Mr. Ed Gamble

Edward E. Gamble is a life-long teacher and Christian school leader. During a calling that spans four decades, he has served as a teacher and headmaster in four private and Christian schools and as national executive director of the Southern Baptist Association of Christian Schools (SBACS), a role in which he continues today. In June 2008, he also began serving as headmaster of his fourth school, Central Florida Christian Academy (CFCA) in Orlando, a ministry of First Baptist Church Central Florida. CFCA has provided Christian education to Orlando families since 1973 and is a K-12 school, serving a diverse population of families. A native of Memphis, TN, Ed is a graduate of the University of Memphis with a BS in Zoology/Chemistry and an MAT in Secondary Education.

He began his career in 1970 in Memphis, TN teaching science in a Christian school and later served as headmaster of the school. In 1988 he accepted the leadership of a school in Mississippi from which he was called in 1991 to Orlando to lead The First Academy, a school founded in 1987 as a ministry of First Baptist Church Orlando. By 2002 The First Academy had grown to over 900 students and had seen nine graduating classes totaling nearly 400 students.

In 2003, Ed accepted God’s call to become the first full-time director of the Southern Baptist Association of Christian Schools (SBACS). SBACS is the national organization that represents the interests of nearly 700 Southern Baptist Christian schools and their sponsoring churches to the Southern Baptist denomination.

Ed has committed his passion, vision and energy to awakening parents, pastors, churches and laity to the urgent need to give our children an education that is sacred instead of secular. Speaking and consulting regularly in churches, schools, associations and conventions, Ed builds the case for Christians to make warrior-disciples of our own children through Biblical worldview education. His mission is to help lead millions to Christ by bringing the cause of kingdom education to the forefront of Southern Baptist life.

Ed believes that God has a sweeping evangelistic vision for Southern Baptists in reclaiming our nation. This vision includes starting thousands of mission schools and creating a New Christian public school system in America, owned and operated by churches instead of the states and governments. These schools would teach Biblical truth instead of secularism and, like Sunday School, be publicly open to any child who comes and participates constructively, regardless of parental resources. Accepting this call would help draw countless children and families to Christ and help revitalize our churches and denomination.

A dynamic speaker for churches, schools, ministry and educational conferences, fundraising events and youth and parent assemblies, Ed is also an experienced school consultant. He has helped and taught school leaders and boards on a variety of subjects such as board training, finance and multi- year budgeting, development and fundraising, school assessment, financial aid/scholarship programs, governance issues, church-school relations, faculty development, strategic planning, and leadership searches. Ed is an advocate of the Kingdom School model, a set of school behaviors based on Biblical principles and driven by the school’s mission as the best way to start, grow and preserve Christian schools of excellence in our communities.

Over the years Ed has served on the boards and committees of various educational leadership and community organizations such as the Memphis Association of Independent Schools, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), Boy Scouts of America, Southern Baptist Association of Christian Schools (SBACS), Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), B. R. Chamberlain Foundation for Public Enrichment and The First Orlando Foundation. He is a life-long Southern Baptist and a Southern Baptist minister and adjunct professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University’s Orlando campus.

Married for 36 years to Wanda, his high school sweetheart, they have three grown children, all graduates of Christian schools. Ed and Wanda have taught youth and adult Bible study classes in their various churches over the last 34 years, most recently as members of First Baptist Church Orlando. They are now members at First Baptist Church Central Florida where Ed serves as Headmaster of Central Florida Christian Academy and Pastor of Kingdom Education.

Ed Gamble
Central Florida Christian Academy and SBACS
700 Good Homes Rd.
Orlando, Florida 32818
Office: (407) 293-8062
Cell: (407) 808-9100
FAX: (866) 400-6108
edgamble@cfcacademy.org or edgamble@sbacs.org