Please welcome Pastor Teresa Pekarek

 

Family:

I have two adult children, twins Timothy Jaycox and Katelyn Griebel. Katelyn and her husband, Eli, live in Hartford, South Dakota, with my grandson, Oliver. Timothy is a Flight Instructor working on flight hours to become a commercial pilot.

 

Education:

• Graduate of Ramona High School

• Degree in Human Services from Lake Area Technical College

• Certified Intuitive Reiki Practitioner

• Certification in religious trauma

• Lifelong learning following John Wesley's emphasis on continual learning and discipleship

• End Of Life Doula

 

Service and Community:

Involvement I grew up on a farm where community was just life — you showed up for your neighbors. That never left me. Managing the bowling alley and café in Dell Rapids and the Overlook Café at the falls in Sioux Falls put me at the center of community life — fundraisers, celebrations, open doors for schools, churches, and folks with disabilities. Leading at Walmart deepened that same conviction, serving people from every walk of life through a pandemic and alongside immigrant neighbors who were afraid. Every person is made in the image of God. Being Christ-like happens every day, in every place.

 

Call to Ministry:

I was sixteen when I watched a woman preach and thought quietly: That is going to be me someday. That someday never left — God was forming me through farm life, community work, hard seasons, and even through living into my true self in my forties. My calling is not linear. It is a witness to a God who shows up in every detour, planting seeds and waiting for growth. Jesus called fishermen while they were still fishing. A life of saying yes and trusting God with the rest. Someday has arrived.

 

Vision of the Church:

I want the church to get back to what it was always supposed to be — a place of spiritual healing. There are people in every community, inside and outside the church, who were told the table was not for them. I want to meet those people and tell them the truth: you were never excluded. The door is open, and there is healing here. John Wesley went out into the fields and formed communities built on loving God and loving neighbor — social holiness, hands that serve, feet that go, people healed and sent to transform the world. That is what it means to be Methodist.

 

Gifts for the Ministry:

What I bring is a life — decades of real work in real communities, following Jesus, listening to the Holy Spirit, and being shaped along the way. I understand rural life because I have lived it. My Clifton Strengths — Context, Developer, Empathy, Includer, and Belief — reflect how God wired me to love people: paying attention to where people come from, seeing what they could become, sitting with them in hard places, noticing who is missing, and holding the conviction that every person has worth — and that conviction does not move.

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Leadership Style:

Appointment I lead relationally — not just as a personality but as a theology. God has been about relationships from the very beginning, and if the church is going to reflect that, its leaders must truly know the people they serve. Everything I do is meant to be a witness — go, love, make disciples. Build a community so rooted in love that people cannot help but want to be part of it. That is the leadership I want to offer.

 

Spiritual Disciplines and Study:

Grounded in Wesley's quadrilateral and a commitment to lifelong learning — prayer, worship, reflection, journaling, and mentoring keep me rooted. Books, educational courses, workshops and podcasts keep me growing. Always discerning where God is already at work and joining in.

 

What I Do for Relaxation and Fun:

Life's simple gifts — hiking, biking, nature, golfing, and traveling with my partner Elizabeth. Time with family in South Dakota, friends over for cookouts, gamenights and conversation over coffee, and quiet moments with our Boston terrier mix Gabby, who joined our family two years ago.