Pastor Rob Pearson's Life Background

I enjoyed a happy childhood growing up with great parents. My mom dedicated me to God the day after I was born. Dad worked for a local brewery, mom was a Christian, and as a teenager I found myself caught in the tension between the two lifestyles.
 
I attended church up to age 14, then left through boredom. I spent the next 14 years ‘doing my own thing’ and living the jet-set life within my income bracket and peer values. The 60’s & 70’s was a fantastic time culturally, with so many emerging genres in ‘my generation.’ I left school for an engineering apprenticeship. I learnt the guitar, joined a youth club band and passed my bike and car tests. I entered an engineering career as a Buyer, progressed to Purchasing Manager, enjoying my career until a career change came along.
 
My social life included the pub, concerts, music & holidays with friends. I bought an MG sports car! My 20’s became a period of searching for meaning. I was looking for a life partner, and probably the meaning to life. I was pulled in 2 directions: my peer group values and the challenge to consider Jesus Christ.
All I knew, was life for me wasn’t adding up.
 
During this time, I was on a canal holiday with friends when I discovered my dad aged 59, had suffered a heart attack with 50/50 chance of recovery. I felt so guilty for giving him a hard time in my selfish 20’s. I prayed a ‘gut prayer’: ‘God if you’ll keep my dad alive I’ll become a Christian.’ My dad lived to 85, surviving a major aneurysm, mild stroke and broken hip along the way!
 
My searching led me to Tolkein, The Count of Monte Cristo, Lancelot & the Knights Templar and the miracle testimonies of Kathryn Kuhlman. With each story, the appeal of the big story (metanarrative) drew me towards Christ. Aged 28, feeling the conviction of my selfish lifestyle, I gave my life to Christ - God held me to my gut prayer!
My value system and world-view began to change.
 
Christianity and church led to baptism, finding a wonderful wife, getting married and parenting 4 fantastic boys. At 40 (classic mid-life crisis) I left 24 years of engineering and entered Christian work as church leader. After 4 years part-time study with Birmingham Bible Institute, I took a 2 years Masters Degree with Cliff College. This course opened me up to intellectual thought – a new world for me, almost akin to being ‘born again.’
 
Together with my wife Carole, we have pastored a growing church for 20 years, experiencing the joys and sorrows of life with others, in Christian community, and look forward to the future being even more fruitful!
 
One of my life verses is John 10:10: ‘I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.’
 
Pastor Rob Pearson