PURPOSE AND VISION CORE VALUES STATEMENT OF FAITH HOW WE WORK OUR PHILOSOPHY OF MINISTRY OUR HISTORY OUR NAME LEADERS CONTACT US	WHO WE ARE - DR. EDWARD GROSS, DIRECTOR Ed receiving his Doctorate of Ministries Westminster Seminary, Escondido, California Dr. Edward Gross is the Director for Vanguard Global Network. Ed was born and raised in Southern California, and gave his heart to Christ as a student at San Diego State University. He was the first graduate of Christian Heritage College of El Cajon, CA (B.A., cum laude), received his M.Div. from Grace Theological Seminary of Winona Lake, IN and his D.Min. from Westminster Theological Seminary of Escondido, CA. Ed worked in student ministry for several years. He was a church-planting pastor from 1976 to 1998 before going fulltime into world missions. He founded Vanguard Global Network as a division of Ripe for Harvest, Inc. in 1999. Since 1983 he has also been the doctrinal screener for Overseas Missionary Fellowship (formerly China Inland Mission) for all missionary candidates from North America. He is married to Maxine, they have six children and six grandchildren. Ed has a threefold burden. His greatest priority is the Great Commission of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (see Matt.28:19-20, Mk.16:15, Lk.24:44-49). He has a burning passion to share the Good News of Christ’s redeeming death and resurrection with everyone who will hear it, and to see them brought to their full development and spiritual maturity in Christ through His indwelling power. As Paul says in Colossians 1:27-29, “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect (complete, mature) in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily”. His second burden is for the Church of Jesus, the body of Christ. He longs to see her become strong and vital, “holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the growth which is from God” (Col.2:19). So his goal is the revival of the Church, as experienced before in her glorious history, only now expressing the dynamic vibrancy of the Holy Spirit within the culture of today. He yearns for the churches to maximize their opportunities to reach new people for Christ, equip new disciples in the basics of the faith, train Christians to be effective spiritual reproducers, and mobilize them as God’s army for significant ministry and Great Commission work. He carries that sacred underlying concern to churches and conferences on every continent within the various expressions of Christ’s body on earth. And he is determined to help them carry out this biblical process-of-ministry in the Spirit’s energy. These twin passions have been the impetus for his book, The Great Commission: a Biblical, Historical and Practical Study. But with these, he also has a third weight of concern. It is a heart for preachers, pastors, church-planters and heads of Christian associations. He understands their unique needs and hurts, their hopes and aspirations, and the heavy load of holy responsibility which God has entrusted to them (see 2Cor.11:28). He shows them how to preach timeless messages in timely ways. He teaches them what it means to be God’s anointed leaders, and how to develop other leaders to help shoulder the load. He shows them how to be God’s point-men in powerhouse churches which are growing “larger” (in overall scope) and “smaller” (in relational community and discipleship) at the same time. He works to deepen their biblical understanding and spiritual awareness along with methodological soundness. He helps them to plant new churches which will help carry out the Great Commission. Which brings us back to our first concern! Besides The Great Commission, Ed has also written Postmodernism’s Challenge to Evangelism, Seedlings: Sermons With Which to Plant Your Church, Preaching the Word, The Process of Planting a Church, The Personal Life of a Church-Planter and Leadership in the Church Which Jesus Builds. Along with ministry, family and writing (three full-time jobs!), Ed’s interests include music (as a guitarist for forty-five years), composing, surfing (for forty-one years), trekking/hiking, nature study and current events. Ed says: Jesus told a story when He was in the house of Simon the Pharisee: “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?” Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.’ And He said to him, ‘You have rightly judged” (Lk.7:41-43). This is why I love Jesus. He has forgiven you and me of so much. What must our response be? “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). And this is the driving force for Vanguard Global Network. As Paul said again, “The very spring of our actions is the love of Christ. We look at it like this: if one died for all men, then, in a sense, they all died, and His purpose in dying for them is that their lives should now be no longer lived for themselves but for Him who died and rose again for them” (2Cor.5:14, Ph.). So His heart for people must become our heart. His objectives for the Church (for which He died) must become our objectives. His priorities must become ours. Please pray that “the mind of Christ” remains Vanguard’s resource and motivation by His Word and Spirit, and that we can “bear much fruit” through Jesus Christ for the glory of God.