Posted on: Saturday, September 18, 2004

Taking the helm at Foursquare

By Christiana Sciaudone
Los Angeles Times News Services

LOS ANGELES — The new president of the Los Angeles-based International Church of the Foursquare Gospel said he wants to restore a sense of confidence in the leadership of the independent Pentecostal denomination.

After all, the past two leaders left their offices after financial investments resulted in substantial losses for the church.

Jack Hayford, who is preparing to start his five-year presidency Oct. 1, said he hopes to offer "a fresh breeze of openness and communication" and to decentralize church leadership to avoid repeating mistakes.

And beyond finances, he said he wants to reach more people by less traditional means, ministering in inner-city neighborhoods, bringing in Christian rock bands and holding a tailgate party at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena before the Rev. Billy Graham's crusade there in November.

"The objective of our organization is to present the gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that is truly relevant to people today," Hayford said, by "learning to communicate the spiritual dynamic of the first century in terms that are perceptible to the 21st century."

Hayford, 70, is a lifetime member of Foursquare and founder of its Church on the Way in the Los Angeles community of Van Nuys.

Foursquare claims more than 4 million members in 138 nations, with more than 38,000 churches and meeting places.

In the United States, where Foursquare has 250,000 followers, its stronghold is on the West Coast, with 601 churches and more than 113,000 members in California, officials said.

In Hawai'i, both New Hope Christian Fellowship and Hope Chapel are member churches.

Founded by Aimee Semple McPherson in Los Angeles in 1923, Foursquare was run for more than 60 years as a family enterprise, said Vinson Synan, dean of the School of Divinity at Regent University in Virginia.

McPherson, one of the early 20th century's most successful evangelists, used Hollywood stage props and movie star flamboyance to draw crowds. After her death in 1944, her son Rolf McPherson took over as president until 1988.

"When you have such a centralized government, decision-making is not as diffused as it is in other places," said Synan, who has studied Pentecostal movements for about 50 years. "There's not the checks and balances you have in other places."

The next two presidents, John Holland and Paul Risser, each resigned after not following church governance rules, in the wake of large financial losses, Foursquare officials said.

"The reality is that there was a very serious misjudgment and a corresponding presumption in the exercise of the decision-making power of the president," Hayford said.

Risser, who served as president from 1998 to earlier this year, lost about $15 million after investing profits from the sale of the church's radio station in what authorities have alleged were two fraudulent investment schemes, according to the church.

Foursquare officials declined to disclose details of the investment losses during Holland's term from 1988 to 1997.

"It essentially was so similar (to the Risser situation) as to be surprising it would happen again as it did," Hayford said. "It was severe failure at managing according to policies. ... The variations would be merely technicalities."

The past two presidents "saw an opportunity that they didn't process according to the guidelines and it was not anything they had a vested interest in for themselves," Hayford added.

Hayford said membership did not decline and donations were not down as a result of the incidents.

Hayford previously had declined to run for the presidency, busy with his own TV evangelism, book writing and speaking engagements. But he said he is ready now.

"The main reason I feel excited is because I so didn't see this (the presidential post) coming and didn't have any desire to do it and I totally believe the hand of God is in it," he said.

Hayford, who will be co-chairman of the Billy Graham crusade at the Rose Bowl in November, grew up with exposure to various denominations, including Foursquare, because his parents moved often during the Depression.

"I am perceived as a bridge builder between denominations," Hayford said.

Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer Mary Kaye Ritz contributed Hawai'i information to this report.