Church on the Way founder Jack Hayford is a quiet force among nation's evangelicals
BY BRAD A. GREENBERG, Staff Writer
01/03/2007

VAN NUYS - Jack Hayford has heard the Lord's voice many times.

The seminal moment in a 50-year Christian ministry - which includes founding one of the country's largest churches, authoring some 50 books, composing 500 songs and rising to the presidency of his 5 million-member Pentecostal denomination - occurred in March 1969 at a Sherman Way stoplight.

Six weeks earlier, Hayford had become pastor of the 18-member First Foursquare Church of Van Nuys. As he sat at the Kester Street light, he refused to look to his left at First Baptist Van Nuys, then one of the nation's biggest churches.

Suddenly, his left cheek began to sear as if someone were holding a blow-dryer to it.

"Lord, I know there is something I don't feel that is right about this place," Hayford said. "What should I do?"

"I want you to pray for what I am doing in that church," God responded. the rest