Guilds + Pete Erickson
Biography
When former FINK staffer Pete Erickson picks up a guitar and writes a song, you never know what is going to happen.
It could turn out as fun as "Hallowed," as simple as "Have No Fear Little Flock," as infectious as "I Will Bless You" or as beautiful as "Live Your Life."
It could even be as funky as "High Priest," cowritten with Phil Kadidlo just to prove that Minnesota boys can catch some funk.
"Pete's a natural," says Rich Melheim, founder of Faith Inkubators. "His clean, clear voice, his ability to write in a variety of genres, and his talent to compose on the spot make him a great musician to work with."
Pete has FINK connections going back to before the inception of the company. He shared an apartment with FINK H2H Director Monty Lysne at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota and is rumored to have dated Monty's wife before he did.
Pete wrote and directed musicals while youth director at First Lutheran in Bottineau, ND.
He worked at Metigoshe Ministries/Camp Metigoshe in Bottineau, North Dakota (Rich and Arlyce Melheim’s old stomping grounds). During his time there, Pete served as counselor and program director. Eventually Pete served as Metigoshe’s assistant director with the legendary Marsh Drege.
One day while Pete was working at Camp Metigoshe, a bus-load of visiting campers and leaders from Trinity in Stillwater, Minnesota arrived. Pete fell head-over-heels with Trinity’s senior high youth director, Dana Olson. The feeling was mutual and Pete soon followed her back to Stillwater, took a part-time job at Trinity's Warm World Children's Ministries and married Dana as fast as he could. Pete and Dana are blessed with a beautiful daughter, Ellie Nicole.
When Rich Melheim left Trinity in Stillwater to start what would become Faith Inkubators, Pete jumped in as the first part-time employee; stuffing envelopes and licking stamps (yes, they used to lick stamps in the last millennium) from the dining room table at the Melheim home to get people to the first training conferences.
Pete soon became the Director of Partner Care at Faith Inkubators, directed the FINK Music Guild and facilitated training.
After two years in corporate training at Thrivent Financial in Minneapolis, Pete was named Director of Family Ministries at Trinity in Stillwater, Minnesota, Trinity is a 5000-member downtown church six blocks from the Faith Inkubators headquarters.
Pete, for all you've done and all you do to make music and ministry happen, and for the gift you've been to us over the years, we are honored to name you Faith Inkubators' Musician of the Month for December.
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Paintings by He Qi