Born To Be Workbook

Lapidarist Stone

After decades of ministry, missions, and rebuilding, I write to help people encounter the transforming grace and Kingdom of Jesus.

Dewald Koch is a pastor, church planter, teacher, and cross-cultural ministry leader with more than 25 years of experience serving in both local church and international mission environments. Since entering ministry in 1993, his journey has taken him across cultures, nations, and seasons of both profound breakthrough and personal rebuilding. His ministry has been shaped not only through theological study and leadership experience, but through deeply personal encounters with the transforming grace of God. Together with his wife, Angelina — a qualified psychiatrist with a passion for emotional and spiritual restoration — Dewald co-leads The Lapidarist Stone, a ministry devoted to helping Christian leaders, churches, and believers discover healing, identity, purpose, and Kingdom culture. Their work combines biblical truth, pastoral wisdom, emotional health insight, and practical leadership development in a holistic approach to transformation. Much of Dewald’s ministry was forged in cross-cultural missions, particularly in the Far East, where years of church planting and ministry development shaped his heart for people from every background and culture. Over the years, he has planted churches, strengthened ministry teams, mentored leaders, and helped believers navigate seasons of calling, restoration, and spiritual formation. His voice carries both apostolic conviction and pastoral compassion — a combination that marks much of his teaching and writing. His writing style reflects the same conversational and deeply reflective tone that has characterized decades of preaching and discipleship ministry. Rather than writing from theory alone, Dewald writes from lived experience — from moments of failure and renewal, faith and uncertainty, surrender and encounter. His passion is to help people encounter Christ in a way that transforms not only belief, but identity, culture, relationships, and purpose. Dewald is the author of several developing discipleship and leadership resources, including Born to Be, Born for Purpose, Kingdom Culture, and A Messy Life. Through these works, he seeks to bridge theology and everyday life, helping believers live out the visible reign of Jesus in authentic and practical ways. At the center of his ministry is a simple conviction: that people are most transformed not merely by information, but by encountering the presence, truth, and love of God in a deeply personal way.