MAN IN THE NEWS : Senate’s Call Caps a Lifelong Ministry of Shaping Leaders : Religion: After 23 years at Hollywood Presbyterian, the Rev. Lloyd J. Ogilvie heads for Washington in March.

Suppose you were a pastor with one of the most prestigious Presbyterian pulpits in the nation, serving a congregation of 4,000. Then suppose you reached another million souls each week through your radio and television ministry.

Would you give it all up to minister to a small and divided congregation of 100 sometimes cantankerous, almost always prideful souls? You would if they were members of the United States Senate and your name was the Rev. Lloyd J. Ogilvie.

Word of his appointment by Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas as the new chaplain of the U.S. Senate was disclosed late Friday in Washington before Ogilvie could break the closely guarded secret to his congregation--the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. They will be told belatedly today.

He will begin his new $115,700-a-year post March 15. He said he will shut down “in a very orderly way” his popular daily radio and weekly television ministry, “Let God Love You.”

“I am stunned and thrilled and expectant,” said Ogilvie, a charismatic preacher with a voice as mellow as aged Scotch whiskey from the land where Presbyterianism took deep root.

Ogilvie, who has authored more than 45 books and holds doctorate degrees in divinity, humane letters, humanities and law, will become the 61st Senate chaplain in the 205-year-old post--and the second with ties to Hollywood Presbyterian Church. The man Ogilvie is succeeding, Richard Halverson, also served the Hollywood congregation before taking a pastorate in Bethesda, Md., and then being named Senate chaplain in 1980. Now 78, Halverson is retiring because of poor health.

For Ogilvie, 64, leading in prayer one of the world’s oldest democratic institutions, and arguably the most powerful, is the culmination of a lifetime of ministry equipping others to lead.

“I have emphasized all through my ministry that my role is to . . . encourage and develop and enable leaders,” Ogilvie said. “I now have this privilege . . . with key people who are making decisions who affect the destiny of the world.”

It is heady stuff to rub shoulders every day with the power elite of America, to be an eyewitness to history. It is heady--and humbling--stuff to offer, as he said he will, counseling, spiritual encouragement, inspiration and care to those in whom the nation has placed its trust.

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Colleagues in Los Angeles say Ogilvie, married and a native of Wisconsin, will be a good match for the Senate. “He has genuine humility and is a man of integrity. His forthrightness and candor is always flavored with gentleness, making him a man for everyone,” said Pastor Jack Hayford of the Church on the Way in Van Nuys.

In his 23-year ministry in Hollywood, Ogilvie has remained largely aloof from partisan politics. However, like many clergy of all denominations and members of their flocks, Ogilvie has rolled up his sleeves and attempted to address pressing social issues such as violence, hunger and help to AIDS victims.

He came close to partisanship in February when he allowed Gov. Pete Wilson, who was then campaigning for reelection, to hold a crime summit at Ogilvie’s church. Pictures of crime victims were placed all around the walls and members of their families were present, as well as Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams and Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block.

“Enough! Enough! Enough!” Ogilvie said in a booming voice. “We will not live with tyranny.”

For a minister from an old-line Protestant denomination such as the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., Ogilvie by his own account may have been cut from a slightly different cloth than many of his peers.

For one thing, he says he has spoken in tongues and is as much at home with Pentecostals, who view such ecstatic and unintelligible utterances as evidence that they have been filled by the Holy Spirit, as with high-collar clerics from churches known for their formal liturgical worship styles.

He has participated in joint outreach efforts with Pentecostals, and also launched ministries to the poor, the hungry and victims of AIDS that characterize the social outreach ministries of many old-line Protestant churches, the Roman Catholic Church and Jewish synagogues and agencies.

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Although his Hollywood church has ministered to entertainment luminaries, and he counts Hollywood stars among his friends, Ogilvie has not hesitated to assail Hollywood films that he has found offensive.

In 1988, Ogilvie called Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” “blasphemous,” “historically incorrect and biblically distorted” and “the most serious misuse of film craft in the history of movie-making.”

The film contained a highly controversial dream sequence in which Jesus succumbed to the wiles of a prostitute.

“I’ve tried to keep together the four basic elements of biblical faith that often are divided and are identified with the four major segments of Christendom today,” he said last week. He identified them as a deeply rooted biblical faith, an evangelical passion, a dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit, and a commitment to a ministry that brings about social change.

“I’ve felt to be a whole and healthy Christian leader I need the resources of all four,” Ogilvie said.

Now, as Ogilvie closes a long chapter of ministry in Los Angeles and heads for Washington, he said, he sees a new day.

“It feels very exciting in the sense that I believe we have invested ourselves in the ministry here with enthusiasm and an unreserved commitment to the church and the city and the renewal of the clergy in the city. I see this (Senate chaplaincy) now as a wonderful next step for my ministry.”

Times staff writer John Dart contributed to this story.