Introduction

Biography

A life­long Pres­by­ter­ian, John Dalles has lived in Pitts­burgh, Coates­ville, Lan­cas­ter, and State Col­lege, Penn­syl­van­ia; and South Bend, In­di­ana.

He re­ceived a Ba­che­lor of Sci­ence in Ar­chi­tect­ure de­gree from Penn­syl­van­ia State in 1976. While en­gaged in a se­mes­ter abroad in Pet­worth, Eng­land, he sensed a call to the min­is­try.

He re­ceived a Mas­ter of Di­vi­ni­ty de­gree 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 and Church Life Com­mit­tee of the 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 a 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.

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 that 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 al­so chaired the Theo­lo­gy and Wor­ship Com­mit­tee of Cen­tral Flo­ri­da Pres­by­te­ry for at least three years.

Works

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 pub­lished works in­clude:

• In Life and Death We Be­long to God
• Swift Cur­rents and Still Wa­ters (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: GIA Pub­li­ca­tions, 2000)