Ryan Watson was ordained to pastoral ministry last September at the Garden City Church in Kansas.
Ryan first attended a Seventh-Day Adventist church in Duluth, Minnesota, when he was seven years old. On that first day, Sabbath school lessons about the Old Testament sanctuary and stories about Ellen White captured his attention and ignited in him a personal interest in reading the Bible. His love for Jesus led to his decision to be baptized at the age of 11.
At 16, while his family was working with an evangelistic team in northern California, Ryan renewed his commitment to follow Jesus, and took a large step out of his comfort zone to participate in a summer of literature evangelism in Modesto. It proved to be a challenging, yet spiritually significant, experience. It was during that summer that Ryan first sensed a call to ministry. He went on to work in literature evangelism for two more summers.
It was several years after returning to Minnesota, however, before Ryan answered his call to full-time ministry. Having worked in various construction fields for more than five years, he felt that he was not where God wanted him. At 21 years of age, he enrolled at Union College to study music. Following his freshman year, he felt a definitive call to pastoral ministry. As a sophomore, he changed majors so he could study theology. That year, he also met his wife Emily. Both Ryan and Emily continued to wrestle with the call t ministry as they both worked to finish college while also starting a family together, as Eden (now 13) and Lewis (9) were born along the way. After eight years, Ryan completed his undergraduate studies.
In 2013, Ryan served briefly as a pastor in the Pittsburg, Fort Scott, Galena and Hepler churches before returning to Union so Emily could complete her degree. After she graduated in 2015, Ryan and Emily accepted the invitation to serve as the pastoral family in Garden City, Dodge City, and Liberal where they have been pleased to serve for the last six years.
“We are proud of their commitment to ministry and look forward to working with them for years to come,” said Virgil Covel, Ministerial director for the Kansas-Nebraska Conference.
