~K. F. Haney - A Tribute from the Stockton Record

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Bishop Kenneth F. Haney
Stockton, CA


STOCKTON - Bishop Kenneth F. Haney, a charismatic pastor and for three decades the driving force behind one of San Joaquin County's largest churches, died Thursday after a brief illness. He was 74.

Haney, pastor of Christian Life Center from 1972 to 2001, was responsible for launching several large ministries:

» Christian Life College, based on West Lane in Stockton.

» Fourteen satellite churches established throughout the county.

» Stockton Christian School, a kindergarten-through-high school campus, also based on West Lane.

» Christian Life Center, a 5,800-seat church at 4303 Christian Life Way in Stockton.

» KYCC, a 41,000-watt radio station founded at 10 watts.

The Pentecostal church grew rapidly under Haney's leadership, expanding first to its 9023 West Lane location in 1978 and then to its present site off Highway 99 in 2004. His son, Nathaniel Haney, has been pastor since 2001.

The church is best known around Northern California for its 24-hour Christian radio station, which began humbly in 1975 as KCJH. The listener-supported ministry was a Haney dream and originally named for his father, Clyde J. Haney, who helped found the original church in 1935. Renamed KYCC in 1999, today it has a network of stations and reaches listeners in five Western states.

"He was a man of great integrity and compassion," said the Rev. Janice Ivey Smith, 74, a 1988 graduate of the Bible college and today an associate pastor with the church. "People from all walks of life could identify with him and relate to him. He was such a kind-hearted person."

When he left the pulpit in Stockton 10 years ago, Haney and his wife, Joy, moved to St. Louis. He spent eight years traveling the world as the general superintendent of United Pentecostal Church International, which has 4 million members.

He retired to Stockton in 2010.

"Traveling internationally for our denomination didn't change him," Smith said. "He was a wonderful, kind and approachable person."

In the 1970s and '80s, Haney also was known for organizing citywide crusades and using the Stockton Memorial Civic Auditorium to stage them.

"He was the greatest Christian man I ever met," said Joy Haney, his wife of 50 years. "You meet few people in life who are so genuine and true. He was real. He was a selfless man and gave so much of himself."

Born on July 18, 1937, Kenneth Haney also is survived by his five children: Sherrie Moran, Nathaniel Haney, Elizabeth Shivers, Stephanie Montes and Angela Haney; 11 grandchildren; and three sisters.

His greatest accomplishment? The radio station? The huge church? The satellite ministries?

"He was so rewarded by the college alumni serving around the world," Joy Haney said. "From the college in Stockton, they are serving in almost every country around the world."

Bro. Kenneth Haney doing what he loved...preaching the Word of God.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYtuLBt1izQ


- Kevin Parrish, the Stockton Record

*Note! Pictures, emphasis with font color, italics and bold are this editors and not part of the original article written by Mr. Kevin Parrish.