WHO AM I?
I love this picture of a fire starter. That's who I am. God's given me a passion to start Kingdom fires wherever I go, stirring hearts and minds to think differently. Many of us need to start over, with the Father's original vision for His Church, His Family and our Mission! Let me give you a brief profile so you know I'm not one of the bad guys.
WHO
AM
I?
My name is Dale Edwardson. I created most of what you find on this website. I had a lot of fun building it- I hope you enjoy it and tell others about it. My sole purpose is to encourage you to equip and mobilize disciples who will then multiply disciples! That's what Jesus called us all to do, so we better do it. Right?
Let me give you my background. I'm a third generation pastor, raised in the home of an evangelist, pastor and church planter. And I've been part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance all my life. Meeting God as a child and more profoundly in my youth, I felt a clear call to serve Him the rest of my life. Beginning as a youth pastor and then a church planter, Gwen, my wife, and I took a small church replant in Redding, California. We watched it grow and grow, from one hundred to two thousand people, over the next twenty-four years.
We had the greatest time, pastoring, visioning, equipping and releasing people to serve him, everywhere. But one burden began rising, deep within me. Despite the continual growth and dynamics that we were experiencing, we weren't seeing a constant flow of new converts coming to Jesus! Most of our people weren't fishing. And most of them weren't making disciples! We made a significant shift, with modeling, preaching, and training, everywhere we could. Change began to happen and we saw more and more believers becoming authentic disciples making disciples. All of this added a freshness as our family deepened its focus on His mission.
But my burden didn't go away. In fact, it became more and more clear that God was leading me to participate in calling His church back to these critical, foundational components. One day, I left the church I loved to take this word to the church He died for.
For these last twenty years, I've had the opportunity to preach, teach, train, coach, and consult in hundreds of churches across the country and overseas. My greatest joy has been to serve people from so many different cultures- Asian, Latino, African-American, Middle-Eastern, Native American and so many more. The truth is- we all have the same issues and the same solutions. I've served as the National Church Health Director for the Christian and Missionary Alliance. I've been an associate pastor working with areas like disciplemaking, evangelism and home groups. I've been the Regional Church Health Director in several districts of the C&MA.
I've written a book about a lot of this journey. Change It Up!
Look up the Alliance doctrinal statement if you wonder what I believe. Statement
I've personally experienced the many stages and struggles of pastoring, church growth and church health. Having shared with thousands of pastors and church leaders, my greatest desire is to help reshape and empower today’s church. Gwen and I have three great sons and daughter-in-laws and ten amazing grandchildren.
