Dr. Robert D. Pierson
Dr. Bob Pierson is founder and Executive Director of Leadership Nexus. As Senior Pastor, he and his wife, Delia, served Christ United Methodist Church in Tulsa, OK for 37 years, growing it from an attendance of 200 to over 1600.
He also was instrumental in founding The Large Church Initiative of the United Methodist Church and served as its chairman for 14 years. He is presently the Executive Director of CUGM, an ecumenical organization created by Dr. Robert Schuller. He has served as chairperson of Mission Evangelism for the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, and as chairperson of multiple boards and committees of the United Methodist Church in Oklahoma. He has most recently been the chairman of the Discipleship Ministries Team of the Oklahoma United Methodist Church, and now chairs the Evangelism Committee and the Natural Church Development Program.
Education
Dr. Pierson's undergraduate degree is from Northwestern State University in Oklahoma in history, psychology, and sociology. His seminary education was at Phillips Theological Seminary. He earned his doctorate at Oklahoma State University in the area of administration and the behavioral sciences. He has taught as an adjunct faculty at Oklahoma State University, Phillips Theological Seminary and Tulsa Community College. Dr. Pierson has served on the board of Oklahoma City University, and is presently a member of the Executive Board of Perkins School of Theology at SMU. He works part time as the Church Relations Director for Oklahoman Wesleyan College and teaches part time for the doctoral program at California Graduate School of Theology.
Partnership
His wife Delia is his partner in ministry and co-director of Leadership Nexus. She served as the Worship Director of Christ United Methodist Church in Tulsa for 12 years and has served as co-chair of the Worship Committee of the Oklahoma Conference of the United Methodist Church. Bob and Delia are impassioned by the cause of Christ, wanting to see the world transformed by the work of the Kingdom. Together they have worked to spread the Gospel in powerful and innovative means, including serving in ministry in the local church and spending 8 years leading teams into Russia to plant churches in the 1990s. They also partnered together in raising 6 children and are enjoying their 5 grandchildren.
Dr. Pierson states, "We have created Leadership Nexus as a means to provide continual, innovative, and relevant training for churches and church leaders. In my years in ministry I have learned how much everyone needs training in effectiveness. Today it is more important than ever for the church to be effective in proclaiming the gospel of Jesus and we must be intentional about doing so. We pray that our publications, teaching and training will be a significant tool to help the church become what God wants it to be.
Books
Bob is the author of the book Needs-Based Evangelism and is soon to publish the third book in the series Go Fish! entitled Tell, a book about witnessing our faith in a loving and gracious way to the non-believer. Other books in the works include the topic of The Christyle and Singles Ministry.