involvement in Promise Keepers and his role as founder of The King’s College. He has written nearly 50 books and 600 hymns and choruses. In 1978, he wrote the popular praise chorus “Majesty.”

Hayford has emerged as “Pentecostals’ and charismatics’ gold standard,” according to Steve Strang, publisher of the leading charismatic magazines Charisma and Ministries Today. “Pastor Jack would fall into a category of statesman almost without peer,” Strang told Christianity Today.

He is the founding pastor of the Church on the Way, a congregation of 12,000 in Van Nuys, California, a one-time Anglo suburb of Los Angeles that has become gritty Latino turf. But the church has not moved. Hayford believes that the Church on the Way was called to that very location. Spanish-language services have become the leading edge of the church, averaging 6,000 in weekly attendance.

Hayford stepped in as head of the Foursquare denomination after its leadership had lost $15 million in a pyramid scheme. He also was part of the team that was chosen to mentor and restore the disgraced president of the National Association of Evangelicals, who resigned amid a gay sex and drugs scandal.

“He is viewed as a voice of reason and calm at a time of scandal and crisis. They look to him as a source of balance,” says Thomson Mathew, dean of the graduate school of theology at Oral Roberts University.

Co-chairman of the Israel Christian Nexus, Hayford has made 34 trips to Israel. “I don’t think of myself as a Zionist,” Hayford says. “I believe in God’s sovereign providence and purpose with his ancient people.”

Hayford brings Pentecostals together with other evangelicals. He has done this by patient outreach, one person at a time. In his public speaking he makes frequent, appreciative references to non-Pentecostal influences, from C. S. Lewis to Richard Foster. He reaches out to other L.A.-area pastors. John MacArthur counts him as a friend despite their many theological differences. Presbyterian pastor and former Senate chaplain Lloyd Ogilvie considers him one of his oldest and dearest prayer partners.

“His integrity and theological depth are so well known that he can draw together all kinds of factions,” Strang says.

In keeping with that role, Hayford is frequently involved as a leader in interdenominational activities, from prayer breakfasts to Billy Graham crusades. As a prominent speaker at Promise Keepers events, he has been heavily involved in efforts at racial reconciliation.

“He is known throughout the world as one of the great ecumenical leaders,” says Ogilvie.

He reaches across theological divides, Tim Stafford writes in Christianity Today:

“without toning down his Pentecostalism one decibel. He is, in fact, aggressive about his beliefs, though he presents them graciously, in a way that explains and persuades. Leadership editor Marshall Shelley recalls hearing Hayford at a prayer summit at Multnomah Bible College. Most of the gathered pastors were conservative non-Pentecostals. ‘”By the time he was done, he had most of those pastors lifting their hands in praise,” Shelley says. “He did it by explaining why it was biblical and why it mattered. He made sense. He brought rationality to spiritual expressiveness.’”

In 1969, Hayford was asked to pastor a small congregation, the first Foursquare Church of Van Nuys, California. The congregation was an “old struggling” congregation (the average age of the church members was over 65). First Foursquare was one of the first churches to be planted after the denomination’s founding in 1923. But with 18 members and the massive First Baptist two blocks away, it didn’t seem the kind of place for a young minister to achieve international renown. Hayford quickly began preparing for his next move.Hayford had initially agreed to only temporarily pastor the church for a period of six months. A few weeks from giving a decision to a prestigious Foursquare church that wanted to hire him, Hayford decided to stay at the Van Nuys church. By the early 1980s, The Church on the Way became a pioneer of the megachurch movement.

In 1999, Jack Hayford passed the mantle as senior pastor of the Church on the Way to his son in law, Scott Bauer; but in 2003 Bauer suffered a brain aneurysm and died. Hayford served again as the church’s pastor for a year, then named Jim and Alice Tolle as the senior pastors of the church. Six months later, Hayford was elected president of the International Foursquare Gospel.

Within the charismatic subset of evangelical Christianity, Jack Hayford has brought rationality to spiritual expressiveness, offered a wise spirit and steady hand in dealing with crises, and provided a unifying force and welcoming hand from the charismatic camp to the whole of the church.