Download PDF

Harry K. Zeiders

Coaching countercultural heroes who self-sacrificially love King Jesus and the world • Adaptable • Kolbe 7-5-7-2 uncanny talent for strategies • MCORE Motivations: Improve, Excel, Impact

Who is this guy?

Half-Japanese, I grew up in the USA.  After interning for Judge Robert Bork, I was an editor at Morehouse Publishing while caring for my grandmother with mid-stage Alzheimer's.  I earned my M.Div. while pioneering ministry to unchurched university students and helping to manage 60 staff for a $3M/annum award-winning business.  

In Northern Virginia, I served two large congregations and helped pioneer an international network of 275+ clergy and 90+ congregations with 10,000+ members.  I also helped Dr. Betsy Stalcup establish www.GodHealsToday.org.  Dr. Steve Garber (formerly of Regent College) tells a bit of my story at a Gordon College convocation in this 3½-minute video excerpt: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUNTZ70fxB8.

More recently I was recruited to lead culture shifts at a multi-site church near Belfast, Northern Ireland (UK) where I also built ecumenical bridges between Catholics and Protestants.

Currently I am coaching countercultural heroes who self-sacrificially love King Jesus and their neighbors as we build bridges between Blacks and Whites and Latinos in former plantation & Jim Crow country along the Virginia/North Carolina stateline.

What's he done?

Church Planter

2017Present
Resurrection (Emporia, Virginia)
  • Established bi-lingual 'Dinner Church' in English & Spanish with mostly 'nones' and 'dones'
  • Multi-ethnic growth of formerly white congregation to include black, white, Latino, Arab
  • Steered the white ministers' association to become racially inclusive
  • Mentored aspirants in Ethiopia & Nigeria (via MS Teams & WhatsApp) who are students of the Institute for Community Transformation
  • Volunteer chaplain for the local police department and sheriff's office

Missionary Pastor @ multi-site church — 1,550 members with 2nd highest ASA in Church of Ireland (Anglican)

20132016
Magheralin Parish (County Down, Northern Ireland/UK)
  • Tithing and offerings up 30%; minimized time spent on fundraising
  • Built bridges between Catholics & Protestants in Lurgan — one of the most divided towns between Catholics and Protestants
  • Pioneered prayer/healing ministry for every Sunday morning
  • Assisted leading 'Café Church' for otherwise unchurched local teenagers
  • Initiated team meetings for collegial planning of worship
  • Expanded staff meetings to include the entire staff team
  • Launched 'Taster Group' homegroup model
  • Introduced 'Treasure Hunt' outreach ministry
  • Increased people's boldness to share personal stories about God's goodness 
  • Rallied people to see themselves increasingly as a 'resource church'
  • Prioritized inner healing
  • Raised awareness for the persecuted Church
  • Recruited 125 members to read No Perfect People Allowed by John Burke

Chief of Staff for Bishop Martyn Minns

20052012
Truro Church & CANA (Fairfax County, Virginia USA)
  • Helped pioneer a new international network of 275+ clergy, and 90+ congregations with 10,000+ members, from across the USA, Canada, Nigeria, and military bases around the world by exercising my Kolbe 7-5-7-2 Instinct for uncanny strategies: leading staff, establishing operations, and liaising with church leaders from 6 continents
  • Directed communications and PR and engaged in all aspects of ministry at Truro (1,200 members at that time)

Where'd he learn to read & write?

continuing education incl.:

  • 'The Immanuel Approach' intermediate training for inner healing by clinical psychiatrist Dr. Karl Lehman @ Virginia
  • 'Missional Ecclesiology' conference by The Telos Collective @ Atlanta
  • Fresh Expressions 'Dinner Church' Immersion @ Seattle
  • Lifestyle Christianity's 'Power & Love' workshop by Todd White @ Virginia
  • Exponential Conference @ Metropolitan Washington DC
  • Alpha training by Nicky Gumbel & Sandy Millar @ Kentucky
  • seminars by Os Guinness, Dallas Willard, Jean Bethke Elshtain, David Walsh, Anthony Thiselton, Christopher J. H. Wright, et al.

M.Div. (Master of Divinity)

20002003
Asbury Theological Seminary (Wilmore, Kentucky)
  • Studied under I. Howard Marshall, Ben Witherington III, et al.
  • Eta Beta Rho National Hebrew Honor Society
  • Automotive oil change ministry for single mothers
  • several 3-year scholarships
  • offered admission into PhD program in Practical Theology

A.B. (Bachelor of Arts)

19891993
Gordon College (Wenham, Massachusetts)
  • Summer-term missionary to Japan
  • Vice President of the Student Association
  • GRE Analytical score 800 (top 1-percentile); Verbal 680 (top 7-percentile)
  • Full Teaching Assistantship offered by a PhD program
  • First undergraduate intern ever hired by the Hon. Robert H. Bork
  • Who’s Who Among American College and University Students, 1993
  • several 4-year scholarships

Tell me more . . .

Select Published Works

A Few Favorite Ministry Insights

ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς
"as in Heaven, so on Earth"
—Jesus in Matthew 6.10

"More Like Jesus"
—Gareth Harron's summary of the church's vision

“If you make disciples, you always get the church. But if you make a church, you rarely get disciples."
—Mike Breen

"The Church doesn’t have a mission.  God’s mission has a church."
—Christopher J. H. Wright

"81% of all non-Christians do not know a Christ-follower."
—World Christian Encyclopedia

"Until recently, Americans spent more on Halloween costumes for their pets than on outreach to unreached people groups."
—Joshua Project

"Most American churches only appeal to the one-third of the population which is already Christian and sociologically and economically healthy."
—Verlon Fossner

“Plant the church your community needs, not the one in your head.”
—Patrick Bradley