By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

ANAHEIM, CA (ANS) -- Ed Tandy McGlasson, a former lineman in the National Football League, has gone from being a “grid iron” star to becoming the pastor of the Stadium Vineyard in Anaheim, Calif.

Now, as Father’s Day approaches, he has turned his attention to helping fathers excel in fatherhood and equipping them to do so.

In his book, The Difference a Father Makes (Ampelon Publishing) McGlasson uses the model of Jesus and God the Father, to show how setting up goal lines in the lives of children makes their entrance into adulthood is a must – but he says that a father’s job does not end there. In a powerful way, he answers the “Yeah, but how?” question every man asks after being inspired to be a good father.

In a recent interview, I asked McGlasson what Father’s Day meant to him and how it relates to his book. “Well,” he said, “one of the amazing things that happen when God begins to turn your heart towards your kids is that it begins to change you as a man. It changes you to be a whole lot more like Jesus is.

“When you start blessing and giving your heart away to your kids you just kind of get addicted to loving and caring for them. These past few months, I have been watching how the book has affected so many people and really giving men some real tools to be able to love their kids more, to love their wives more, to really learn to catch the blessing that they didn't have when they were growing up with their Dad.”

He said it is important to understand the lesson from when Jesus prayed in John, Chapter 17, “…Father I pray that the love which you loved me might be in them.”

McGlasson said, “Jesus came to give us the same loving relationship that He lived in and modeled for us.”

The smile of the Father…

He added, “One of the things that Jesus came to bring ‘His family’ was salvation and a brand new life and power to live our lives, but also he wanted us to live our lives in the smile of the Father. The same smile that Jesus lived under each day, He also wants that for us. As a matter of fact, He wants us to be so entrenched in that and living for His pleasure that that just fills our hearts as believers so we end up blessing everyone that God has put in our lives including our family.”

He said that has been blessed when speaking at “The Difference a Father Makes” conferences and seeing how his book has helped so many people.

“I have received letters from men who told me that they had done the same thing that I had done with my daughter and how it had changed their relationship. They say that they are talking and dating together and now, instead of the daughter being angry with her father, they now have the best relationship that they have ever dreamed of. It’s just humbling.”

And he recently received a tribute from his own son, Edward McGlasson IV, the University of Colorado senior golfer who has been named to the Golf Coaches Association/PING All-America team.

On hearing the news, Edward McGlasson IV said, “I would also like to thank the Lord, my personal savior, for being with me through every hurdle our team was faced with this season. And lastly my Dad, he has been the ultimate motivator and encourager in my life, he has made this dream come true.”

In his book, Ed Tandy McGlasson shows how to discover the potential fathers have to make a difference in the lives of their children and explains how they can empower their children to pursue their dreams and help them to soar to unfathomable heights.

Ed playing with the New York Giants

He then spoke out his NFL years. “I was an All-American at Youngstown State before being drafted by the New York Jets in 1979,” said McGlasson. “During my stint in the NFL, I played for the Jets, the Los Angeles Rams, and the New York Giants from 1979 to 1983.

“At training camp for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1983, the Lord called me to leave my career and enter the ministry. I traveled for the first few years and later planted the Stadium Vineyard in Anaheim, Calif.”

Miraculous healing

McGlasson then spoke about how he was healed from a knee injury that brought him to Christ.

“During practice my senior year, an anxious freshman drove for a loose ball at my feet and tore all three major ligaments in my knee,” he said. “The doctors took X-rays and told me I would probably never play football again and that I needed surgery. Later that evening, a campus minister stopped by my room and shared the Gospel with me. I knew I needed God so I accepted Christ into my heart with him. Then on his way out of the room, he casually asked if he could pray for my knee. He said a real simple prayer and went on his way. Because my knee was so numb with ice, I didn't feel a thing. The next morning before the doctors began the operation, they took X-rays again and the doctor returned shaking his head. The doctor told me that the ligaments had all reattached themselves. I jumped off the table to test my knee and I could tell I had been healed.”

When asked how be became a Vineyard pastor and then started the Stadium Vineyard close to where he played with the Rams, he said, “The stadium Vineyard was planted in 1988 in my living room in Orange California. We had been sent out from the Vineyard of Newport Beach to do a ‘church plant.’ We are located right across the stadium on Sinclair Street. It is less than a mile from both the Duck Pond and Anaheim stadium.”

McGlasson then spoke about why he wrote his new book."I've had a passion to take this message and see it transform families around the world."

“The message in The Difference a Father Makes was something God had burned on my heart years ago,” he said. “I've had a passion to take this message and see it transform families around the world. When fathers are fulfilling their God-given role, the dynamics of families are dramatically changed. Last year, I began writing this book, in hopes of communicating the heart of this message: Dads can help their children reach their destiny when they usher them into adulthood and begin to work with them to achieve their goals. Half the battle is for Dads to simply decide to be there for their kids.

“My Dad was killed in a plane accident and I had a step-father who stepped in and he gave me some really good moments in my life. But ultimately what changed my heart and helped me catch this blessing is that Jesus came to into my life and introduced me to his father and I got saved.”

McGlasson then spoke about the example that Jesus gave about his own Heavenly Father.

“Those around Jesus,” he said, “not only saw the suffering that He went through but He they also saw his inner joy that the Bible talks about – ‘The joy of The Lord is my strength.’ I don't think there’s anybody who suffered more than Christ did; and yet through all that suffering, all the pain and all he had to go through, what kept him in a place of being able to survive wasn't being religious; it was the relationship he had with his Father. He had this connected, loving and embracing relationship that to the culture around Him was so magnetic because none of the religious people represented the Father like that. They represented God as someone who was unapproachable.

“But Jesus openly called him ‘Abba.’” He lived is His Father’s smile and how He lived His life came for His intimate relationship with His Dad.”

McGlasson said he believes that now is the time in history that the Old Testament prophecy that said, ‘I’ll turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children’ is coming to pass. Really believe that we’re living in a day where the Spirit of the Lord is grabbing and capturing the hearts of men all over the world to lay their lives down to bless their children and to be there for them. And I think the final part of that prophesy will be fulfilled which says, ‘He will turn the hearts of the children back to their fathers.’

“I believe we are living in the beginning of a great day and maybe the start of the greatest revival we’ve ever seen. And it always starts with men.”

He concluded by saying, “Dads need to read this book because most men have never had a good model of what godly fatherhood is all about,” he concluded. “Deep down, we all have dreams that we aspire to, but without someone to help guide, direct, and coach us toward those goals, we more often than not end up frustrated.

“We need to constantly stay in touch with our children and encourage them to pursue their dreams. I have included practical ways that Dads can reconnect with their children. Is there any feeling for a father greater than to watch his children fulfill their destiny? I remember the moment Tiger and His Dad embraced after his winning his first Masters Golf Tournament. There probably wasn’t a dry eye in America that day. How many of you wished your son was more like Tiger. They can be! They are just waiting for your love and blessing. We are created in His Image, to love what He loves and He loves to bless His children.

"We can change the world one father at a time."

The book was released in November of 2004 by Ampelon Publishing and can be purchased online at amazon.com, at Ed Tandy McGlasson Ministries as well as in Christian bookstores, and also places like Barnes and Noble in the U.S. If you would like to contact Ed for a conference email Ed at

Ed Tandy McGlasson and his wife, Jill, live in Orange, Calif., with their five children, Edward, Mary, Jessica, Luke, and Joshua.