Dale Ebel, far left, shares a laugh at Rolling Hills.

(CORNELIA BECKER SEIGNEUR PHOTO)

Rolling Hills founder starts new chapter

By CORNELIA BECKER SEIGNEUR
    TUALATIN — During one of his last sermons as founding senior pastor of Rolling Hills Community Church here, Dale Ebel told the story of a conversation he had with a junior high school boy while recently waiting in line with five of his nine grandchildren and two friends at North Clackamas Aquatic Park.
    The young teenager told Ebel, a West Linn resident, that if he presented a different zip code he would pay less admission, but Ebel said he’d “rather have a clear conscience than lie, because ultimately what I’m doing is for an audience of one.” The inquisitive boy asked who that is, and Ebel shared, “It’s Jesus Christ.”
Soon after, the water park reached capacity, and Ebel, with seven children in tow, left.
    He muses: perhaps God called him to the aquatic park that day just to talk to the junior high student in line.
    More than 30 years ago, Ebel had another calling, to start Rolling Hills Community Church, which grew from five families meeting in private homes, to a membership of about 4,500 today, and now Ebel, who stepped down in May from his role as senior pastor, is pursuing God’s continued call in the next season of his life.
A native Oregonian with German roots, Ebel met his wife Linda of Oklahoma while they were student leaders with Campus Crusade for Christ in 1967. They married a year later. After their first child was born in 1970, Ebel accepted a position as youth pastor at San Clemente (Calif.) Presbyterian Church and notes having President Richard Nixon sitting in a church service Ebel helped lead.
   “As Linda said, for about seven minutes I had the undivided attention of the President of the United States,” Ebel shares.
    When returning to Oregon in 1975 for Ebel’s continued graduate studies at Western Seminary, Ebel sensed the call to start a church near Interstate 5, “right at Exit 290 —the Lake Oswego/Durham exit — it was like I heard God say to me, ‘You are going to start a church in this area.’”
    After finishing his master of divinity degree, four families, who commuted to church in Portland, asked Ebel to be their pastor; on Feb. 1, 1978, Rolling Hills Community Church was founded by five families (including the Ebels), meeting in private homes. Their first public service was Easter Sunday 1978, when 120 people congregated in a bank building in Lake Oswego. After renting Palisades Elementary School in Lake Oswego for six years, they moved in 1984 into their newly constructed Borland Road building off Interstate 205.
Ebel notes that there were no other churches in the area, while now there are several churches nearby.
Today, between 2,700 to 3,200 people attend weekly services at Rolling Hills. Various factors led to the church’s growth.
   “There was an integration of God’s Word into personal relationships with people,” he reflects. “People felt like we are in this together.”
    Yet, it has never been about numbers for Ebel, but about individual lives.
   “It is not the masses, it is not more services, it is not the events. Does God use all those things? Of course,” Ebel says, “but, there is something about the one-on-one talking to people, connecting eye ball to eye ball.”
Liz Dugger, the church’s full time music director since 2001, says, “Dale has a gift of making people feel like they matter.”
    Ebel’s passion is to reach beyond church walls.
    Says Ebel, “I am attempting every day to get out of the dugout and swing the bat.”
    Paul Sundstrom, one of the founding church members, says, “Dale has always modeled evangelism; if you listen to him he always has a story of someone who he’s talking to.”
    The church honored the Ebels during services and with receptions June 27 and 28. Bill Towne, who has worked 26 years in leadership at Rolling Hills, has been appointed interim senior pastor. Towne has previously served as the church's youth pastor and executive pastor.
    To answer the next call on his life, Ebel established the non-profit organization Dale Ebel Ministries (www.daleebel.com). He plans to continue teaching the Bible and discipling others as well as mentoring pastors and perhaps write a book.
    Though not clear on all the details, one thing is for sure: Ebel knows God will lead the call.