Ted Chen, longtime NBC4 News reporter, trades journalism for a future as a Christian pastor

Forget newsman Ted. Call him Pastor Ted now.

Ted Chen, a acquainted look connected NBC4 News successful Los Angeles since 1995, signed disconnected for the past clip Wednesday evening earlier mounting disconnected connected a caller way arsenic a Christian minister.

“Many of you cognize I’ve been successful seminary for the past respective years,” helium said, sitting with co-anchors Colleen Williams and Michael Brownlee aft watching a video tribute to his clip successful beforehand of the camera. “I got my master’s successful Christian studies, and close present I’m pursuing my doctorate, my doctorate of ministry. And so, yeah, I’ll beryllium graduating to full-time ministry opening tomorrow.”

Even so, aft 30-plus years successful precocious gear, helium mightiness request a minute. But Chen said he’s looking guardant to “a small slower gait and a accidental to excavation deeper” moving guardant — that and not having to archer his woman helium has to unreserved disconnected connected abbreviated announcement for a enactment thing.

“I’m gonna miss it, definitely,” helium said. “I archer people, there’s an adrenaline changeable to this, to being portion of this business. There’s a serious, dense work that I took implicit the years.”

Chen’s vocation took him from Reno to Fresno to San Diego implicit those years and yet to L.A., wherever his favourite duty coiled up being the 2008 Summer Olympic Games successful Beijing.

“It was China’s archetypal Olympics and I retrieve however arrogant my parents were. ... They were conscionable so excited,” helium said. “And it was conscionable truthful meaningful to spot that infinitesimal for China, and to spell into the countryside and screen the plight of farmers.”

Chen besides enjoyed each the awards shows helium worked — hey, who says a newsman has to person gravitas each the time? — and said that “as a Trekkie,” his favourite personage interrogation was with the histrion Leonard Nimoy.

“I usually don’t get starstruck,” Chen said, “but — him. Mr. Spock.” Whoo-ee.

In the goodbye video, Hetty Chang, NBC4’s Orange County reporter, remembered the infinitesimal she realized Chen was thing peculiar to the radical of Los Angeles.

“When I archetypal rode successful the Golden Dragon Chinese New Year parade with him, I looked astatine him and thought, ‘Are you moonlighting arsenic a movie star?’” she said. “Because radical were stopping our car, our small float, and [they were saying things] like, ‘Stop the car! I privation to instrumentality a representation with Ted Chen!’”

Chen’s wife, Ariell, wrote “I’M SO PROUD OF YOU” successful an Instagram communicative Thursday urging followers to ticker his on-air send-off. The 2 met each different cross-country done a matchmaker aft she, past Ariell Kirylo, had moved distant from the L.A. area. They recovered they shared a “spiritual home,” Vintage Church successful Santa Monica.

“That was surely an absorbing twist,” she told California Wedding Day, “to cognize we were successful each other’s vicinity each along, but it took maine moving to D.C. to telephone a matchmaker based retired of Florida to conscionable a antheral astatine my religion successful L.A.! And they accidental dating successful L.A. is hard.”

NBCLA didn’t respond instantly Thursday to The Times’ petition for comment, but Ted Chen enactment things successful position himself, borrowing a leafage from each those athletes he’d seen implicit the years and telling Brownlee and Williams aft each their benignant words, “I’ll instrumentality the encouragement — and springiness God each the glory.”