Meet Dan Istvanik

I would like to introduce you all to one of our writers here at JuniorHighMinistry.org.  His name is Dan Istvanik.  He is the writer of our recent Easter series, “The Bunny Trap.”

Dan is 38 years old and has been married to his wife Melissa for over 12 years.  They have two children, Jenna (8 years old) and Kaleb (5 years old).

Dan is currently the “Jr. High Youth Pastor” at Berean Baptist Church in Mansfield, Ohio where he has been serving for over 8 years. He has been doing youth ministry for close to 19 years. Before coming to Berean he was a youth pastor in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Louisiana, Wisconsin, and then back again in Ohio.

He has experienced a great deal of variety in ministry, as he has served in a conservative “independent fundamental”, a more liberal mainline Presbyterian USA, a deep south, Southern Baptist, and 2 more plain old Baptist churches.   This surely has allowed him to see ministry from several different points of view.

Dan has an associate’s in Biblical studies, a bachelor’s in counseling psychology and Theology, and just finished his master’s in Middle Education. He feels that God has called him to Middle School and Jr. High Students for a lifetime. We hear at JuniorHIghMinistry.org would agree with that.

Dan is also a regular writer and contributor to both “Group Magazine” and “Youthworker Journal”. Besides being a curriculum writer for JuniorHighMinistry.org, he has also written some curriculum for other sights as well.

We feel that Dan is helping lead the way in Junior High Ministry.  We not only want you to experience Dan’s curriculum writing, but we also want you to experience his writing on our blog. Here is his first post that he is sharing with us called “Ugly Ducklings!”  We hope you enjoy it.  For more of Dan’s posts check out his blog here!