Past articles by Ken Walker
Foursquare chaplains respond to disastrous LA wildfires
Foursquare.org, Jan. 27, 2025
Foursquare Chaplain Victor Laveaga and his therapy dog, Jack, became minor celebrities the second week of January 2025 when ABC’s “Good Morning America” featured them in coverage of the mammoth wildfires in Los Angeles County.
The story related how Victor—a 33-year veteran of the Pasadena Fire Department who retired in 2010—and his 11-year-old golden retriever comforted firefighters and evacuees the week the fires erupted. READ MORE
Valor Mentoring: A Closer Look
AG News, Sept. 17, 2024
To pass along the life lessons he has learned from men in Valor Mentoring, 33-year-old Fausto Ramos is meeting weekly with three people in their late teens.
At these informal sessions, Ramos offers the same kind of guidance that helped him overcome a direction-less past. Ramos credits most of the positive changes he’s made to mentor Tim A. Davis, 59, a cofounder and CEO of the Salem/Keizer, Oregon-based ministry, which has experienced significant recent growth. READ MORE
How Foursquare became a worldwide church planting movement
Foursquare.org, March 22, 2024
While The Foursquare Church celebrated its 100-year anniversary in 2023, this year marks another historical milestone: the 1924-1925 Lighthouse church planting movement that is still bearing fruit.
“It was central to Sister Aimee’s vision to not just grow one church, but create a movement of leaders,” says Russell Joyce, director of Foursquare Multiply, which has 96 church plants in process with approximately 20-25 more starting in January 2024. “The spirit behind discipling people and then sending them out is special.” READ MORE
Freedom Fighter
Avail Journal, Fall 2023
With its Golden Knights bringing home hockey’s Stanley Cup last spring, a Formula 1 auto race in mid-November, its first-ever Super Bowl next February, and expectations of professional baseball and basketball soon to follow, Las Vegas is turning into Sports Town USA. Not that it needed another tourism draw. Some 32 million visitors already come to the southeastern Nevada gambling mecca annually, an average of more than 615,000 a week.
But there’s an ugly side to Sin City’s underbelly, one that Kevin Malone is determined to expose. By fighting the human trafficking that goes on in “Sin City,” he hopes to put a dent in its “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” reputation while raising awareness of this issue nationwide. READ MORE
Exposing the Deeds of Darkness
Charisma, Nov/Dec. 2022
In the 13 years since she resigned as the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic, Abby Johnson has become the nation’s largest abortion provider’s worst nightmare.
Reaching out to women who recoil at the reality of abortion once their eyes are opened, the Austin, Texas resident has helped more than 625 leave the industry through her ministry, And Then There Were None (ATTWN). She released an account of their experiences in the 2018 book, The Walls Are Talking: Former Abortion Clinic Workers Tell Their Stories. READ MORE
Thugs in the Pulpit
Avail Journal, Spring 2022
When a well-known megachurch leader stepped down recently to deal with charges he broke the law, it was only the latest in an ongoing series of ministry resignations or firings stretching back years. Many allegations deal with such abusive behavior as bullying, arrogance, strong-arming staff members, or leaders treating themselves to lavish benefits not readily available to other staff members. In some cases, adultery.
“There’s always a mixture of stuff,” says Lance Ford, a former church planter and author who advocates a less business-driven, CEO model of church leadership. “It’s not just sexual impropriety, it’s the controlling leadership which very much echoes corporate America—dominating people, the very thing Jesus said not to do.” READ MORE
