Pastor Michael Scott currently serves as pastor and co-founder of New Direction Life Ministries in Norwood. The eldest of seven children of Mother Jessie M. Scott, he was reared and educated in the Albemarle (NC) City Schools system. In 1979, he received his BS in Business Administration-Management from NC A&T State University at Greensboro.
Upon his return to Stanly County, he began work with the NC Employment Security Commission, where he is currently employed as an Career Services Employment Consultant. His job duties there have included the implementation of State & Federal employment & training programs for dislocated workers.
He accepted the call into the ministry, and preached his initial sermon in January 1986, under the pastoral leadership of Dr. Dwight McKinney, at his home church, the Colston St. Church of God. Before accepting the call to ministry, Pastor Scott served as Sunday School Superintendent, Sunday School teacher; (as a teenager teaching the Adult Sunday School class) Choir member, Usher and Trustee, under the watchful eyes of the late Mother Mattie McRae, Dr. McKinney, Rev. Clevion Ferguson and the late Pastor Norris C. Bryan. He served in a variety of ministerial capacities while in the Church of God denomination, including, District Youth Leader, Western NC State Youth & Christian Education Coordinator, Yokefellow Prison Ministry, as well as Pastoral Assistant at the Colston St. Church.
In answer to a Divine commission to establish a ministry in the Norwood area, on October 1, 1995, New Direction Life Ministries opened its doors and held its first worship service in the former Norwood Post Office building. The growth of the ministry led to the purchase of 20.27 acres of property in July 2000, in anticipation of the God-vision for Norwood becoming a reality. Construction began in April 2006 and the following December, the church took another giant step toward the fulfillment of that vision by moving into its own multi-purpose facility on College Street in Norwood.
The ministry, geared toward a sincere and real relationship with Christ has had a tremendous impact in the Norwood community, as well as the county and surrounding areas. Pastor Scott is an anointed teacher-preacher, who effectively ministers the Word with simplicity and understanding.
Pastor Scott also currently serves as treasurer of the Norwood Ministerial Association, a former Board member of the Albemarle House Foundation; has served as a member of the United Way Allocations Committee, Board Chair of the Stanly Co. Senior Services Advisory Board and as Chairman of the Stanly County Partnership for Children/Smart Start Board of Directors. He currently remains a member of the Smart Start Board, and serves as the local representative on the statewide Local Partnership Advisory Committee (LPAC) and in December 2014 completed a 3 year term as a member of the Stanly Community Christian Ministries Board of Directors, serving as Board President his final year.
He, and his wife, the former Anita Owens of Badin, North Carolina, an anointed evangelist in her own right, work side by side in the ministry as the pastors of New Direction. They are the proud parents of one daughter, Jasmine, a Graphic Designer and 2013 graduate of UNC-Charlotte.