“Phoenix First gives people the opportunity to experience family and community. We want to give people a chance to fulfill God’s calling on their lives.”
Pastor Dale Lane joined Phoenix First in 1980 at the invitation of Senior Pastor Tommy Barnett to help fulfill the vision of building the church with a heart. At the time, Phoenix First served a few hundred people weekly from a structure in downtown Phoenix at 3rd Street and Monte Vista. Pastor Dale and his family relocated from Davenport, Iowa where he had served under Pastor Barnett at one of the nation’s fastest-growing churches.
Today Pastor Dale fulfills a number of administrative responsibilities. “As the Senior Executive Pastor, I equip the church’s pastoral staff for the vision and direction God has told them to fulfill,” he says. “One of my major roles is to help young leaders catch the vision of what the church is all about.
His experience as the right-hand man to the senior pastor led him to write a book, “The Second Man: The Honor of a Lifetime Call.” During the annual Pastors’ School, Pastor Lane teaches a popular class guiding churches in techniques to build and support their own pastoral teams.
Pastor Dale also oversees all church outreach, with an emphasis on soul winning. “We are very passionate about winning people to Jesus Christ and discipling them, to help them grow and eventually do what God has planned for their lives,” he says.
His 31 years at Phoenix First have provided Pastor Dale with a rich foundation for building and overseeing outreach programs that encompass every demographic group within the local community, as well as the specialized needs of the home and foreign mission fields. Phoenix First supports more than 30 foreign missionaries on every continent of the world. “We look for missionaries that share our heart for winning people to Jesus,” he says.
Many years ago, Pastor Dale founded the Phoenix First Bus Ministry as an outgrowth of his work directing the Bus, Children, and Youth Ministries. Over the years, this Bus Ministry has served tens of thousands of youngsters who grow up and return to Phoenix First as adults.
His ministry work has taken him overseas to the African nations of Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, South Africa, Togo, and Uganda; as well as to England, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Romania, and Switzerland.
Church ministry is a family affair for Pastor Dale, who is an ordained minister in the Assemblies of God. His wife, Lynn, is the long-time Senior Executive Assistant to both Senior Pastor Tommy Barnett and to Lead Pastor Luke Barnett. Their daughter, Michelle, and son-in-law Aaron Dunn, are also in full-time service at PFA. Pastor Dale and Lynn have another adult daughter, Lisa Charnstrom, who is married to Dan Charnstrom and has a well established Chiropractic practice in the valley.
