Ed Delph

Short Bio of Ed Delph

Dr. Ed Delph has been a pastor at three different churches since 1980 in the Phoenix, Arizona area. He is a noted author of ten books, a weekly columnist in the Phoenix area appearing in six paid subscription newspapers and in several newspapers worldwide, an apostolic leader to many churches, a business owner, and speaker having presented or been in more than one hundred countries.

He is currently president of a worldwide ministry, Nationstrategy, a nonprofit organization involved in community and societal transformation and upliftment. The mission of Nationstrategy is to envision and empower community and church leaders for societal transformation and uplift. Ed speaks 70% of his time inside the church and 30% outside of the church in business, education, government, and media.

Ed earned his business degree from Arizona State University. He started a business, Central Bindery in 1974, which is presently the largest bookbindery in Arizona. He earned his Doctor of Ministry in Faith in Culture from the Primus University in 2004. Ed also invests in real estate in several locations in Arizona.

Interested? Here are More Details in His Long Bio

Ed Delph has been responding to God's call to the church, community, and to the nations since 1979. He has ministered or been in over one hundred countries as well as serving as a pastor in the United States. Previously, he was the Founder and President of Central Bindery, a large bookbindery in Phoenix, Arizona.

He was the founding pastor of Hosanna Christian Fellowship in 1987. Hosanna started with 36 people and quickly grew to 750 attendees with some services over 1000 in the early 1990s. Hosanna was instrumental in many ‘city reaching’ and community transformation initiatives in the Phoenix area as well as the world. Several churches were planted out of Hosanna both locally and internationally.

Ed received his Doctor of Ministry degree in February 2004 from Primus University, along with Bishop Wellington Boone, Pastor/Author Terry Crist, and others. Ed graduated in 1971 with a BS in Personnel Management from the Arizona State University School of Business. Ed has taken several post-graduate courses with Talbot and Fuller Seminary.

A noted speaker, pastor, author, and apostolic figure for many churches locally and internationally, Ed has served "the church" and well as "a church." He is the President of Nationstrategy, an organization that unleashes the potential of communities through the strategic alliance of church, business, government, education, and media for the benefit of the community. Nationstrategy was started in 2000 with the strategy of envisioning and empowering some of today's leaders in the church to be some of tomorrow's leaders in the community. The role of Nationstrategy is to reveal ‘mind-skins’ that create wineskins and environments for community transformation and upliftment. Simply said, Nationstrategy envisions and empowers community and church leaders for societal transformation by case presenting, teaching, coaching, and mentoring.

He is the past Dean of Faith in Culture at Primus University (Phoenix University of Theology). He is currently a faculty member for Primus.

Ed served on the National Association of Ecclesiology with leader Dan Reeves. This Association is a coalition of major seminary presidents, denominational heads, and leaders of church movements. Dr. C. Peter Wagner requested Ed serve in this position representing the New Apostolic Reformation.

Ed serves on the Board of Directors of the Global Apostolic Partnership (GAP) as well as Life Churches in Edmonton, Canada.

Ed serves as a faculty member for the Global School of International Ministry (Randy Clark) in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

Ed is on the Board of His Highest Harmony, a mission to unreached Jewish people. Rabbi Harlon Picker is the head of this outreach.

Other interesting points about Ed are:

* He has written ten books. The first is Making Sense of Apostolic Ministry, published by the International Resource Network in 2002 and 2009. The second book, Church @ Community was published by Creation House and was released in 2005. This book is in its fourth reprint. His third book is called Learning How to Trust, published by Destiny Image in 2007 and is now in its third printing. Several of Ed’s books are translated and published in Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, India, and South Africa.

Ed’s fourth book The Five-Minute Miracle - Standing Out by Becoming Outstanding. This book is published by Destiny Image Publishers was released in August 2008. Ed also wrote People Who Overcome – Turning Temporary Crisis into a Permanent Gift, released in 2011. His next three books have all been released in 2013: 1) Blessed to Bless, Loved to Love, Led to Lead – There’s a Leader Inside of You Who Is Dying to Lead Others through You! 2) Richly Blessed, Deeply Loved, Highly Favored, Amazingly Graced – Seeing Yourself the Way God Sees You.

3) City Changers – When the Saints Go Marching Out! Ed’s next book was released in 2015. It is entitled The Most Wonderful Times of the Year – Celebrating the Holidays all Year Long.

Ed’s most recent book, released in late September 2017 by Destiny Image Publishers, is entitled Redefining Rhema. Lance Wallnau wrote the forward to the book. This book is for leaders both inside the church and outside of the church, equipping them to engage the mountain they have been assigned by God. It’s one thing to climb a mountain, it’s another thing to have something to say when you get there. The book redefines and clarifies Rhema and how it works in salvation, church, and the kingdom.

*Ed has written four articles for Ministry Today magazine. His last article called Favor with Man was published in the September/October 2006 issue. He was also one of five influential apostolic figures interviewed in a Ministry Today article written by Dr. C. Peter Wagner.

*Ed writes a weekly article entitled Equipping People for Life which is published weekly in The Glendale Star, The Peoria Times, West Valley View, and the Buckeye Valley newspaper. The articles also appear in several newspapers worldwide. Most of these newspapers are local paid subscription newspapers. The goal of these 850-word articles is to build a bridge to the community through humor, wisdom, and changing mental perceptions that the community has of the church. Just in the Phoenix area alone, Ed ministers to over 500,000 citizens each week through the newspapers. Ed has been writing this article since November of 2004 and continues to do so today.

*From September 1980 to May 1987, Ed served at Grace Community Church in Tempe, Arizona as a Singles Pastor. The singles ministry at GCC grew to 550 singles. Ed served at Grace for two years. Ed then served as Singles Pastor at Northwest Community Church in northwest Phoenix at the request of Pastor Pat Shaughnessy. The ministry at Northwest grew from 16 to 250+ in 4 years. Ed has conducted singles seminars and conferences all over the world.

*More information on Nationstrategy and Ed Delph can be found at www.nationstrategy.com. Check out on his personal webpage under Ed Delph on FaceBook. This is where Ed does daily updates on various speaking engagements as well as his Aha series of short quotes and sayings. Ed is pictured with Tigger on the site.

Even more interested? Here are Ed's work and family history

Personal and Work History of Ed Delph.

Edwin G. Delph was born in Phoenix, Arizona on August 23, 1949.

Address: 5525 W. Big Oak St.

Phoenix, Arizona, 85083

He graduated from Sunnyslope High School in 1967.

He graduated from Arizona State University with a BS in Personnel Management in May 1971.

Ed was Personal Manager of Grimshaw Mortuaries from September 1971 to 1974. This organization employed sixty-five people who owned four mortuaries and one cemetery.

Ed received Jesus Christ in March of 1974 on a snowmobile in Pinetop, Arizona.

After becoming a Christian, Ed, and his pastor at that time, began praying about starting a business.

In September 1974, Ed purchased a dying bookbindery with two old employees. By 1980, the Central Bindery had forty-three employees. Central Bindery was the biggest bookbindery in Arizona and still is today. Ed’s brother Andy owns the business now.

In July of 1979, while Ed was still the owner of Central Bindery, Ed went with Pastor Jerry Landrey to Indonesia to give his testimony and play guitar for three pastors/leader conferences. That trip was to change his life. Flying back to the United States, Ed felt the Lord spoke to him to sell Central Bindery. Central Bindery was sold on April 1, 1980.

With no formal theological training and ministry experience, Ed became one of two singles pastors at Grace Community Church in Tempe, Arizona in September of 1980. This ministry had up to 550 single adults coming to Adult Sunday School each week.

In September of 1982, Ed took a Singles Pastor’s position at Northwest Community Church and worked there until 1987.

In the autumn of 1987, Ed started Hosanna Community Church. Ed gave away Hosanna in order to fulfill what God had put in his heart to serve “the church” nationally and internationally for the rest of his career.

In 2001, Ed started Nationstrategy, a non-profit charitable organization that exists as a resource to community and church leaders for societal transformation and upliftment. Nationstrategy influences leaders who influence communities, cities, and countries.

Ed is currently serving the vision of Nationstrategy.

Ed has been married to Becky Delph since May 21, 1983. Ed has three children, Kristin, Matthew, and Jonathan.

Kristin is employed by Nautilus Insurance in Scottsdale, Arizona as a creative writer for all kinds of company projects.

Matthew is a first responder. He is captain at Buckeye West Fire Department in Arizona as well as a paramedic/medic. Matthew became a Captain at 29 years old.

Jonathan received his doctorate in Geophysics from the University of Arizona in August 2016. He served in two post-doctorates at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. In August 2020, Jon will be a professor at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana.

Ed and Becky have four grandchildren.