Dave Calderone

At age 14, Dave was an ambitious kid with lots of life to live and no thoughts of living that life for God.  Then he heard the gospel and everything changed. The familiar message of Jesus’ death and resurrection became personal for the first time, and Dave responded to the call to enter into a relationship with God and follow Jesus as Lord. Though not dramatic on the outside, the change was real on the inside, marked by an entirely new perspective and a love for God and his word that has continued and deepened to this day.

Life continued, but now with God at the center vs. far on the periphery. Dave joined Gathering of Believers – the fellowship that ultimately became Covenant Life Church (CLC) – in 1977 while still in high school and began serving in sound ministry and other areas. That continued during college and graduate school at the University of Maryland where he studied Electrical Engineering and specialized in communications theory and network technologies. Shortly after his graduation, CLC began a ministry to serve refugees from Cambodia and Vietnam and Dave joined that ministry along with his sister and parents who had also started attending CLC. Someone else joined the ministry too – a godly (and attractive!) young lady named Patty Hill – and everything changed again. Though Dave had known Patty as a family friend for years, the Lord kindly made it clear that this was different. The two were married in 1984 and found much joy and fruitfulness in serving together. The fruit was not limited to ministry, though! Five children followed over the next 10 years, adding much joy, some tears, and not a little chaos to the mix.

Ensuing decades were filled with parenting and homeschooling, serving as a small-group leader and in other capacities at CLC, and working vocationally in the telecommunications industry. While all those activities continued, the Lord gave Dave increasing vision to see the church demonstrate God’s love and share the good news (gospel) of Jesus both locally and globally. He and Patty began teaching English through the CLC English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program and serving refugees and immigrants through several local ministries. They joined the CLC Outreach Committee and Dave became chairman to help coordinate and lead these Great Commission efforts. In that context, God further directed him (somewhat unexpectedly) to serve as a non-staff elder. While continuing to work as a network and security architect in the commercial and public sectors, his passion now is to use his life and resources to make Jesus known and to share the life-transforming grace of God with people that Jesus died to redeem from every ethnic group and nation.  

The apostle Paul wrote, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again…Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:14‑19, NIV) As one transformed by the gospel, Dave counts it a joy and privilege to serve others who have been transformed, and to extend God’s gracious offer of reconciliation to those who haven’t. Pray that he would be faithful in that assignment… and come join him in it!