Richard (Dick) Innes is the founder and international director of ACTS International, a non-profit, multi-church organization whose purpose is to help churches bridge the gap to their non-church community. ACTS philosophy of outreach is the application of the gospel and Christian message to the healing of the whole person—physically, emotionally,and relationally as well as spiritually.

ACTS has offices in Australia and California. Dick has been with ACTS since 1971.

As well as his work with ACTS International and an author, Dick has been the Director of Publications and editor of Psychology for Living magazine at the Narramore Christian Foundation, a Christian mental health organization. He has also been involved in teaching ministries for many years including at the First Evangelical Free Church in Fullerton, California and at the former Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, and many other churches. He was the Co-Director/Teacher of the former Crystal Cathedral's Grief and Divorce Recovery program for quite a few years.

Dick has spoken in numerous churches and conducted seminars and workshops in several countries on: "Effective Christian Communications," "Loving and Understanding People," "Building Better Relationships," "Baiting, Dating, Waiting and Mating," "Healing, Wholeness and Happiness," "The Healing Church," "Healing Life’s Hurts," "Anger and Forgiveness," and many other topics that deal with the everyday issues of life.

He has authored three books, You Can't Fly With a Broken Wing, How to Mend a Broken Heart and the best-seller with the tongue-in-cheek title, I Hate Witnessing—A Handbook for Effective Christian Communications (Regal Books and ACTS Communications). This book has been translated into Indonesian and has been used in several colleges as either a text book or as supplementary reading for evangelism courses. It was also a part of Gospel Light's teaching curriculum and studied in numerous churches. His books can be purchased from www.actscom.com/store

He was the founding editor of and has written extensively for ACTS Encounter magazine, a small magazine published in Australia and distributed there and in New Zealand. He also writes the Daily Encounter inspirational, a week-day email service, and edits Weekend Encounter, a weekend email ezine. Combined, with Prayer Encounter (prayer partners) these lists have over 400,000 worldwide subscribers.

He has written over 250 Encounter gospel brochures—43 million of which have been distributed by several thousand churches, chaplains, health care professionals, business and lay people mostly in the West but in more than 40 countries. Some have been translated into other languages including Italian, Greek, and Russian. Charles Stanley's First Baptist Church in Atlanta formerly had Encounter brochures in more than 300 taxis. Passengers voluntarily had taken well over 100,000 copies!

Encounter brochures have been used on U.S. army, navy, marine, and air force bases, ships, aircraft carriers, and submarines around the world. They have been ordered by the Chief of Chaplains in the Pentagon. Several thousand people have been helped to know God through this literature that applies the the Christian message to the everyday needs people feel.

Dick has developed and maintains the web sites of ACTS International. He is also the webmaster for Outback Patrol—an outback gospel outreach ministry in Australia.

An Australian by birth, Dick has a B.A. in Religion and Philosophy from Greenville College, Illinois and an M.A. in Communications from Wheaton College Graduate School, in Illinois. He is also a graduate of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and of the Queensland Technical College in Brisbane, Australia. He has also had training in pastoral counseling and was ordained to the Christian ministry in 1967.

Dick and Joy, his wife, reside in San Clemente, California. They are parents of four adult children, and six granddaughters.

Referrals: What others have said

Wayne Kraiss, President, Southern California College: "Thank you for speaking in our chapel. Your relevant, biblical, inspired message was a blessing to our entire community. The Lord has certainly blessed you with a fresh message of importance to our generation."

Pastor Rawlin Warta, CA: "Dick Innes has emerged victoriously from his own personal battles ... and has been a great help to the people of our congregation with his seminars on personal and family relationships. He has a firm grasp of God's Word and applies its truth clearly. His relaxed, humorous style communicates brilliantly."

Career Builders Class, CA: Crystal Cathedral. From a letter to the Executive Pastor at the Crystal Cathedral: "Dick Innes was the teacher at the [Crystal Cathedral] Career Builders class during most of November through February. His topic was "Building Better Relationships." Career Builders regards him as one of our best teachers in our ten-year history. We have had some of the best teachers available so this is significant ... No one has inspired, encouraged and ministered God's truth to us the way Dick has."

Bob Cavinder, CA, Director of Men's Ministry, (at the former) Crystal Cathedral: "Thank you for being our keynote speaker at the Men's Retreat and we are anxiously looking forward to having you speak at our International Men's Conference. I wanted to let you know that we had men come from around the country to attend the Men's Retreat and your presentation on "I Hate Witnessing" (Effective Christian Communications) was fantastic. The material that you taught needs to be shared with men and women in churches everywhere. You are on the cutting edge of Evangelism and we are excited to have your share your message with men coming from around the world.

Dr. Ronald Allen, Professor of Hebrew, Western Seminary, Oregon: "I heartily commend the ministry of Dick Innes in the area of teaching on evangelism. He is a disarmingly genuine communicator. His enthusiasm for his work is infections and his skills of presentation are finely developed. I am enthusiastic about his ministry. You will be as well."

Pastor Bert Kamphius, former Director of Outreach at Prairie Bible Institute, Canada: "Thank you for your powerful ministry. You left a lasting impression on the students and all who attended your seminar. I feel that your seminar on 'I hate Witnessing' and effective communications is the best seminar that I have ever witnessed and attended."

Andrea Fabry of Midday Connection, a Ministry of the Moody Broadcasting Network, wrote: "Dick Innes of ACTS International has been a guest numerous times on Midday Connection. His personality is warm and compassionate. His content is deep and insightful. He interacts extremely well with callers. He is an outstanding guest and I highly recommend him for any program."

Dr. David Yonggi Cho, pastor of the world's largest church in Korea wrote: "The print media program of ACTS International is one of the finest and most outstanding literature programs I have seen."

Dr. David Seamands, well known author and former pastor of the Asbury College and Asbury Theological Seminary home church wrote: "Dick Innes' writings are a remarkable combination of the good news of Scripture and the finest insights from sociology and psychology. I recommend them unreservedly. I believe they are one of the best brochures on the market."

Dr. Jim Engel, former Professor of Communications, Wheaton College Graduate School said, "In my opinion this [ACTS literature] is some of the very best sound writing that I have seen. Dick Innes has a remarkable ability to blend practical insight, a good understanding of the behavioral sciences, and Scriptural truth ... I recommend them without any reservation whatsoever."