Dave Thornhill Ed. D., M.Div.

PASTOR, COACH, LEADER, SPEAKER

Dave has been a pastor and leader for 31 years in 4 churches. All four have experienced consistent growth, health and out of the box thinking. On this site you’ll read Dave’s thoughts on a wide variety of subjects. And most importantly, Dave would love to help you! Because when you get better your church will get bigger.

Dave is an ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene, holds an M.div. from Nazarene Theological Seminary, and has an earned Doctorate in Organizational Leadership (ed.D) from Olivet Nazarene University.

Accomplishments

• 30 Years (and going) happily married

• 31 Years in Senior Leadership…joyfully serving the Lord

• Raised 3 awesome kids…all who love Jesus

• Have led 4 ministries: In all four I inherited a major problem, solved it and and all four grew significantly

• We awarded the dissertation of distinction upon graduating with a doctorate of organizational leadership.

• Completed over 100 Marathons, Half-Marathons and Ultra Marathons

• Top 5 Favorite Races: New York Marathon, Ironman (140.2M), Grandmaster Ultra (52 miler), Big Sur Marathon, and Escape from Alcatraz.

• Completed and Crushed the Spartan Beast

• Became an Ironman (2.4M swim, 112M bike, 26,2M run) on Oct 2, 2021. Best race ever!

• Founder of GracePoint Church of the Nazarene in Kansas City. Started with 4 people and grew to over 300.

• Raised $250,000 selling office cubicles and wedding dresses on e-bay to fund my startup church

• Lost count on how many salvations and baptisms I’ve seen and done (prob in 750-1000 range)

• Full Scholarship to Nazarene Theological Seminary

• Played Basketball and Baseball at Eastern Nazarene College

• Served as a pacer for 5 marathons (so far)

• World’s Toughest Mudder Finisher (12 hour endurance/obstacle marathon)

• Ultra Marathons: Circular Logic (three times), Butler 8 hour Dream Endurance Race (three times ), Northface Endurance Challenge (three times), Psycho Wyco (three times), Psycho Summer (twice), Collene’s Cold Night Run, The 4 Hour Freeze, Grandmaster Ultra 50 miler.

• Ran 41 miles on my 41st birthday (6 hrs 31 minutes)

• Ran 52 miles on my 50th birthday at the Grand Master Ultra and came in 4th place overall.

• Accomplished guitar player

• Started a seasonal compassionate ministry center in KC called the Give and Take

• Served as a denominational consultant for numerous church plants

• Began praying routinely for wisdom in 10th grade and have continued to this day

• Kissed Erica on top of the Empire State Building

• Hiked to the top of Vail Mountain with Erica

• Restarted New Horizons Church of the Nazarene. Grew it significantly and then merged it with Primo Eglesia Del Nazareno to become a multi cultural church. Beautiful moment.

• President of my Senior Class at Eastern Nazarene College.

• Top 50 missional pastors (Grow Magazine 2008)

• Top 50 churches with Professions of Faith in 2005 (#11 of 50)

• Leadership Fellow: Church of the Nazarene (mid 2000’s)

• General Superintendents Growth Award (2001)

• Had my hip replaced at 48 years old and ran exactly one month later. Did 1/2 marathon at 2 months.

• Too many family vacations to list: Arizona, Miami, New Orleans, Destin, New York City, Puerto Rico, Honolulu, Denver, Utah, California, Nags Head, Orlando, South Padre Island, Chicago, OK City, Hawaii…

• Hiked El Yunque in Puerto Rico

• Adjunct professor of evangelism at NTS from 2001-2007

• Published: Leadership Magazine, Grow Magazine, Youth Specialties Magazine, Preachers Magazine

• I’ve seen lots: Times Square, Four Corners, Empire State Building, Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Gulf, Colorado Monument, Bourbon Street, Pikes Peak, Golden Gate Bridge (walked it and drove it), Alcatraz, Estes Park, Elvis’ House (it was trashy), Three-Corners, The largest ketchup bottle in the world, Liberty Bell, Statue of Liberty, NYC 9/11 Memorial, OKC Memorial, Kittyhawk, etc…

• Ran an Ultra Marathon with Dean Karnazes (Northface Endurance Challenge)

• Completed and crushed the Steelhead half ironman in 5:14.

• Some Favorite Books: Can’t Hurt Me (Goggins), Orbiting the Giant Hairball (Gordon MacKenzie), Man’s Search for Meaning (Viktor Frankl)

• Some Favorite Speakers/Leaders: Andy Stanley, Craig Grosehel, Mark Driscoll, Patrick Lencioni, Horst Schulze, Donald Miller, Malcolm Gladwell, Jim Collins, Simon Sinek

• Click here to read my growing list of life and leadership principles

Goals

• To love Erica my whole life

• To depopulate hell as much as possible

• My dream job is to serve as the president of a Christian university.

• God has given me a passion to help large churches in decline to experience reform and return to growth (this is my dissertation topic as well)

• When I am an older man I aim to be sought out for wisdom

• Help 1000 churches grow bigger by helping their pastor to be better

• Help the upcoming generation of leaders have a biblical worldview rather than having their minds highjacked by the cultural lies peddled by Satan.

• Create and develop young leaders

• Stay in shape my whole life

• To solve major problems for a large organization. God has gifted and anointed me to be an organizational problem solver.

• Would love to start a church that began as a mega church day from 1

• Continue to be a healthy organizational innovater/disrupter

• Every day until I die: Exercise, Learn Something, and Kiss Erica

• Write a book…or several

• Run the Great Wall Marathon, Rim2Rim2Rim, the Spartathalon, the Spartan Agoge and many more

• Start a business with my kids (currently in process of helping two of them start their own)

• Buy a vacation home for our family and kids families

• To be generous and world-class grandparents when the time comes

Profiles

• Ordination: Elder in good standing in The Church of the Nazarene

• Working Genius (Patrick Lencioni): Invention and Galvanizing

• Strengths Finder: Relator, Activator, Command, Competition, Significance, Self-Assurance, Maximizer, Futuristic, Strategic, Learner

• MBTI: ENTJ

• DISC: High D (Dominance)

• Enneagram: #8 (The Challenger)