Darin Cerwinske

Hi, I’m Darin Cerwinske, the Senior Pastor of Cedar Point Church. I grew up in Nashua, IA, and love living here. My wife, Deedie, and I were high school sweethearts and graduated in the same class of 1992, the last class of the Nashua Bulldogs! We were later married in June 1997 and now have four incredible kids: Kaylee, Luke, Titus and Kelly.

Deedie is a teacher at heart, and loves her job and interacting with students. I was a contractor for ten years, building houses in the Nashua & Charles City areas, until God grabbed my heart and caused a change in our lives. In 2004 I gave up my construction business, packed our family up, and moved to Toccoa, GA, where I studied to receive my B.A. in Pastoral Ministries at Toccoa Falls College. After spending four years in Georgia God then brought us back to Nashua to start a different kind of church; one focused on reaching people who were far from Christ. In 2006, along with twenty-six others, we started what is now known as Cedar Point Church.

My Faith

I grew up attending church all my life but it never really meant that much to me. I thought church was boring and irrelevant and as soon as I finished confirmation, I was done with church. Besides, I was a pretty good guy, I was sure I would go to heaven if I died.

Then when I was twenty-three, a series of events occurred in my life that made me question my faith and salvation for the first time. While reading the Bible (really, for the first time in my life) I discovered I was trusting in the wrong things to save me. But God had placed into my life some people who showed me that we can only be saved by having a personal relationship with Jesus. So in 1997, at the age of twenty-three, I stepped over the faith-line and began following Christ and it’s been a journey ever since. Six years later God grabbed my heart again and showed me from 1 John 2:17 that the things I was chasing after in life had no eternal significance. It was time to start living my life to impact eternity.

Not sure how it would turn out, we packed up and moved to Georgia, never expecting to return. But I am excited and grateful that He brought us back to Nashua. While my life is by no means perfect, I hope that my faith is evident by the way I live and I long to be the husband, father, and man of God He has called me to be.

That is also my desire for everyone else. Just like God, I long to see people living in the freedom found in knowing and following Jesus. Because you matter to God, He wants to set you free from sin and the past. There is nothing he can’t overcome, if you trust him. My life was transformed by Christ. I want to see others transformed as well!