Jack Williams Hayford is an American author, Pentecostal minister, and Chancellor Emeritus of The King's University. He is a former senior pastor of The Church On The Way in Van Nuys, California and was the fourth President of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. He is widely known for his past involvement in the Promise Keepers movement and for being a prolific author and songwriter, with over 600 hymns and choruses in his catalog. He is the author of the popular 1978 hymn "Majesty", which is rated as one of the top 100 contemporary hymns and performed and sung in churches worldwide.
Biography
Jack Williams Hayford was born on June 25, 1934, in Los Angeles, California, to Anita Delores and Jack Hayford, who had married two years earlier on September 28, 1932. Hayford was born with a muscular condition in his neck, however his condition improved. His father had served in the military as a young man and served as a switchman for the Southern Pacific Railroad. Hayford's mother, Dolores, was a Bible teacher who spoke at interdenominational women's classes and Women's Aglow Fellowship. Although Hayford's parents did not always attend church, he has credited them with providing him with a Christian upbringing.
In 1969, while serving as dean of students at L.I.F.E. and finishing his degree at APU, Hayford was asked to pastor a small congregation, the first Foursquare Church of Van Nuys, California, a struggling congregation of only 18 members, with an average age of 65 years. While Hayford had initially agreed to pastor the church for only a period of six months, he later felt compelled to remain on a permanent basis. Only a few weeks from accepting an offer to pastor another Foursquare church, Hayford met with Foursquare denomination president, Rolf McPherson, stating that he wanted to remain with the Van Nuys congregation. By the early 1980s, The Church on the Way became a pioneer of the megachurch movement and numbered among the largest churches in America, and particularly, the Foursquare denomination, at one point reporting membership exceeding 10,000. His dear friend, actor Dean Jones was an elder in Hayford's church, as was Pat Boone, along with Jan and Paul Crouch, the founders of Trinity Broadcasting Network, which regularly broadcast services from the Church.
Latter Years
In the late 1990s, Hayford felt called to establish a Pentecostal seminary in Los Angeles to train other pastors and founded The King's College and Seminary. In 1999, he resigned as the senior pastor of The Church On The Way to focus on the college, although he briefly returned to help the church through a difficult transition after his successor and son-in-law, Scott Bauer, suddenly died. On October 4, 2004, Hayford was elected to a four-year term as president of the Foursquare denomination, a position he chose not to pursue after that single term. In 2013, Hayford felt called to move the Kings University to Southlake, Texas, under the stewardship of Gateway Church, leaving Los Angeles without a Pentecostal college within its boundaries. In 2015, The Church On The Way, led by senior pastor, Tim Clark, honored Hayford with the title of Pastor Emeritus in recognition of his continuing contributions to church governance and oversight.
Personal life
On July 4, 1954, Hayford married his college sweetheart, Anna Marie Smith. Their marriage produced four children, 11 grandchildren, and 17 great grandchildren. In early 2016, Anna was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, succumbing to the disease early in 2017. Hayford, now remarried continues to live in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.
Recognition
In March 2014, he was inducted into the Religious Broadcasters' Hall of Fame. He has also won the Gospel Music Association's Dove Award for his part in the album, God With Us and the Salvation Army's William Booth Award. As well as serving as
Books
The Church On The Way
Moments with Majesty
“Kingdom Warfare: prayer, Spiritual Warfare, and the ministry of angels”
