User:Peterson Feital/sandbox

Peterson Feital (29th June 1975) is a Brazillan evangelist and curate at St James Muswell Hill Church in Muswell Hill, London. He is also a founder of Volte Ministry, a social network for Christians in the creative, arts and media industry.

 Early years:

Peterson was born in Nova Iguaçu Nova Iguaçu/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Igua%C3%A7u, a city in the Rio de Janeiero state in Brazil. One of seven siblings (three boys and four girls) his father worked in the oil industry and his mother was a head mistress, biologist and later a social worker. Although very close to his mother, he had a difficult childhood with both parents worshiping black magical and his father was an alcoholic. He also felt and looked different to his family and friends, which left him feeling an outsider, although this would help him in later life, when he would often feel at odds with the church establishment. After running away from home at the age of five he found himself in the Narazene Church, Nova Iguaçu. "I heard the vicar talking about God.  It was my first encounter of the love of God and I became a Christian there and then." By the age of six he gave his first sermon and says he has not shut up since. At the age of eight he was prayed for and told he would move to the United Kingdom to serve as an evangelist evangelism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelism, a move he would later try to resist due to the country's cold weather.

His relationship with his mother remained strong and he encouraged her to join him at church, which eventually led to her following Chirst as well. He attended Prestyterian and Congregational churches in Brazil.

At 18, he felt the urge to abandon his medical training and instead studied missionary at Youth With a Mission International (YWAM) in Curitiba, Brazil. This proved to be a time of successful and innovate ministry and saw him awarded the Mission Apologetic Award, by the Baptist Association, the youngest ever person to win the award. He worked at Peniel Baptist Church, Fortaleza Fortaleza/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortaleza, and was also a popular conference speaker, attracting audiences of up to 20,000. At 21 he was ordained for the first time for a Congregational church as an evangelist with order for the sacraments.

'''United Kingdom ''' In 2002 he took up God's call and moved to the United Kingdom, to help establish missionary churches, believing that churches needed to think outside the box and go out and meet people, rather than focusing on getting people into church. During his time in Brazil he realised he wanted to dedicate his time to evangelism and church planting

He studied BA Hons in Biblical Evangelistic Studies at Cliff College, Sheffield and also completed an MA from the University of Manchester in Emerging Churches - The Role of Church in Mission in the 21st Century. He was also awarded the John Wesley Evangelist prize, which recognises innovative and pioneering evangelism.

During this time he met his wife Helen, who was doing a media studies course. They married in 2005 and moved to Nottingham, where Peterson worked as an evangelist and pioneer at St Giles Parish Church in West Bridgford. |His love of arts, media, theatre, music and fashion came to the fore and along with a group of friends, set up Volte Ministry (previously Leap of Faith ), a social network for Christian artists to meet and share ideas and resources. It brings together and supports Christians who have a " passion for developing imaginative ways of expressing faith, ‘doing church’, encouraging the creativity in ministry, and promoting the Gospel."

The lure of further study saw him, Helen and daughter Beatriz move to Cambridge in 2009, where he trained to be an Anglican minister and pioneering ministry.

He is one of the founders, led by Rev. Dave Male, of the Centre for Pioneer Learning, the first of its type in the UK. Its purpose is to "to serve all pioneers who are establishing new forms of church and taking the church to new places  throughout the UK and the world." The centre has produced the book Pioneers 4 Life - Explorations in theology and wisdom for pioneering leaders. Peterson was one of the contributing editors, with an article based around his research on the 'Duckling Syndrome - the problem of individualism in Christian Communities.

He is a leading figure for Pioneering Ministry and was ordained a Pioneer Minister on June 17th 2012 at St James' Muswell Hill, which was attended by over 350 people [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxnD5e5CD7A].  The Arts

Unlike most Brazillans Peterson is not a fan of football. His passion is for the arts and longs to see Christians and churches be more creative in their faith and their relationship with others. He points to Jesus' miracles as proof that we are called to be creative and think outside the box - Jesus turned a loaf of bread and a fish into a massive feast!

He is now using that passion and vision to help evangelise and minister in the Muswell Hill area of London - an area with a high percentage of artists. A curate at St James' he has built a team that is working with the film, theatre and music industry to take the church to people. St James' supports his vision and through sharing stories of his life and faith with people he hopes he is showing them Christ and telling the Gospel in a way that is relevant in the 21st century.

It has also led to a number of exciting projects, including Spotlight, which brought together Christians from the film, fashion and music industries to celebrate the creative industry, how they can use their skills to support churches and to share and explore the difficulties and joys of being a Christian in their industry. It was attended by over 500 people and involve celebrity photographer Dave Hogan http://www.squaremeal.co.uk/feature/all-the-best-dave-hogan), music video director Trudy Bellinger, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trudy_Bellinger, award-winning documentary maker Janice Sutherland,  http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1066604/, Dreamworks animation director  Paul Chung the animator director http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1654251/ and up-and-comning solo singer Therese Laverton (formerly of the Lorelles band) http://www.arbuturian.com/2011/the-lorelles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1d1zDZk6QQ  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bot-sWlZJg He is currently working with Shaka Bunsie, associate manager at the Old Vic Theatre, and screenwriter Clare Foster on an adaption and production of Pilgrim's Progess for Easter 2013, which will bring the tale to a new audience, as welll as the potential of a record company for emerging Chirstian musicians.