For more than 30 years, Kenneth Ulmer has worn two hats: pastor and academic. But just because he’s stepped down as president of The King’s University doesn’t mean he’s schooling his Los Angeles megachurch any less these days.
Some 25 years ago, three men who would later become pastors of some of the largest churches in Los Angeles gathered with 800 other ministers to pray at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood.
Pastors Jack Hayford, Lloyd Ogilvie and Kenneth C. Ulmer—all seated “by Providence” along the front row, Ulmer says—prayed for Hollywood and the nation. Bonded in that moment in a “spirit of like-mindedness,” the three have been friends ever since and get together several times a year to pray for one another.
“I think we formed a relationship of not only praying for each other, but being accountable to one another,” says Ulmer, now 64. “There has been no challenge, good or bad—no high point or low point—that we’ve had in the last 25 years that we haven’t gone through together. We have prayed together, cried together, gone through deaths together and been through challenges in our relationships. It’s just been a relationship of three men who love each other and who share life together.”