L. DUANE CHURCHMAN

I was born May 8, 1931 at Clarkson Hospital in Omaha. Technically that makes me a Nebraskan, but I prefer to think of myself as an Iowan. My parents lived on a farm near Strahan, Iowa. I vaguely remember the first five years, coming down the other side of the depression. I do clearly remember that in the wintertime we only heated one room - the big kitchen/dining room and my mother heated bricks to put in our beds.

When I was five, we moved to Malvern and Dad continued to farm. Again there were the same limited home facilities: cobs, wood and coal, kerosene lamps, and ice box. I was in high school at Farragut, Iowa when we got our first electricity. Along with that was our first indoor bathroom.

I remember the farm years, a work horse by the name of Queen. I rode her to deliver water to haymakers and to the threshing crew and also used her to pull the hay fork up to the haymow until I was old enough to drive the tractor and do it that way. I remember when Dad bought the first tractor, a used F12 Farmall. At the age of 13 or 14 I used it most of the time because he liked to work with horses.

Through my childhood on the farm I did most of the things children did then to keep their time occupied. We didn’t have the ready made games and gadgets that are available for children and youth today. In other words, we have lost some of the uniqueness to be creative and think for ourselves how to use our free time in recreation.

I didn’t have the next-door friendships, kids to get together with every day. We had a creek and I’d take my gun and play Cowboys and Indians when I went after the cows. When I was in high school Dad gave me a small part of the corn field. We had an old one-horse-buggy running gear. I made a wagon box on that, took Queen to pull it and picked the com in that small area. Now we push the television button.

While I was in high school, Dad quit farming and pursued a career of carpentry. He had been a part-time carpenter before he quit farming but at that time went into full time carpentering and building. We moved to Farragut and I vacated my rural, country farm life for town-living — not a very big town, 500 population.

High school was an adventure. I found it exciting. I participated minimally in athletics. My main interest was music and drama. I even reached the point in high school when I planned a life-long profession centered in music and drama.

In 1949 I graduated high school in Farragut. I had been working for Montgomery Ward in Shenandoah and continued for a year as manager of the shoe department. Before that I had been the store display manager. I started college in 1950 and began the journey for my future and the rest of my life.

I went to Creston Junior College where I met Darlene Sims who started the same year, and something happened. We were married in 1953. We both graduated from Creston Junior College and I went on to Simpson College in Indianola, graduated from there in 1955, then went to Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. where I graduated in 1959 with an STB (Bachelor of Sacred Theology) degree, later converted to an MDiv (Master of Divinity). It was upon graduation from Seminary in 1959 that Darlene received her PHT degree (Putting Hubby Through).

I hadn’t been very involved in the church until we moved to Farragut because of distance and transportation. I became active in the church during high school years and at one time held a triple presidency of the Farragut MYF Council, the sub-district Youth Council and the Council Bluffs District Youth Council. Being a part of the church was important to me as a youth but it was the Rev. Horace Ireland who opened the door and really challenged me to consider pastoral ministry for my life. This was enforced by Evangelist Albert (Uncle Pete) Peterson from Ottumwa who conducted a week of services at Farragut. All of this was an ongoing strengthening of my call to ministry.

When I entered Creston Junior College, I was planning for ministry in the church. In 1951 I received my first appointment and have been in ministry ever since. In June, 1996 I completed 45 years in the ministry as student and ordained pastor. I started my pastoral ministry with my first appointment at Jerusalem in 1951. No, that’s not in Israel; that’s a country church about seven miles northeast of Creston.

That is a story in itself. In those days Iowa was divided into two conferences, north and south, and Annual Conferences were held in various towns. Appointments were not known ahead of time but were announced on Sunday, the closing day. Charles Wesley Brashares was the Bishop. Creston District Superintendent was Walter Samp, an unpretentious, easy going man.

In 1951 the South Iowa Conference met in Ottumwa. I knew nothing about the possibility of my receiving an appointment so I left early to take Darlene home to Greenfield and I could go on home to Farragut. On Tuesday one of my neighbors said, "I see your name is in the paper." Upon reading it, I found that I was appointed to Nevinville and Jerusalem. I only vaguely knew where these churches were. No one had conferred with me about the appointment. I waited for Walter Samp to call me and, since he hadn’t called by Thursday, I called to see what this was all about and his response was, "Oh, yes, Duane, you’1l be serving these two churches this year and you start Sunday." But start I did and what a delightful beginning.

Darlene and I were married June 7, 1953 at Greenfield, Iowa. Darlene taught school in Iowa and Maryland for several years then quit to begin our family. I remember the beginning years of marriage while I was in college and seminary and ministry, that even though Darlene had some income from teaching, there were many expenses and we learned how to prepare either hamburger or wieners a hundred different ways. But we had fun. She graduated from UNI in more recent years and has been a substitute teacher since that time. For several years before moving to Osceola she was a program consultant/case worker at WACO (Work Activity Center) in Sioux City.

While a student in seminary, I served churches in the Baltimore Conference. These years in the state of Maryland in the Baltimore Conference were some of most enjoyable experiences we have had. We soon discovered that the people in the East are as exciting and caring and as great as anywhere else in the country, including Iowa. We very seriously considered staying in the Baltimore Conference. However, we did decide to return to Iowa where I have been in ministry ever since.

I received Elder’s ordination and became a full member of the Iowa United Methodist Conference in 1959. My first appointment was that year at Keota.

Since then I have started a new congregation at Newton and have served at Carlisle, Wesley Church in Des Moines, Fort Madison, Waverly and, immediately before coming to Osceola, was Senior Pastor at First United Methodist Church in Sioux City. Some of our activities became publicized by the plane crash of United 232 at the Sioux City airport.

Local pastors being full members of the Annual Conference carries with the title the expectation and opportunity to serve the Conference. Over this period of 45 years I have served in a variety of positions, among them: Newton District Youth Director, South Iowa Conference Youth Council Director, chair of the Iowa Conference Committee on Camping, a member of the Iowa Conference Board of Trustees and served as their president for Eve years; most recently I have chaired the Division of Congregational Development which is a program to start new United Methodist congregations in Iowa. Now I am chair and coordinator of United Methodist Builders, a program to assist in the funding to start new congregations or assist in revitalization of existing congregations, dealing mostly with buildings and land.

Perhaps the dearest to my heart has been my privilege to serve for 21 years as Director of the PAGES at the sessions of the Iowa Annual Conference. These young people, usually 30 of high school age with a few of college age, are volunteers. It has been a joy to serve in this capacity and to observe that the Annual Conference sessions could not function without the presence of the PAGES. They all live on one floor of a dorm. They eat, fellowship and work together, becoming a real community, a family all their own and they accept me as their honorary father. A special offering to express appreciation for their services is taken during one of the later sessions and one of the unique characteristics of the PAGES every year is that it is their decision to tithe 20% of the offering to be used for specified Mission projects.

I also organized Siouxland Habitat for Humanity, serve as Chaplain of the Iowa State Patrol, was the organizer of the Northeast Iowa site for Ingathering at Waverly and have held several other positions.

When we came from Sioux City to Osceola, it was like coming home for we had spent 20 years in the Des Moines area. We are both from southwest Iowa and my 91-year-old parents, Dorothy and Arthur Churchman, live 100 miles west of us. Darlene’s parents are buried at Creston.

When Darlene and I married, she had the same initials as mine (LDC). We decided our children would have LDC names, Lindsay Duane was born in 1960, Lowell Daniel in 1962, Layton Douglas in 1964. We both wanted a girl to be a part of our family and to be certain that this would happen we adopted Leah Darlene in 1969, Leah has two birthdays -- her birth, Nov. 3rd; her adoption, Nov. 11th.

Lindsay is beginning a second career life, attending seminary in preparation for pastoral ministry. He sings in the Fort Worth Chorale and is currently music director at Christ United Methodist Church in Fort Worth. Lindsay and Denise gave birth to our first grandchild, Emily, who is now six years old. Lindsay and Denise decided to end their marriage and Jennie will become his wife in June, 1997. She is a graduate of seminary and will begin working on her PhD in Old Testament.

After being in administration at Boy’s Town and other youth services, as well as working at Omaha Sports, Dan has recently told us he has been accepted as a full time trainer with the Nebraska National Guard. Dan and Debi have a daughter Katie. Deb is a Medical Transcriptionist at Emmanuel Hospital in Omaha.

Doug is choral director at Southeast Polk Community School while at the same time enjoying many other interests. Doug and Kelli have three girls: Kamerin, Kourtlin, Kierin. Kelli is a teacher and is currently the organizer and director of a pre-school ministry at the Altoona United Methodist Church.

Leah served for several years on the Iowa Legislative Fiscal Bureau but is currently employed in the actuarial department at the Principal Company in Des Moines. Drew is into computer programming in the mortgage department at the same company.

You can see Darlene and I had only boys when we adopted Leah and now we have only granddaughters. But oh, what neat and exciting granddaughters they are! And when the family gathers all the games come out and it is wall to wall people and fun and excitement.

Camping has always been a part of my life as well as of the family’s. Over the 45 year period we have camped with tents, homemade camper, fold-down camper, and travel trailer as well as church camping facilities. In fact, each of our children camped before they experienced their first birthday. What a grand and beautiful way to experience God’s creation!

Laughter, joking, teasing, and pranks have been a significant part of my ministry. In every community we have had church members with whom I could do this and it is reciprocal. They do it in return and what fun. I feel that this has made me a part of the church and community in a special way, not set apart.

There have been so many exciting experiences in family, church, and community and all of them have enhanced me personally. I was uplifted by my travels to Israel and the Holy Lands. Darlene and I felt we had reached the ultimate when we spent several days in England visiting her pen pal since high school and enjoying the country. But the most recent uplifting highlight occurred in the summer of 1996 when we were invited to spend three weeks in ministry at Community United Methodist Church in Nome, Alaska. What a joy and experience as we lived there and shared with the Inupiat natives. It was something we will never forget!

Being in ministry has been important and exciting .... God is always present .... Jesus Christ leads us in knowing and understanding .... and people are a joy. Church is so important in our lives! As a matter of fact, we can pray and read and believe in God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit; but if we don’t have the fellowship, the warmth, the caring, the love of people in and through the church our Christian life is not complete.  It’s like a circle, call it an apple pie - you cut and eat one piece, and what is left? .... a part of … an incomplete apple pie. It is the same with our Christian life. We can still be Christian without the church but not a complete Christian.

But even when we include the church in our lives the sad thing for me is that when things get tough in time, talent, energy and money the church is first to go. This just simply supports what I have said for a long time: God did a beautiful thing when he created humanity; but he is still having trouble with people.

Whatever, I feel that we all belong to each other. We are all a part of the body of Christ and brothers and sisters of each other. In our United Methodist Church the word is "connectionalism." And as members of this body of Christ the word is still the same. WOW! This means that through God’s goodness and greatness your laughter is my laughter; I hurt and cry when you hurt and cry and I am frustrated and searching with you when you are frustrated and searching. We are one in the Spirit.

Shalom (“peace"), and may God’s love and blessings always be with you.

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Last Revised April 28, 2012