From Teacher to Pastor: a Decade of Preparation

KERMAN, CA (July 23, 2004) - Michael Jordan was once a youth ministry intern at Kerman Covenant Church, an important relationship as he now pastors a new church plant using one of Kerman Covenant's ministry buildings.

Jordan is a church planter with La Viña Covenant Church, a Hispanic congregation of 80 supported by Kerman Covenant. He officially started his work last December, although the Hispanic congregation had been worshiping regularly several months before. The church plant now uses Kerman Covenant's worship center for its worship services. In addition to his ministerial position, he works part-time at Kerman High School as a migrant resource teacher.

Born in Kerman, a town of 10,000, Jordan became a Christian at age 19 and felt a call to ministry while at Fresno Pacific College. He served an internship at Kerman Covenant while earning an undergraduate degree in contemporary Christian ministries. During his internship, Jordan took a group of students to Mexicali, Mexico, in conjunction with Azusa Pacific University's Easter break mission ministry. The experience exposed Jordan to the poverty of that area and brought him to tears.

Not long after, just before his college graduation, Jordan - an Anglo - heard the testimony of a Covenant missionary to Oaxaca, Mexico, and decided to become an Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) short-term missionary to Mexico, serving two years in Mexico City. He describes that period in life as the perfect learning experience for ministering in a town where well over one-half of the population is Hispanic. "I learned some language, culture and mission work in the best place that I could," said Jordan. "I am indebted to the mission staff and the Cauatitlan Izcalli church for their investment in my life and, in turn, the lives of the people in the town I pastor."

Jordan said that the past 10 years have provided an opportunity for God to slowly ready him for church planting. He is married to a Mexican woman, Ivette, and says that he has many natural connections to the Hispanic community that have allowed him to learn about the culture more easily.

When he and Ivette met two bilingual Hispanic couples at Kerman Covenant, Jordan began to envision the possibility of a Hispanic Covenant congregation. He quit his full-time teaching job in the Kerman school district and took on a part-time teaching job and part-time church planting position. He received support from former Kerman Covenant pastor Paul Spjut and his wife, Joan, among others.

The Hispanic church plant core group began informal worship services in 2002 and started averaging more than 50 in attendance by the end of last year. La Viña Covenant received permission from Kerman Covenant to move from a small room on the church campus to the main worship center and the Jordans were assessed and approved as church planters by the ECC.

"I think it's been helpful to know my partnering church," Jordan said of his previous work as a youth intern. "This (Kerman Covenant Church) was my home church and my ties here have been helpful. When I felt a call to minister to the Hispanic community, I didn't know anything about it. But I feel like I've been a bridge to others. I've gotten my feet in both cultures."

Jordan's schedule is busier than most these days as a pastor and a teacher, but he said that the pastoral role he plays in both areas is significant. He teaches three periods of tutorial classes and helps high school students with homework assignments. Sometimes he can help teens for only a brief time - he might have a student for one semester, only to see the student leave school as the parents finish a job and travel to other areas of North America to find work. But he says he trusts in the long-term impact he's making.

"I think the most positive part of it is the incredible amount of counseling I do," said Jordan. "Students will make appointments with me and some of them are desperate. I pray for them and sometimes, when a student leaves, I take them outside and bless them." Jordan says most of the students already believe in God given the Roman Catholic influence of their culture. "When students find out what I do in my other part-time job, they ask me if I'm like a "Father" (priest). When I tell them I'm a pastor, they'll tell me, 'That makes sense.'"

Although he primarily works with teens, Jordan's school connections occasionally lead him to adults and families that are now attending La V Viña Covenant, like interaction with an elementary school tutor that eventually led to the salvation of her husband.

"It's a joy for me to see families coming together," Jordan says. "I think that is the idea of church planting. There are more people coming to Christ through church plants than established churches. We're about sharing Christ with people who don't know Him. People are being discipled here too."

More about the Kerman Covenant partnership with La Viña Covenant can be obtained by calling Jordan at 559-846-5307.

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