Since starting his full-time job in ministry in the early 90s, Pastor Terry Michaels has been around the globe spreading his message of hope. After a few career moves and starting a church in San Marcos, Michaels took over as the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Austin in 2009.

In March, the church will move to a new location at 1535 Red Bud Lane and be renamed Forest Ridge Calvary Chapel. As the church prepares to move from Pflugerville to Round Rock and undergo a name change, Community Impact sat down with Michaels to get all the details on the move and the mission.

What’s the backstory of Calvary Chapel Austin?

Michaels: Calvary Austin started about 30 years ago in North Austin. I'm not the original pastor—the original pastor resigned in late 2009. That's when I came aboard and I’ve been there ever since.

What about being a pastor appeals to you?

Michaels: It's definitely a calling. I never had intended to go into ministry. I was pursuing another occupation altogether. I had a good government job working as a network analyst in a communications department in California. I was just serving at my local church, and my love for serving people kind of outgrew my love for my vocation. I sensed my true calling from the Lord and wanted to be more and more involved. It wasn't really anything I really strived for. It was just doors opening and me walking through them.

What about youth ministry particularly interests you?

Michaels: The youth are the future of the church and the future of our country. A church that's not investing in their youth or their kids is a dying church. They're at a very critical age where the younger kids are just kind of riding on the coattails of their parents faith, then they get into those teenage years and they're trying to sort out, ‘Is this what I believe?’ We want to be part of that equation that allows them to work through that process, so that they can own their personal faith.

What services does the church offer?

Michaels: In addition to the Sunday morning services, we put a big emphasis on youth ministry. We have a young adult ministry that meets on Sunday evenings. Children have their own little church service with worship and teaching at a level they can understand. During the week, we have men's and women’s fellowships. We also have a Spanish Ministry that meets on Sunday morning. Every month, we highlight a community service in our area and we partner with them for a month and raise support for them. We support a lot of missionaries in Mexico and Europe. We want to be very involved with people who are serving on the frontlines in other parts of the world.

Why is the church moving from Pflugerville to Round Rock?

Michaels: When I inherited the church, I inherited a huge financial burden that came with the church. A lot of the resources that we had were going into brick and mortar expenses. It always grieved me that so much of our resources were going into this as opposed to investing more in ministry and outreach. I didn't realize how much equity we had in our building, but we actually had a couple of companies that made offers on our building. With the amount that was offered, it allowed us to buy land and to build and position us to where we can have more funds to help do the ministry that we feel called to do.

How has it felt to be preparing to move to a new area?

Michaels: I think a lot of pastors will tell you that undertaking something like this is super stressful, and they never want to do a building project again. This has actually been a really great experience. It hasn't been stressful at all. We hired a project manager and I think that is what helped a lot where I'm not on the frontlines. The church doesn't see me all wiped out and stressed out. There’s just been this enthusiasm that we're being led to this new place that's going to offer more opportunity. We're really looking forward to being in a new community. We're just looking forward to what that community has to offer and see how we can fit into it and be a blessing to it.

To learn more about Forest Ridge Calvary Chapel and keep up with their moving process, visit their website.

The above story was produced by Community Impact's Senior Multi Platform Journalist Sierra Rozen with information solely provided by the local business as part of its "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team.