RELIGION / JOHN DART : As Church Ponders Merger, Prominent Minister to Bid Farewell

As merger prospects brighten for his debt-burdened church in Porter Ranch, the Rev. Jess Moody--a prominent churchman locally and among Southern Baptists nationally--will resign as pastor Sunday and say goodby to 19 years of turbulence and triumph in the San Fernando Valley.

Pressing health problems of his wife and daughter prompted Moody, who turned 70 last month, to leave Shepherd of the Hills Church and move to New Mexico sooner than expected.

“I hate to go like crazy, but it’s time to pack it in,” said Moody, who overcame repeated obstacles in the 1980s to sell the old Van Nuys First Baptist Church property and move the congregation to the more-affluent, less-churched northwest corner of the Valley.

But in building the 2,000-seat church on 14 acres in Porter Ranch, Moody incurred soaring debts, especially from city requirements and fees--a burden that Shepherd of the Hills believed it could not meet without gaining members through a merger.

A proposed merger with Hillcrest Christian Church, which is growing fast but running out of room in Granada Hills, “looks like a done deal,” said Moody.

“We believe this thing is very doable,” said the Rev. Dudley Rutherford, 37, the Hillcrest senior pastor who would fill that role in a merged congregation.

Nearly 98% of voting Shepherd of the Hills members--who number about 5,000 although many play little-active roles--approved a merger this summer.

Hillcrest Christian Church, which averages 1,000 adults and children at church each weekend and has a smaller membership, will vote next weekend on whether to merge. Balloting will take place in the evening services next Saturday and in the following Sunday services.

In early August, 82% of the Hillcrest members voted to continue merger talks after hearing the initial proposals, Rutherford said.

Rutherford said this week that it would be impossible for his congregation, no matter how much it grew, to build a structure equivalent to Shepherd of the Hills’ facility. The church has a desirable location because it can be seen from the Simi Valley Freeway in the northwest corner of the Valley. Rutherford said that Farmers & Merchants Bank, which holds the loan on the church, recently appraised the church property at $11.5 million.

Moody, no stranger to hyperbole, called it “probably the finest church location in the West,” adding that the church has city approval for an eye-catching, 134-foot-high steeple if the congregation decides to build it.

Part of the location’s appeal is the prospect of new neighbors--and potential new church members--from a Porter Ranch home-building project west of Tampa Avenue. The development, already partially completed, calls for thousands more houses and a major shopping center to be built close to the church, Moody said.

The financial “catch” for Hillcrest members is that Shepherd of the Hills, which opened at that location in 1991, still owes $7 million on the church construction loans.

The merger plan features a lease-with-option-to-buy provision designed to help a newly merged church get established, Rutherford said.

The combined congregation would pay “a monthly figure within our budget for 24 months,” then decide whether it wants to buy the property for $7 million, he said.

On Sunday, members of the two churches--which both are on Rinaldi Street--will worship together for the first time at the 10:40 a.m. service at Shepherd of the Hills. Rutherford will preach the sermon and Moody will say his goodbys before leaving in the afternoon for his family cabin in Glorietta, N.M.

If Hillcrest members approve the merger, Moody will return briefly for a uniting service Oct. 8 at the Porter Ranch church.

“I preached my last sermon last Sunday,” Moody said this week. “It was titled, ‘Finally,’ the word people in a congregation love to hear most from their pastor.”

The Texas-born, Baylor-educated preacher made his mark in the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, as a West Palm Beach, Fla., pastor who established Palm Beach Atlantic College in 1968.

Moody finished second in balloting for the Southern Baptist presidency in 1966, then ran a surprising second again in 1992. That last hurrah came when he sought election as a compromise candidate after conservatives gained administrative control of the denomination following 12 bitter years of theological-political battling with moderate church leaders.

Moody was met by controversy soon after his arrival in California. In 1976, he accepted the pastorate of Van Nuys First Baptist Church, which was then unaffiliated with any denomination. He was opposed by members as he tried--eventually with success--to link the congregation to the Southern Baptists. In 1986, he met more opposition in the church when he wanted to relocate to the “Promised Land”--the West Valley--to keep that area “from Satan’s grip.”

In 1988, Moody’s Van Nuys church was sold to Pastor Jack Hayford’s Church on the Way, which became a two-campus church complex on Sherman Way.

While based in temporary quarters in Chatsworth, Moody and his dwindling congregation were thwarted by neighborhood objections from buying property to build a new church on Devonshire Street near the entrance to the exclusive Monteria Estates.

As the present site was found and bought, the congregation was renamed Shepherd of the Hills Church. Although the church is affiliated with the Southern Baptists, the lack of denominational identification is typical of many conservative churches today. Evangelical pastors say that church tradition matters little to the many unaffiliated or nominal Christians they seek to attract.

Likewise, Hillcrest Christian Church is affiliated with a nationwide fellowship of independent Christian churches, but the congregation’s approach is nondenominational, said Rutherford.

Moody and Rutherford say they teach the fundamentals of Christianity, but they shy away from the label “fundamentalist,” and especially from the grim fundamentalist practice of pointing out what they regard as errors by other Christians.

Both believe in humor. Hillcrest Christian is known for messages on a sign in front of the church such as “Families that stay together probably only have one car,” and “Great preaching, great music, free BMW--2 out of 3 ain’t bad!”

Indeed, some of Moody’s critics have said that his joking manner diminished his role as pastor.

In reply, he says: “I feel my role has been to introduce a happy, loving Christianity to people, and that’s pretty hard when you come up against a band of legalists who use Scripture to beat the hell out of somebody.”

Moody said that surgery needed by his wife, Doris, is his immediate concern, but that once he settles into a new life, he hopes to accept one of five job offers, probably a post teaching in a seminary.