When it comes to having a passion and a calling, David Everitt Sr. is crystal clear about his – and he’s doing something about it:
“To see the Biblical values of the sanctity of human life, abstinence and marital fidelity restored to a foundation for our lives, families, communities, country and the nation.”
The Phoenix Pinnacle Forum Partner’s passion is not new; in fact, it dates back to 1982 when God led Dave and wife JoAnn to execute on their shared calling by starting the Crisis Pregnancy Centers of Greater Phoenix, Inc.
“For us it’s all about reaching the most persecuted, hidden people group on the planet – ‘The Preborn Child’ and their mothers and families,” Dave says in explaining what has driven he and JoAnn for more than three decades. “They are indeed precious in God’s sight and created in His image.”
Of the Seven Mountains of Culture, Dave labors for the Lord on the family mountain, where he believes “the most broken part is abortion and abused children” and the greatest need is “to redeem families by compassionate Biblical alternatives.”
Those alternatives are what the Crisis Pregnancy Centers of Greater Phoenix are all about. From a single center that served 336 women in its first year, the non-profit has grown to be one of the largest pregnancy centers in the nation. Its four locations recorded some 13,000 visits last year, pushing CPC’s lifetime total to nearly 325,000 visits. And along the way, it helped inspire the creation of 45 other pregnancy resource centers in the state of Arizona.
And while God has blessed Dave and JoAnn and the women they have served, perhaps the greatest testimony is the thousands of men and women who are living and breathing today because someone walked into one of the Phoenix centers and made a decision to not abort a tiny life inside the womb.
Dave’s life in Christ, and JoAnn’s as well, started in 1973, when they both accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. That led them to start a Bible study in their home – a group that soon grew into a church of 700.
And then Dave discovered God’s calling in his life. It was a study of Dr. Francis Schaffer’s “How Should We Then Live” message on how Christianity had and still can change the world that awakened a desire to better understand how God uses people to influence culture. God again used Schaffer to fan Dave and JoAnn’s passion into flames. A little over two years later the first Crisis Pregnancy Center opened — and the first little life was saved.
Along the way they took a 10-year break, enough time for Dave to do ministry on a broader scale, including starting the Strategic Resources Group, Inc. to mentor and advise ministries at home and abroad with visioning, ministry development and strategic development. They returned to Phoenix in 2011, and Dave resumed his position as CEO and president of Crisis Pregnancy Centers and JoAnn as director of services. Dave also chairs the Arizona Life Coalition board, serves on the boards of Life International and Leading by Grace and the local Pinnacle Forum Chapter. Married 43 years, the couple enjoys their three grown children, six granddaughters and four great-grandchildren.
Dave’s life truly is a “Four-E” life, which is what Pinnacle Forum is all about: Being encouraged and equipped to engage and execute on the passions, gifts, strengths and calling that God has placed in us for His purpose.
“What Pinnacle Forum offers as a vision is the opportunity to help men and women find their God-given calling in the context of the Kingdom of God,” he says. “I believe much of what men experience in their exposure to religion and church is a kingdomless gospel — a gospel that is truncated, a gospel that has been reduced to a salvation prayer or experience.”
“Unfortunately,” he continues, “often the most dynamic role a church offers men is an ushering position, or a job directing parking lot traffic on Sunday morning, or to give to the building program. While these tasks are necessary and worthwhile, they’re not enough to challenge them to do or be all God has called them to be.”
And that’s where Dave says Pinnacle Forum can and does make a difference, by “providing a way for leaders who are serious about following Christ to be discipled and find His purpose for their lives.”
He contends that for all the beautiful churches that have been built in America, very few members of those churches are impacting the culture.
“It’s time to ask what we are asking (people) in our congregations to do, and if and how that will change the culture. It’s not about paying a monthly fee to belong to a group; that will never motivate men (and women). It’s about being a world changer. Our Pinnacle Forum groups should be like a boot camp and the money given to support the vision needs to be seen as a small investment in the cost to get exposed to training and discipling an army of people who like those in the 1st Century turned the world upside down.”
Dave has both a timely reminder and some wise words of advice for the men and women of PinnacleForum:
The reminder: “All of us will someday stand before God and give an account and be rewarded for what we did with the gifts He gave us relative to our Kingdom calling to redemptively change the status quo – which is Latin for the mess we’re in.”
The advice: “It’s getting late, so eliminate all the distractions and wholeheartedly follow Christ.”
