Michael Peterson
Biography
Michael Peterson is an American pastor, musician, and hymn writer from New Auburn, Wisconsin. A Discipleship Ministries history based on Peterson’s own recollection reports that he earned degrees in voice, music education, and theater arts from Winona State University in Minnesota and then continued his studies at Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary, now Luther Seminary, in St. Paul. He later served congregations in Wisconsin, including Shawano and Menomonie.
During a hymn-writing class taught by Gracia Grindal at Luther Northwestern, Peterson wrote “On the Day of Resurrection” as a narrative treatment of Luke 24:13–35. Peterson dates the composition to 1985, and Mark Sedio set it to music immediately. The hymn was printed in Hymnal Supplement II in 1987 and then in The United Methodist Hymnal in 1989, helping carry Peterson’s work beyond its Lutheran seminary setting into wider ecumenical use. Reliable hymnological sources consulted for this record do not establish Peterson’s birth year or a fuller career chronology, so those details are left unstated rather than inferred.
During a hymn-writing class taught by Gracia Grindal at Luther Northwestern, Peterson wrote “On the Day of Resurrection” as a narrative treatment of Luke 24:13–35. Peterson dates the composition to 1985, and Mark Sedio set it to music immediately. The hymn was printed in Hymnal Supplement II in 1987 and then in The United Methodist Hymnal in 1989, helping carry Peterson’s work beyond its Lutheran seminary setting into wider ecumenical use. Reliable hymnological sources consulted for this record do not establish Peterson’s birth year or a fuller career chronology, so those details are left unstated rather than inferred.
Hymns by Michael Peterson
On the Day of Resurrection
Role: Lyricist