About Me

I asked some friends to send over some questions that they thought would best capture who Dave Stradling is for all those who don’t know me.

Here’s what they came up with:

What gets you out of bed in the morning?

My kids.

Seriously, they wake up way too early.

If I ever get a few moments to myself in the morning, or once the chaos has passed, I enjoy sitting at my desk and creating something new. I love reading and learning about a wide range of topics. The joy of each day is finding a way to connect all these ideas through my writing or an upcoming talk.

How did you know you wanted to be a pastor?

I never had any intention of becoming a pastor. It was something I stumbled into. That’s how much of my life has been.

When I began college, I didn’t know what I wanted to study, but I was interested in learning more about the Bible so I became a theology major. After graduating from Grove City College in Pennsylvania, the next right step felt like working with teenagers, helping to shape their spiritual lives. I moved back to New York and began working as a Youth Pastor. During that time, I wanted to keep learning and enrolled in Alliance Theological Seminary.

At the completion of my Master of Divinity degree, I had the feeling that my time as a Youth Pastor was coming to an end. I was meeting many people in their twenties who had questions about God, Jesus, the Bible, and faith, but were uninterested in exploring these questions in a traditional church setting. Starting a church where questions were encouraged and everyone could be met where they were on their spiritual journey just felt right.

As I’ve followed my curiosity and interests, I’ve found joy in the work of pastoring, bringing hope and healing to people’s lives. It’s a joy helping others see faith from a fresh perspective while sharing the good news of a divine love and grace that is upon their lives in every moment.

You win $1 million. What's the first thing you do?

One of my friends recently told me if he made it big in his industry, he’d take a group of our closest friends on the vacation of a lifetime.

I love it. If I won $1 million, I’d throw a giant party for my friends and family.

When life gets really hard, everything is going wrong and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight…how do your beliefs help you manage? 

The Christian faith is built on hope. It’s the belief that despite the darkness we often experience, the story isn’t over.

When I find myself in the darkness, I try looking for signs of hope anywhere I can find them, as subtle as they may be. I take a breath and remind myself that this moment, as long as it may be, will pass.

If you could go back and live a day over that happened before your 18th birthday, which day are you choosing and why?

I can pick only one?!

The one day that stands out would be the very first time my high school band, 30 FOOT SALMON, played a concert.

We started the afternoon playing a backyard BBQ at our drummer’s house for friends and family. It was a warm, sunny day in May when we took the stage (a back porch) for our very first concert playing a few cover songs, but mostly our own hits like “The Tale of the Dumpling” and “The Box Song.”

“The Box Song” was always our closer. One day, someone had left a giant box in the room we would practice in. While our bassist was coming up with a new riff, I decided to put the box over my head and dance around while singing some made-up lyrics. The idea stuck and we forever played “The Box Song” to end our set with me finding some random box to place over my head.

After playing the backyard show, we loaded our gear into cars to drive to the next performance, a church talent show. This was a Korean church we didn’t attend and I’m not too sure how we were even invited to perform.

We felt like rock stars: two shows in one day and now playing to a crowd outside those who felt obligated to support us. When we took the stage, a bunch of our friends (roadies) held up giant handwritten signs saying, “TELL US THE TALE OF THE DUMPLING” and “WHO’S THE HOT OLD BASSIST?” (our bassist was a family friend considerably older than the rest of us). We ended with “The Box Song” when I jumped off stage and started running around the crowd with a box on my head.

I don’t think the crowd knew what to think of us. I can’t remember speaking to anyone from the church as we packed up. I think they were all wondering who had invited us to play.

None of it mattered. We had played a live show! All the hours of practicing, hoping to perform in front of a crowd, had paid off. We were on our way to stardom.

That is the day I’d choose to relive again for the joy of that experience. The feeling of being on top of the world for a day.