Dave Branon

For many years, Dave Branon had the opportunity to live his boyhood dream as the editor of a sports magazine: Sports Spectrum. During the time he was in charge of that national Christian publication, he branched out into book writing, penning several sports-related books, including a successful series of sports biographies (Safe at HomeFirst and Goal, and Slam Dunk, for example). He also wrote a successful Sports Devotional Bible (well, not the Bible part) and a sports devotional for young people called Heads Up!—both for Zondervan.

Until his retirement in 2022, Dave served as senior editor for Our Daily Bread Publishing in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This, in addition to his responsibility as a long-time writer for Our Daily Bread Ministries’ popular devotional guide Our Daily Bread, enables him to continue another important facet of his career in retirement, writing books that explore how the Bible interacts with the lives of those who read it.

A special interest that Dave has developed in the past few years is writing for people who have suffered loss in their lives. He and his wife, Sue, lost their daughter Melissa in a car accident when she was seventeen years old. This has created in Dave the desire to speak God’s truth into the lives of other Christians who struggle with life’s difficulties. His Beyond the Valley, a helpful book for anyone who has met adversity and loss in life, was re-released in 2020 in an updated tenth-anniversary edition.

Dave and Sue have four children and eight grandchildren—the grandchildren representing a “grand” example of how God can bring new joy in the midst of deep sadness. When they aren’t tending to their family, Dave and Sue enjoy biking, working in their church, and traveling.

Most Recent Projects: Lands of the Bible Then and Now: The Book of Acts (Our Daily Bread Publishing, 2024), The Lands of the Bible Today: Experience 44 Places in Scripture and Photos (Our Daily Bread Publishing, 2020), and Living the Psalms Life (Our Daily Bread Publishing, 2019).

Facebook: ODBwriter

Represented by Tim Beals