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Doug Forsberg

forsberg-doug.jpg“The CCO’s commitment to our Christian faith being lived out in all areas of life has had a huge effect on my life,” says Doug Forsberg. “It’s not just about living on a ‘happy Christian island.’ In college, my childhood church experience which emphasized service to the world, and my camp experience, which emphasized a personal relationship with Jesus, came together for me. Today, the way I go about being a husband, a father, and a member of the community are shaped by the way my entire life is being transformed by the gospel. I heard that message all through college, and then later as a CCO staff person.”

Doug’s introduction to the CCO came long before he started college, when he was a camper at Summer’s Best Two Weeks. His counselors were students in CCO ministries and CCO staff members, and many of his fellow campers went on to work for the CCO. During Doug’s freshman year at the University of Michigan, he got involved in a fellowship group on campus, but “campus ministry wasn’t giving me the all-of-life perspective that I couldn’t yet name but still knew was missing,” he remembers. His sophomore year, he transferred into Westminster College and dove head-first into ministry opportunities.

Doug attended the Jubilee conference all four of his college years, even his freshman year, when he traveled back to Pittsburgh from Michigan. “I knew a lot of people there, especially from camp, and I was surprised by how many people I knew and how they were serving God through their studies,” he says. “I realized that I was a part of something bigger than I knew.

As an English major, Doug had no idea what career he would pursue, so he went to a variety of vocational breakout sessions at Jubilee, “to explore my options. All that time, I was sensing a call to ministry and trying to avoid it like the plague,” he remembers.

Doug eventually answered that call, first by joining CCO staff himself and ministering to students at Bethany College in West Virginia. He then went on to earn his Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, and today, he is Pastor of The Anchor Presbyterian Church in New Hope, Pennsylvania. He and his wife, Amy, who he met while they both served on CCO staff, live in Doylestown, PA, with their two children.

“I’ve told a number of people that the foundations of how I do ministry as a pastor were built during my time with the CCO,” Doug says. “Without that, I’d be a much less effective pastor. The CCO gave me a theological foundation and taught me how to read the scriptures. I learned straight off that ministry is about people. You can go through seminary and not learn any of those things. The CCO informed the way I do ministry today, developing in me the skills to communicate that all-of-life-redeemed vision to adults who may or may not be tuned into it or realize the implications of that in their own lives.”

Since earning his English degree from Westminster in 1994, Doug has continued to apply his faith to his vocation, as a pastor and as a wordsmith. “During college, I began to ponder words and what they meant and how they should be used. I recognized that as something that God has plans for and that my faith certainly has to understand. My trade is in words and The Word, and I spend a lot of time thinking about them. That all started at Westminster and throughout my time on CCO staff. [CCO alumnus and bookseller] Byron Borger has been very helpful in pointing me towards people who think about that and the importance of story-telling.”