“The Rev. Van Moody has mastered the art of transformation. He’s a change artist, a Houdini on a Harley,” begins a feature in the current edition of Birmingham magazine. “Perhaps his most significant transformation began exactly a decade ago when he started a church that met in the small L.R. Hall in downtown Birmingham. Now he’s pastor of the 8,500-member Worship Center Christian Church, a predominantly black congregation with two multi-million-dollar campuses in Birmingham and Bessemer, at opposite ends of Interstate 459 (one at Derby Parkway and one near the McCalla exit).” (photos by Lee Harrelson)
A 2002 graduate of DePauw University, “Moody strives for interfaith, interdenominational, and cross-racial cooperation and understanding, saying he wants to help stir a spirituality that will change the city and the world,” writes Greg Garrison.
According to Ernest Grimes, who joined the church when it was founded, “Van came to Birmingham with flavor, flavor the city hadn’t seen before, flavor the city needed. More than an emotional message, he came with an intellectual message. You got a little of both.”
The article details the church’s outreach — which includes community service, building a school in Kenya, and a motorcycle ministry, among other things — and notes, “Moody has written a book on personal relationships called The People Factor; it has sold nearly 100,000 copies and attracted the attention of Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of The Dr. Oz Show … Moody appears regularly on the show as part of a team of experts invited to discuss such lifestyle topics as ‘Finding Balance’ and ‘How to Conquer Fear.’ ”
“I didn’t know Dr. Oz,” Moody says. “I had no idea he knew who I was. We got an email from their producer. They said, ‘He loves your ministry.’ I admire his work. He’s a believer.”
Vanable H. Moody II, whose mother also was a minister, “earned a degree in philosophy and religion from DePauw University in Indiana in 1997, then got his Master of Divinity degree from the Interdenominational Theological Center,” the magazine points out.
Source: DePauw University
BCNN1 WP 