John A. Dalles

Born: Sep­tem­ber 13, 1954, Pitts­burgh, Penn­syl­van­ia.

A lifelong Pres­by­ter­i­an, John Dalles has lived in Pitts­burgh, Coates­ville, Lan­cas­ter, and State Coll­ege, Penn­syl­van­ia; and South Bend, In­di­a­na. He re­ceived the Ba­che­lor of Sci­ence in Ar­chi­tect­ure from Penn­syl­van­ia State in 1976. While en­gaged in a se­mes­ter abroad in Pet­worth, Eng­land, he sensed a call to the min­is­try. An ar­chi­tect­ur­al de­sign­er be­fore di­vin­i­ty stu­dies, he re­ceived the Mas­ter of Di­vin­ity from Lan­cas­ter The­o­lo­gic­al Sem­in­a­ry in 1982. Dur­ing sem­in­a­ry, he served as a re­source con­sult­ant for the orig­in­al Par­ish Re­source Cen­ter in Lan­cas­ter.

Ordained in High­land Pres­by­ter­i­an Church, Lan­cas­ter, on Au­gust 1, 1982, John’s first call was to serve the First Pres­by­ter­i­an Church of South Bend, In­di­a­na, as as­so­ci­ate pas­tor. Re­spons­i­bil­i­ties there in­clud­ed wor­ship lead­er­ship and preach­ing, ad­min­is­tra­tion of mis­sion and me­mor­i­al en­dow­ment dis­burse­ment for mis­sion (over $130,000 an­nu­al­ly), min­is­ter for ed­u­ca­tion and pas­tor­al care (Di­a­con­ate), co­ord­in­at­or of new mem­ber out­reach and staff li­ai­son to the church owned res­i­dent camp. He served the area coun­cil of re­li­gious or­gan­iz­a­tions, was a mem­ber of the Wor­ship Task Force and Di­sci­ple­ship/Church Life Com­mit­tee of Wa­bash Val­ley Pres­by­te­ry, mem­ber and awards chair­man of the St. Jo­seph Coun­ty Schol­ar­ship Foun­da­tion, and found­ing mem­ber of Notre Dame Ci­vi­tan and the South Bend, In­di­a­na, Hab­i­tat for Hu­man­i­ty.

In De­cem­ber 1986, Dalles was called to Fox Cha­pel Pres­by­ter­i­an Church, Pitts­burgh, Penn­syl­van­ia, where his du­ties in­clud­ed wor­ship lead­er­ship and preach­ing, pro­gram­ming for spir­it­u­al growth, con­gre­ga­tion­al life, ad­min­is­tra­tion of pas­tor­al care, adult ed­u­ca­tion, Ste­phen Min­is­try, and new mem­ber out­reach (with an­nu­al mem­ber­ship in­creas­es of 100 or more). In May 1994, Dalles received the Doc­tor of Min­is­try de­gree from Pitt­sburgh The­o­lo­gic­al Sem­in­a­ry for his work in the ar­ea of pas­tor­al lead­er­ship in the mul­ti­-staff church. While at Fox Cha­pel, he in­sti­tut­ed an an­nu­al com­mun­i­ty pray­er break­fast, served on the Pres­by­te­ry’s Prepa­ra­tion for Min­is­try Com­mit­tee, and as li­ai­son to an ar­ea re­hab­ilita­tion cen­ter. He wrote and edited In Life and Death We Be­long to God, the Pres­by­ter­i­an Church (U.S.A.) stu­dy re­source on end-of-life is­sues.

Since May 1997, Dalles has served as pas­tor and head of staff of We­ki­va Pres­by­ter­i­an Church, Or­lan­do, Flor­i­da, an ac­tive and grow­ing con­gre­ga­tion in its 26th year. Ac­comp­lish­ments dur­ing his pas­tor­ate have in­clud­ed a ma­jor cap­it­al and fa­cil­i­ties ex­pansion, growth in new mem­bers, and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of new staff­ing and pro­grams at ev­ery le­vel of the con­gre­ga­tion’s life. He has chaired the The­ol­o­gy and Wor­ship Com­mit­tee of Cen­tral Flor­i­da Pres­by­te­ry for the past three years.

Dalles has writ­ten num­er­ous ar­ti­cles and ma­ny pub­lished hymn texts. His hymns "Come, O Spir­it" and "God Bless Your Church with Strength!" are in the 1990 Pres­by­ter­i­an Hym­nal. His lyr­ics are al­so in: The New Cen­tu­ry Hym­nal, The Mo­rav­i­an Book of Wor­ship, Wor­ship To­ge­ther (Men­non­ite Breth­ren), The Co­ve­nant Hym­nal (Evan­gel­ica­l Co­ven­ant Church), The Book of Praise (Pres­by­ter­i­an Church in Ca­na­da) and The Aus­tral­ian Book of Praise II. He has written anniversary hymn texts, in­clud­ing: Pres­by­ter­i­an Heritage Sun­day, Augsburg, Goshen, Maryville, Tusculum, Wilson and Knox Coll­eges, Amer­i­can Un­i­ver­si­ty, Pittsburgh and Lancaster Seminaries, Peachtree Pres­by­ter­i­an Church, the Lu­ther­an World Federa­tion and the Pres­by­ter­i­an Associa­tion of Mu­sicians. A mem­ber of the Hymn Society, he has been listed in na­tional and world editions of Who’s Who since 1997. Two of his an­thems are on a CD by com­pos­er Bob Moore en­ti­tled "Like a Whis­per in the Heart." His other works in­clude:
Swift Cur­rents and Still Wa­ters (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: GIA Pub­li­ca­tions, 2000)

Lyrics--
As Christ the Lit­tle Child­ren Blessed
Bless the Ones Who Nur­ture Child­ren
Change Your Church, O God, to Be
Come, O Spir­it
God Bless the Work Your Peo­ple Do
God, Bless Your Church with Strength!
God Is the One Who Calls
God, Re­new Us by Your Spir­it!
May God’s Love Be Fixed Above You
O God of Love, Grant Us Your Peace
O Seek the Lord in Pray­er

© The Cyber Hymnal™ (www.hymntime.com/tch)