‘PASTOR CHURCH’: Pastor Rick Church, 35, who...

‘PASTOR CHURCH’: Pastor Rick Church, 35, who has been serving as a licensed pastor of Panorama Baptist Church in Panorama City since 1990, has been approved by American Baptist officials for ordination as a minister. Church will be ordained Aug. 9.

“Sometimes when I call a religious supply store or a religious bookstore, people think it’s a hoax or that I’m joking when I identify myself as Pastor Church,” he said.

Church said his name did not influence his choice of career. He started out as a small-town journalist, but went into church work in the mid-1980s as a youth minister at a church in the San Joaquin Valley town of Taft. After accepting the pastorate of the Panorama City congregation, he began studies for the master of divinity degree and was graduated this spring from the American Baptist Seminary of the West in Berkeley.

The Rev. Emory Campbell, executive minister for American Baptist churches in the city of Los Angeles, will be the keynote speaker at the ordination service, which will begin at 3:30 p.m.

The Panorama Baptist Church is a multiethnic congregation with an average attendance of about 100 people, Church said.

WATTS GUEST: The Rev. E. L. Woods of Ebony Baptist Church in Watts will speak during the meditation service at 8 p.m. Friday at Makom Ohr Shalom, 20400 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills.

Woods’ announced talk is “We Need Each Other to Survive the L.A. Riots.” For more information, call (818) 713-1900.

RETIRED PASTOR: The Rev. Robert Bingham, a onetime moderator for Presbyterian churches in the San Fernando Valley, will retire Aug. 31 after 25 years as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Newhall. Because he is taking vacation time in August, Bingham preached his last Sunday sermon this week. He has been in the ministry 39 years.

MOTIVATIONAL: Terry McBride, a popular motivational speaker in metaphysical church circles, will be the guest speaker at the 11 a.m. service Sunday at Encino Community Church, 5955 Lindley Ave., Tarzana.

FOR THE RECORD: The computer drawing of a proposed building complex in West Hills for West Valley Christian Church, published last Saturday in the Valley Edition, was created by J.P.L. Zoning Services.

News and announcements for this column can be sent to Religion Desk, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311.