Our History
From the moment Eddie and Tammy met the excitement began! After dating for five months, Tammy was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease Lymphoma, in the fourth and final stage at the age of 15 years old. The story of how she overcame this fatal disease to live a normal and healthy life is both inspiring and motivating!
Conquering cancer would be just one of the battles Eddie and Tammy would face. Once married, Tammy would soon be diagnosed with infertility and told she would never be able to conceive children due to the nine months of radiation therapy she received as a teenager. Despite what the specialist said, three years later Eddie and Tammy’s miracle showed up – their son Daniel was born! Under great scrutiny from the doctors Daniel was found completely normal and healthy. Beating all the odds, God brought another miracle into their lives with the birth of their daughter Bethany three years later.
In 1981, after being married for six weeks, Eddie and Tammy began serving in their local church in Eddie’s rural hometown of Yelm, Washington. Over 16 years later Eddie became an associate pastor and had grown a successful youth ministry. He was also travelling nationally speaking at Youth Conferences and leading short term missions teams internationally.
In 1997 the Windsor family moved to the United Kingdom with a unique call to equip pastors in corporate and church structure, staff training and leadership development. Many churches in England and Wales were not culturally relevant but became relevant and strong, impacting their local community. The church in England began to change. The ministry grew quickly and Eddie and Tammy traveled extensively teaching, networking pastors and hosting pastor’s conferences. Eddie also developed a TV Broadcasting Group that aired Christian television programs in over 22 nations across Europe.
Eddie became best known for his book “Increasing Your Personal Capacity.” His book is often used for staff and leadership development and as training materials in a number of Bible schools in the USA and England.
In the fall of 2003, while travelling down the I -10 freeway in Southern California, God spoke clearly to Eddie and Tammy saying, “Plant a church for me in the desert.” Not knowing what the desert represented or had in store for them, Eddie and Tammy quickly began to communicate with close friends and relationships about what they heard God say.
Finding great favor and confirmation, the decision was made and Champion Life Church was born in the living room of Mark and Linda Carpenter’s house on April 23, 2004. The Windsor and Carpenter family joined by 15 other people, were ready to build something for God in the Coachella Valley. The team began having services in the home of Tim and Meredith Flynn, praying, dreaming and strategizing about what our church would look like.
In July, the Windsor family moved to the desert and began having Sunday night services for the church planting team in the Palm Desert Civic Center in September of 2004. By January of 2005, Champion Life Church grew to 60 people and moved to the Rancho 16 cinema in Rancho Mirage for Sunday morning services. Champion Life began to be recognized in our community through the weekly TV program “Champion Life TV” on FOX Channel 11. God’s favor continued with Champion Life and families began joining from across the valley.
In May of 2005, right in the heart of Palm Desert, God opened up an incredible door of opportunity for a full-time facility for the church. With the expansion of the new facility, the church continue to explode in its’ growth. People who had been looking for a fresh, life-giving place to worship God with their family began to find a church that they could call home. People were getting planted in the house of God weekly and Champion Life grew from 60 people to over 700 people over the next couple of years and we continue to grow and bring change to the lives of people across the desert valley today.
The church has since partnered with several great causes by lending a helping hand and giving hope to families across the Coachella Valley. We have supported the Crisis Pregnancy center and our local schools with supplies for kids. Champion Life actively supports the Blood Bank, the Coachella Valley Housing Authority through The Annual Christmas Giving Project and we support Extended Hands Outreach, feeding and clothing nearly 500 families weekly.
Champion Life also values church planting and has supported church planting efforts since day one, helping plant new churches in Washington D.C., Paris and England. The church launched their first church plant, Skyline City Church in Long Island City, New York, in January 2009.
The church we see is a life-giving, relevant church serving the Coachella Valley by empowering everyday people to live as champions in their everyday life.
