Hi! My name is Paul Peterson.
I am husband to Sherri, “Daddy” to “The Ladies”, friend to a few, enemy to a few, and founding pastor of a brand new church in the Maineville, Ohio area… Walls Down Church!
“Stuff” about Walls Down Church:
You can read how we determined to start this church in Cincinnati in this blog post.
You can learn more about why we named our church “Walls Down Church” in this blog post.
Some more about Paul:
HOBBIES:
- All my ladies! (I love being a husband to Sherri, and “Daddy” to “The Ladies”)
- Reading (I love to read and regularly share what I’m learning on this blog)
- Going to the gym (I am daddy to four little girls… that means someday there’s gonna be a lot of dudes around my house and I’m gonna need to rough it up a bit. I’ll be ready.)
- Rappelling and rock climbing (I’m not as good as I want to be, but I’m not as bad as I used to be!)
- CHURCH (I agree with Bill Hybels, “The local church is the hope of the world.” I’m giving my life to serve my Leader, Jesus, through the church in hopes of being a catalyst for radical life-transformation!)
EDUCATION:
- GED - I am a high school dropout.
- B.A. in Ministerial Education (God’s Bible College, Cincinnati, OH)
- M.Div. (Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, PA)
- M.S. in Professional Leadership (St. Bonaventure University, Olean, NY)
MY STORY IN A NUTSHELL:
My life consists of two distinct chapters: pre-Jesus and post-Jesus.
Pre-Jesus I was a…
- High school dropout
- Pot head
- Hopeless wanderer with no reason to live
Post- Jesus I am…
- Married to my amazingly talented and beautiful bride, Sherri
- Father to “The Ladies” (four little girls)
- Educated, having earned two Master’s degrees
- Living a focused, purposeful life - to help people discover the life Jesus promised!
My ministry experience:
- most recently I have been in a church planting residency in Cumming, GA through churchplanters.com in conjunction with Mountain Lake Church.
- prior to the residency, I served as senior pastor at Northgate Free Methodist Church in Batavia, NY. In our last year of ministry there, 280 people gave their lives to Christ. When we left, the church was running over 800 in weekend attendance and it continues to grow under the new leadership of Pastor Andy Sass. (Read this post to get a sense of what was happening @ Northgate!)
- before serving in NY, I served as the senior pastor of the Arlington Avenue First Free Methodist Church. During our time there the church grew from 50 to 130 on the weekend, a large part of which was conversion growth.
- we started our ministry in Cincinnati, Ohio as youth pastors at Grace Community Church, and now we’re back!
THIS BLOG IS:
- a journal for me
- a resource of learning and encouragement for you
- a networking tool for us (i.e. you & me)
I believe that life is a journey.
I believe that the journey is better when we travel with others.
I believe that the journey is at its best when we travel out loud.
Welcome to the journey!
I saw that there was 0 comments so I wanted to be the first. Great writes dude. We love the blog thing here at the creek. I am working out the bugs to get it to the Everest like level of yours.
Thanks for being so funny!!!!
Blessings,
David.
Hey Paul,
It was great to chat for a sec. at lunch last week. I look forward to many more discussions this year. In the mean time I thought I would pass this blog link along; it is perhaps my favorite blog.
peace,
Ethan
http://faith-theology.blogspot.com/
dear pastor, it is good to get in touch with you for the expansion of the king of God.
i read about you and ,i am in Uganda , i serive as follow up miniter in New life church kabalagala. p.o.box 3319 .
i would love to share with you .
my e-mail : pastor_ christopher_okwii@yahoo.ca
thank you
Hi Pastor Paul,
I would like your personal email address if I may, so I can write to you every now and then. It has only been a short time since you left but I feel so empty without you preaching on the pulpit. I’m sure this feeling will pass. The new pastors are great. Andy has quite a sense of humor, Greg is very friendly and easy to talk to, and Gloria is wonderful too. I think they all will make a great team. Greg and Gloria even remembered my name which made me feel very special. I haven’t seen Pastor Andy twice yet so hopefully he will remember my name as well.
I just wanted you to know you are missed. I will keep you and your family in my prayers.
Best wishes and God Bless,
Debbie Velky
Good to see you are doing well. You have a great family there.
Hey Paul,
I am starting a Bible study discussion group coming up. Just wanted to know if you could give me any pointers as far as questions to ask, structure, or topics to discuss. Thanks, man
Brad
Paul I enjoyed your blog. I also whole heartedly believe what Hybels said about the church being the hope of the world. I’m very passionate about seeing “dead” churches experience life. I’m not in ministry right now but I’ve been blessed to be able to attend lifechurch.tv . I would enjoy talking more about this.
Hey Paul,
I did it man. I broke down and got me a blog. I am now at http://www.bkeaton.wordpress.com.
I really enjoy it too. I wrote two blogs yesterday. I told my mom the other day that I feel like I can’t type fast enough to put all of my thoughts onto paper. God is really showing me about 50 things at once, it seems like. But I love it!!
I preached on church growth the other day too, and it was a great service, I was convicted more than anyone. I have a little blog about it on my website. If you get time, check it out and let me know what you think. Also, I am referring people to check out your website too.
See ya,
Brad
Paul,
I was searching for articles on missional churches and re-thinking church and found your blog. I like your heart for ministry bro. Blessings on your preparation for the church plant.
Hey, this is Dave, the youth pastor from Springdale. I didn’t get to tell you how great I thought your messages were this weekend at the retreat. I was greatly impacted by the substance of what you said, but more impacted by the passion in which you presented it. I am very impressed with your sold out and radical state that you are living in during this time in your life. It is very cool to watch the way God is pouring his love into you and your family and teaching you how to rely on his hand for each and every aspect of life. It is very inspiring! So, keep doing what you are doing. God bless!
Why is the area known for chili ? = whats unique about it
[...] Who is Paul Peterson? [...]
Paul…I keep hearing about you from the grapevine…thanks for pouring yourself into our young married retreat. They are “taking over” the church and we love it! Praying for you and the family. SA
I was reading about you going to the gym. You may need to keep working on that because I remember when you duked it out with a 16 year old kid at Penn View in arm wrestling.
How is it going? Don’t worry I don’t work out but I am going to have to start because I was just blessed with a baby girl of my own but she has two older brothers of her own to protect her.
Talk to you later - I just wanted to write and bring back a voice from the past.
[...] was about time I shared some highlights of my trip to Georgia. I flew down and spent the time with Paul and Sherri Peterson and their adorable little ladies. I am so blessed to not only be a part of this church plant, but [...]
I enjoy seeing men of God with focus like pastor paul. I dont enjoy those ‘too big super men’ that come from America and want to change our culture of getting rich from the God of riches without hard work.
Those messages have not help our local people here. Christianity in Africa here has become over westernised. It is supposed to reflect the wonderful jewish tradition that is similar with our African heritage.
I welcome news letters from Pastor Paul
I’m impressed by your message and your focus…and very entertained by your sense of humor! Keep up the great work, and if you have a few minutes, please come on over to my blog and share with my readers about what you do. Your “cool job” is so much more than just a job.
http://jimsmuse.wordpress.com
Love the blog…. Your family is beautiful. I know that you are getting started and I hope that what you do takes off well and people come to know the Saviour of the world through your ministry.
Just to put a bug in your ear, we here at SecureGive have started this new stewardship concept that is changing the way people are giving at church. Not only that but it is changing the way churches have to pay to get donations. Bottom line is it is cheaper. Last year at my local church we found that 27% of the people that gave were new contributers to the church. If you could check out our website and let me know what you think I would greatly appreciate it. Either that or just spread the word.
Be blessed
http://www.securegive.com
Christopher Rivers
Hey Paul, your work looks incredible, the blog is so neat–your wife is beautiful and your girls are adorable!
This ministry (Walls Down Church) really seems to be foremost on your heart and that’s great!!!!, wish all pastors had that driving, exciting vision–Hey I think the last time we saw you was “maybe” IHC and that time you came to our house with PVBI—-I’m married now and we have two kids of our own– http://www.myspace.com/marriedwithkidlet
Hope to hear from you soon–Need to call your mom and dad about next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
See you got it right on your blog .. you wrote “Good Chili” as very opposed to Great .. or in my Chili’s case BEST.
Hi Paul, My brother sent me this web add. for me to check out and I think it’s really cool! I have a simular story and since Jesus came into my life I now have a business and one of its goals is to help young adults get a second chance at life like Jesus gave me. My church has started a program with the local probation dept. to take kids in juvinal hall and put them into profesional training programs to give them careers to get into. If you would like to check out my website I would love for you to. It’s awesome that the fellow believers around the world can communicate with such ease. Bless you, Brother
Hi paul,
Have you ever read the early church fathers. Have you ever thought about the Catholic Church. You have a beautiful family.. http://www.johnpreiss.wordpress.com
great to meet with you this afternoon. will be in contact soon.
I look forward to read up on your churchplanting journey.
I got lots to learn.
Thank you, man.
Hi Paul
I have seen where you have visited my site. I hope you and your family are well. Keep up the good work.
God Bless
JOhn Preiss
Hi Paul and Sherri,
Surprised to find this on the web. I see you’ve added to the family since we last saw you. We are well and enjoying our Florida retirement. Good luck in your new church in Ohio.
No Free Methodist church in our area so are attending a Nazarene church in Winter Haven.
Blessings to you and the family,
Lee and Jean Houseknecht
Hello Pastor Paul,
One of our desires is to eventually (in God’s timing) start a ministry directed at helping churches through some of those challenging, boring and tedious tasks which chuches still need to do but distracts from tending the sheep and serving the community (finances, administration, governance, compliance, IT, etc). I think that following your journey with this church plant will help us focus on some of the things we are thinking about. Looking forward to reading up on you and praying as God places in our heart.
Press On,
Jose
http://thechurchoffice.org