An Oasis in the Desert: My First Year in Small Church Youth Ministry
Let me start with an introduction. My name is Michael Peirson, and I'm a youth pastor. I want to give you an historical snapshot that will help with the context of this article.
I attended Western Michigan University, obtaining a degree in secondary education. Upon completing my "formal" education, I realized my life had much more to teach me. I returned home and began working in a youth ministry near my home. At the same time I began to feel God tugging my heart in a new direction. The time I was spending with the Jr. Higher's of this church was beginning to speak to my heart, and I began to ask a new set of questions. Was this moving me to another calling in my life? Is this something that was even a possibility?
I began to search out a way to explore this new passion in my life. Was this God, or just the pizza I had eaten last night? God led me to Olivet Nazarene University, where I not only saw this as a possibility, but began to realize that this was a calling on my life. The theological base and grounding I obtained there has been, and is, essential in my ministry.