The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Zachary W. during the 2007-2008 League.
Interview with Pastor Joe Daniels
Pastor Joe Daniels was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and grew up in a single parent home until he was eight years old. His mom then remarried and relocated the family to Ohio, where they started attending an evangelical church. It was here that Joe accepted Christ at a summer camp. Shortly afterward his family moved to Georgia, where he finished his last few years of high school. Joe attended Tennessee Temple University from 1991-1993, and it was during this time that he felt called into the pastoral ministry. He transferred to Pillsbury Bible College in '93, and graduated in 1996. Joe then attended Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary in 1996, eventually graduating with his masters' degree in 2000. He spent a one-year internship on the staff of a church outside Scranton, Pennsylvania, before moving to Lakeland, Florida to serve as an assistant pastor in another church. In 2005 Joe moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan and became youth pastor at North Park Baptist Church for two years. He currently serves there as senior pastor. He married his wife Wendy in 1995 after meeting at Pillsbury College, and they presently have three children: Breana 9, Lauren 7, and Evan 2 months.
Q: What motivated you to seek your current position?
A: Well, I never really wanted or felt like I should be a pastor; it wasn't something that was obvious. I believe that you're made for something, that God uses different positions and roles to develop skills. For example, when I first started in the ministry, I wanted to be an assistant pastor. I did that for four years, learned a lot about church leadership, and developed skills in that area. It is similar to how an eagle teaches its young to fly; it pushes them out of the nest, lets them fall a ways, and then catches them before they hit the ground. They do this repeatedly until the young bird learns how to fly. In the same way, God places us in situations where we have to learn how to do something that may not seem useful at the time. Sometimes it takes many situations like that. It was that way with me, and every position I held I learned new things, developed convictions, and eventually it came to the point where I felt that God was leading me to be a senior pastor.
Q: So God in a way wrote your job description, sort of outlining the skills and abilities you needed, until you figured out what that job was, in this case, senior pastor.
A: Correct.
Q: What training do you think is important to prepare you for your position?
A: In 1 Timothy 3, God outlines the qualifications that a pastor needs to possess. I feel that anyone who is seeking the position of pastor should challenge themselves in those areas. Near the end of that chapter, it mentions that a pastor should not be a novice, that is, an inexperienced or young Christian. I believe that a pastor should have lived the Christian life, should have some theological training, be it self-taught or in seminary. A pastor should also have experience in leading a church, should be able to preach effectively, and be able to teach others effectively.
Q: What are the greatest rewards of your job?
A: My spiritual answer would be this: my rewards will come at the end. I can keep my eyes on my eternal reward as a pastor, which God promises will be eternal and great.
My temporal answer would be that I get to see life changes, walking with people throughout life. I marry, bury, and help people in the trenches of life. I do love studying the Word of God, seeing transformed lives, and meeting great people.
Q: What are the greatest challenges of your job?
A: The greatest blessing of this job is people, and the greatest hardship is people. It is difficult to preach sermons that everyone will like; you might touch many hearts, but there will always be several who didn't like something you said. A lot of people are resistant to change, they think church should be "this," and they don't like when you try to change "this" to "that." It is rooted in our sin nature, in me, in everyone. It means that things go wrong, stuff falls apart, marriages fall through, cancer strikes, whatever. It is hard dealing with those and other heart issues.
Q: What role, if any, does faith play in your profession?
A: Well, faith obviously plays the dominant role. Faith is everything. Faith is the spring out of which everything pours - marriage, church, etc. My faith needs to be at the center of everything I do and every decision I make.
