A Call to Ministry

Dan grew up in a pastor’s home and was personally called to ministry at age 18. Dan’s father, Dr. George Pearson is the pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Elkhorn, Nebraska, on the westside of Omaha. Dan said, “I knew God wanted to do something with my life and when He called me to pastoral ministry, I decided to get my theological training at MBTS. That’s a great school and they are doing awesome things.” Dan finished his MDiv program in May of 2020. “That was a tough season for any ministry leader, especially for a starting pastor.” Dan has served at his dad’s church as the Youth Pastor for the last year while also serving in an interim capacity in Glenwood since September.

A History of Generosity

Calvary Baptist in Glenwood, founded in 1977, has desired to be a gospel presence for Christ in Glenwood. Since the beginning, the church has had a strong reputation for generosity. In addition to giving generously toward the SBC Cooperative Program, the church supports many local and regional mission efforts every month. They give monthly to local schools and even support other pastors in the region. BCI Church Support Staff Chris McRae said, “They have a track record of being very generous to the Cooperative Program, proportionally giving well beyond some much larger congregations.”

An Intentional Interim

Several years ago, Calvary was without a pastor for over 2 years. During that time, they had many interim preachers and Dan, still in seminary at that time, was one of the regulars. When the need for pulpit supply came up again, Dan’s name was on a short list of men to call to fill the need.

The church was already very familiar with Dan so they eventually asked if he would consider being an “intentional interim” and fill the role until the end of 2020. After serving in this capacity for a while, it became clear that the circumstances seemed “ordained” by God for both Dan and the church. John Faulkner, the Deacon leading the pastor search process, shared how the church felt about Dan, “He was absolutely awesome. Everyone really loved him when he was serving as interim and everyone still does.” However, the leaders wanted to do their due diligence so they considered at least 6 other candidates for the position. “We desired to have a younger pastor to help us reach the young people in our community and Dan will be able to do that. Plus, Dan is an awesome preacher. He preaches the Bible with the experience of someone who has been doing it for 20 or 30 years.”

After determining that Dan was their top candidate, the next step was ordination. Now that Dan has been officially ordained, the decision was made to call him as their permanent pastor.

A Vision to Make Disciples

When asked about his vision for his ministry in 2021 and beyond, Pastor Dan said, “My vision is, by the Spirit of God, to create an atmosphere of disciple-making disciples of Christ. I’ve been shaped and molded by men who have led me and I’ve seen fruitfulness that comes out of being discipled and discipling others. My prayer is that, as a church, we would be marked by grace, mercy, and compassion so that we look more like Jesus.”