[This is a link to Pastor Dan's Blogposts.]
Beth and Dan Sonnenberg
Stonebridge Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) of Perrysburg installed the Reverend Daniel L. Sonnenberg as its Senior Pastor on Sunday, July 10, after a unanimous call by the congregation in April of this year. Says Sonnenberg, “This is a homecoming, returning to live in Northwest Ohio after more than 35 years in the South. I spent my first 20 years in Holgate and Bowling Green, so it’s nice to be nearer to those areas again, in addition to my parents, two siblings and other extended family.”
Reverend Sonnenberg was formerly the Assistant Pastor of Discipleship and Music at Myrtle Grove EPC in Wilmington, NC. He moved to North Carolina in the mid-70s and completed a Bachelors Degree in Marine Biology in 1978. He received Christ while in college at an InterVarsity retreat. Following college he and his wife Beth, who is from Wilmington, attended Myrtle Grove EPC, where he directed the choir.
Sensing a call to serve the Lord in full-time music ministry at that time, he returned to the University of North Carolina at Wilmington to complete a vocal performance degree and joined the staff of Myrtle Grove EPC in 1982. During the next twenty years, God blessed his music ministry to include a 50-voice choir, 20-piece orchestra, 12-member vocal ensemble, drama group, dance group, and three worship bands.
However, while serving in that capacity, he began to sense a call to the ministry of the Word and Sacrament which led to attending Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, FL in 2001. After completing his Masters of Divinity degree in 2004 he received a call to North Grove EPC as Assistant Pastor and there was ordained as a Pastor in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. In 2007 he was called to Myrtle Grove EPC as Assistant Pastor.
When asked what it means to pastor God’s people, Sonnenberg responds, “Being a pastor is both a great responsibility and a wonderful opportunity. As Jesus demonstrated and taught, it means loving and serving the people in my congregation in sacrificial ways at times. It is also a wonderful opportunity to meet new people and to grow together in our love and knowledge of God, ourselves, each other, and the larger community we serve.”
Reverend Sonnenberg has been married to his wife Beth since 1978. They have two grown sons, Stephen and James. Aside from ministry, Reverend Sonnenberg enjoys tennis, bicycling, woodworking, reading fiction and playing the piano. You can read his blog or listen to his sermons on our website.