By John Fulton
Peg Bird is not your typical recent graduate with a Doctor of Ministry degree. Peg has had a full career in education as a teacher, principal and school psychologist.
Bird said, “I am semi-retired, but don’t anticipate ever really retiring.” Her career began in 1974 as a special education teacher. She came to Vicksburg Schools in 1981 as a school psychologist, then as the principal at Indian Lake elementary from 1986-1990. She returned as a school psychologist in 1998 with the St. Joseph County Intermediate School District in 1998 and is still employed there.
Her path began to change as she felt God was calling her to something else. Her career had always kept her involved in things that were greater than herself, while sensing God had a more pointed path for her in the future. Bird has been a Christian since she was a little girl attending a Baptist church.
Bird and her family have lived in Vicksburg since 1979 and have been active in local churches for a long time. She attended the Vicksburg United Methodist Church from 1986 through 2008. She participated in two bible studies in 2001 and 2002, each nearly a year long: Disciple Bible Study I and II. This is when Bird went from doing good works in the church to understanding Jesus.
Later Bird and her husband Jim Bird would become members at Portage First United Methodist Church. This is now known as Pathfinder Church, still a United Methodist Church.
Pathfinder Church hosted a Life in the Spirit Weekend which began a process that is still unfolding in Bird’s life. Then they attended an Aldersgate Renewal Ministries (ARM) conference in Dayton, Ohio with other Pathfinder members in 2011. The next year, Bird and her husband attended the conference again.
While at a healing conference in 2012 Bird was prophesied over in two ways. She was told something new was going to happen involving a job change and that this would happen in two months.
Two months to the day of those prophecies about her path, and just as the local school year was about to start, she told her employer that she was going back to school, but for her own education. She still works part-time for the St. Joseph ISD.
Bird would be pursuing a Doctor of Ministry in Supernatural Ministry through United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. In addition, she also attended the Methodist School of Supernatural Ministry sponsored by ARM in Jumonville, Pennsylvania at a UMC retreat center. This would be a three-plus-year process culminating with her thesis project.
Bird is devoted to the United Methodist Church. Her degree is from a United Methodist seminary, ARM is affiliated with UMC, and she is also a Certified Lay Minister (CLM) in the UMC. The CLM allows her to be on staff at a UMC church or pastor a church with a ministry team.
Bird’s thesis project is a subject in many Christian conversations. The title is, “Hearing God: Peer Coaching and the Role of High Quality Connections in Spiritual Development.” While the project covered many areas, the one many Christians will resonate with is how we hear from God.
Bird said, “We can hear from God in a variety of ways including audibly, sensing, visions, through other people, scripture, dreams and sometimes we just know in our ‘knower’. Many Christians experience only a monologue with God as they talk to Him, but don’t hear from Him. A dialogue is when we talk and hear from God.”
As a reader, you might be wondering what Bird is hearing from God about the next step for her life. She said, “I want to work with people that are hurting and need healing.” Like many Christians, Bird is being obedient to God and allowing Him to direct her steps as He sees fit.