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Peter Daniels

Daniels-Pete.jpg“I was transformed by the CCO,” says Peter Daniels. “Because CCO staff members and fellow students were willing to invest in me, everything changed. It’s one of the things I really love about the CCO, that they met me where I was and saw potential in me. It’s relational ministry at its best, and that’s what my life is all about. It changed my life.”

Pete first encountered the CCO’s ministry when he transferred to Messiah College from the State University of New York. “I was a Christian, but I was into the party scene during my first couple years of college,” Pete remembers. “My dad, who was a pastor, passed away in 1992, and it was a wake-up call for me. I was really seeking to walk with the Lord again and I knew I needed to be surrounded by as many Christian brothers and sisters as possible.”

CCO staff member Doug Bradbury identified Pete as a leader, and invited him into the student leadership team of Isaachar’s Loft, the CCO’s ministry on campus. After a year, Pete left Messiah because his grades were not up to par, but a few months later, he attended a CCO staff recruiting event at Messiah and ended up deciding to join CCO staff. Only one problem: he didn’t have his college degree.

“The CCO leadership saw something in me, and they decided to make it work,” Pete says. “They said if I agreed to get academic testing, I could finish my degree while I was on staff.” The tests diagnosed Pete as having Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. “After 45 minutes to an hour of intense attention, my brain would shut down,” Pete remembers. “I used to force myself work through that, but once I learned to take breaks, walk away for 10 or 15 minutes, everything went great. I ended up getting straight A’s.”

Pete earned a bachelor’s degree from Geneva College while ministering to students there through the CCO. His partnership with College Hill Presbyterian Church, where he integrated college students into the youth ministry, helped confirm Pete’s call into pastoral ministry. Before pursuing a seminary degree, he spent the last two years with the CCO ministering to students at the University of Pittsburgh.

Today, Pete and his wife, Melanie, are raising their three children in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where Pete serves as Pastor of First Baptist Church. The number one reason Pete chose to follow his call to this church was because of the college students. Williams College, a prestigious liberal arts school, is in walking distance of the church.

“The CCO taught me the importance of the local church and the necessity of plugging college students in,” says Pete. “When I first came here, there were two students in the pews. This fall, we had upwards of 70 students worshiping with us! It’s important to us to help college students understand that they can be ministers of the Gospel. We plug them in wherever possible and give them opportunities to lead and serve alongside us.

“The CCO gave me a love for college students and an understanding of how formative that stage of life is. Helping them to think critically about their faith, teaching them to integrate it into their lives—I still preach that all the time, to students and adults alike.

“One of the things that I learned quickly is that being a pastor is a lot different from being a campus minister. There was a lot of training from the CCO that has helped me, but there are so many different expectations that people have about what a pastor should be and do. What I learned from the CCO is to just be myself, who God created me to be. I live and preach that the ground is level at the foot of the cross.”