By Thomas C. Hanson
More than 200 Los Angeles area ministers of various denominations met in the Ambassador Auditorium Nov. 5 to pray at the quarterly meeting of Love LA.
Love LA is a group of pastors who meet regularly to pray for the city at various host churches.
One of the cofounders of the group is Jack Hayford, pastor of the Church on the Way in Van Nuys, California.
The prayer meeting, which took place on U.S. election day, included prayers for the nation's leaders.
The pastors were welcomed by Curtis May, who became pastor of the Pasadena congregation of the Worldwide Church of God when it merged with the Los Angeles church Nov. 2.
Mr. May said: "Thank God for you brothers and sisters. Thank you for being here. This is historic for us."
Before leading the group in song, Dr. Hayford told the group: "It is a distinct and unusual day for us. We have marvelous times, but this one has its own special flavor."
Harold Helms, senior pastor of the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, introduced Pastor General Joseph Tkach.
Pastor Helms said that the changes the church has made have "blessed us as a Christian community. We are absolutely delighted that you would call us brothers now."
He joked: "Of course all of us always had our theology all together."
Mr. Tkach then recounted the church's spiritual journey and asked those present to see the Worldwide Church of God as we are now.
"It grieves my spirit that the picture that Christianity has presented, especially in Western society, is one of division. I think the Holy Spirit is starting to deal with that. I think the Holy Spirit is moving in many people to bring a new spirit of unity that I think has been lost in the church for too long a time. But praise God that he is starting to bring it about."
Next, Mike Feazell, director of Church Administration, began his talk by quoting comments from a Worldwide Church of God pastor and how he came to understand salvation through grace.
The pastor said: "For all the years of my conversion I have labored under the burden of trying to work out my own salvation in a qualifying sense.
"This led to a life of frustration as I could never do things well enough. Our legalism, my legalism, had me in a vise. All that is gone now. For the first time since my baptism I feel free of the burden of guilt. It is almost as though I had never read Romans 8:1 until now, never been free of the law of sin and death, never personally understood God's grace for me."
Mr. Feazell said that those sentiments "have resonated again and again from members and pastors."
In recounting his own spiritual journey, Mr. Feazell said: "Every time I opened the Bible it seemed that something I held dear, that I based my life on, was coming apart at the seams, because Scripture was dissolving it.
"It causes you to feel that you have lived your life in vain, and you don't know where to turn, but there was a point in my journey that Jesus came alongside me and began to open my eyes. I hope that none of us here today doubts that God has the power to change hearts, to make a way when there is no way."
Neil Brower, senior pastor of Emmanuel Evangelical Free Church in Burbank, thanked God for Mr. Tkach's and Mr. Feazell's comments "in front of those of us who could be thought of as guilty of a theological or doctrinal arrogance."
Pastor Brower prayed that those present "would never get so settled into the way they do things that they would be stymied by their systems, by the things their denominations make up, by the manmade stuff that keeps them from the fresh movement of the Holy Spirit in their lives."
Pastor Brower prayed that they would be spared "from that kind of arrogance and pride."
November 19, 1996, Worldwide News, page one
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