In 1853 he was invited to Carr's Lane Chapel, Birmingham, as co-pastor with John Angell James, on whose death in 1859 he became sole pastor for the rest of his life.

Dale's integrity, intelligence, moral passion and oratory soon made him a national figure in an age when the strength of non-conformity was at its highest.

[4] The health, housing, sanitation and living conditions in Birmingham had suffered from its rapid population expansion in the previous thirty years.

[6] He was an advocate of free public education, social improvement, the extension of the franchise, the recognition of trades unions, and understanding the links between poverty and crime.

He was a member of the Arts Club, which existed from 1873 to 1880 for the purpose "of facilitating the daily social intercourse of gentlemen professing Liberal opinions, who are engaged or interested in the public life of Birmingham": it was described in a local newspaper as "the real seat of government, where all measures are framed for the ordering of our municipal, social, charitable, and political institutions".

[7][8][9] When Joseph Chamberlain resigned from the Liberal government in 1886 over William Gladstone's proposals for Irish Home Rule, Dale supported him.

He argued that the resulting schools would often be purely denominational institutions and the Bill's "conscience clause" gave inadequate protection to Nonconformists.

He was appointed a governor of Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI in Birmingham and served on the Royal Commission of Education.

The 1886 split within the Liberal Party over Irish Home Rule marked the disintegration of what had been a close-knit circle of like-minded reformers.