Pastor JackSample

Jack had always thought he would eventually be moving on to a “better” opportunity. That idea changed on Friday, December 5, 1969. 

On that day, Jack met with Dr. McPherson and Dr. Hall at the Foursquare movement’s central offices next to Angelus Temple. Quite unexpectedly, and while talking about other matters, he heard the Lord say to him, “You are to stay at the church.” Jack immediately understood that God was calling him to be the Van Nuys congregation’s permanent pastor. It was the beginning of a difficult and life-changing journey, and the next few weeks were a particular struggle. 

The thought of staying at the little church made Jack aware of what it could possibly mean for his future. “I really thought God was going to ruin my life.” He wrote that he was being “consigned to anonymity” and that “now, after thirteen years of public ministry, I was looking forward to what appeared a bleak future in an obscure pastorate lost in Los Angeles’ urban sprawl.” Jack nevertheless yielded to what he was convinced was God’s call and, after Christmas, moved his family closer to the Van Nuys church.

It was a dramatic decision. As far as he knew, it meant he would remain an unknown Los Angeles pastor for the rest of his life. As he saw it, with his surrender, any “star label” associated with Jack Hayford in Foursquare was no more. “It was a conscious decision and call to surrender being ‘anybody’ ever again.” 

When his plane landed on the return to the Burbank airport, he heard the Lord say, “This is where your life centers now. You are home now.”

Just ten days after Jack’s surrender, at the end of January, God spoke once again while Jack was on the freeway. The words came out of the blue: “You mustn’t think too small.” The voice spoke again, “You mustn’t think too small, or you will get in my way.” It was as if the conversation was now continuing regarding his recent decision to pastor the Van Nuys church. 

He wondered what this could mean. As he drove, there was “a sudden sense of [God’s] Presence.” One more time, he heard the voice: “You mustn’t think too small, or you will get in my way; for I have set myself to do a great work.” “And I thought, ‘You mustn’t think too small?’” Jack realized that God was addressing his sense of resignation to anonymity and the notion of the Van Nuys church being small. 

He began to cry and heard the Lord speak one more time: “When have you ever done anything I haven’t blessed?” Now sobbing “profusely,” Jack saw a vision “that lasted an instant of buildings and development,” which he knew had to do with the future of the church. What he saw wasn’t small.