“I learned that what I do is not defined by the platform I'm in.”— Dr. Dwight Peterson
After twenty years in higher education, Dwight Peterson and his wife, Bonnie, joined a church plant in Columbus, Ohio. He brought years of teaching and ministry experience, but he still had to get to know a new community and earn its trust. Familiar credentials could not do that work for him.
It was one of several changes in direction over a ministry career spanning more than four decades. Dwight grew up in a family connected to Word of Life and initially pictured himself coaching basketball and teaching. A mentor encouraged him to consider the ministry gifts he saw in him. Youth ministry, college teaching, coaching, and university leadership followed.
Those roles gave him different responsibilities, but also repeated opportunities to work closely with people as they learned. In the classroom, he became concerned with what students did with a subject after they understood it. He asked them to connect ideas from their reading and assignments to decisions, relationships, and ministry responsibilities.
That approach made room for both academic work and personal responsibility. A professor could require an assignment; the student still had to decide whether to act on what it revealed. Dwight wanted students to make that connection for themselves.
The move to Columbus put him in the position of a learner again. He listened, built relationships, and became familiar with a different ministry culture. The work required patience from someone accustomed to having established relationships and responsibilities.
At Capital Church, his work as Executive Director has included developing systems that support discipleship, mentoring leaders, and investing in young adults and ministry residents. He has continued teaching for Anchor Christian University alongside that work.
For his students, the combination means questions about leadership and discipleship can be discussed with someone who is also working through them in a church. His experience supplies examples; his continuing responsibilities keep the questions open.
