On Thursday, January 12th, 2012, District Superintendent Bert Kite and Pastor Darren met with the Staff-Parish Relations Committee to inform the committee that Pastor Darren had been reappointed as the senior minister of North United Methodist Church in Indianapolis. Given that he has been at Speedway for eleven years, Pastor Darren’s reappointment is probably not surprising to many of you. What might come as a surprise, however, is that his new appointment begins on March 1st.
His last Sunday will be February 26th.
On Sunday, January 22 it was announced that Rev. Holly Hardsaw has been appointed as our new senior pastor. She will begin Palm Sunday, April 1.
This congregation has much prayer work to do between now and March 1st. Please keep Pastor Darren and his family in your prayers as they search for housing and transition to their new church home. Pray for Holly to be our new senior minister. Pray for this congregation, that we will remain open and receptive to the plan God has for us with our new minister.
Finally you should know I left our meeting with the DS confident that the Holy Spirit has worked through the cabinet to further God’s will in our new minister and our congregation. Thank you.
--Amy Steffens, Chair of SPRC
Rev. Holly Hardsaw to be Our New Senior Pastor
Pastor Holly Hardsaw holds a BS degree in management from Ball State University. After working in the sales field for several years, she felt a call into education. Upon completion of a master's certificate in special education from IUPUI, she taught special education classes in Lawrence Township schools for ten years. The Lord called Pastor Holly into the ministry in 1996, she graduated from CTS. Pastor Holly served at Castleton, Bloomington First, Harrodsburg, and currently at Horizons of Faith since 2006.
Pastor Holly’s leadership experience includes Brightwood Community Center and Kairos prison ministry. In November, 2011, she was sworn in as the first female chaplain for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
Rev. Gene Young Named Interim
Pastor Gene Young has been named interim pastor during the month of March. Gene previously served as our interim in 2009 during Darren's renewal leave. He will be preaching the first three Sundays of March, and the last Sunday will be the cantata.
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A Word from Pastor Darren:
‘For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven’ (Eccl. 3.1). Ecclesiastes could have been writing about our appointment system. For the past eleven years it has been God’s timing for me to be your pastor, and now it is God’s timing for me to leave.
However, God’s time is coming faster than we expected. March 1 is just around the corner, and this sudden change is happening due to unusual circumstances. I will be replacing Rev. Kevin Armstrong as the senior minister at North UMC in Indianapolis. Normally, these changes take place at annual conference in June, but last November Kevin announced that he will become the President of the Methodist Hospital Foundation and his last Sunday was January 29. This accelerated the process for the cabinet (the Bishop and the ten district superintendents) to select a replacement.
Our district superintendent, Rev. Bert Kite, has consulted with our Staff Parish Relations Committee (as he did with North’s) to create a profile, which is shared with the cabinet. The cabinet prayerfully discusses pastors who fit the church’s profile and then recommends one of them for the bishop to appoint. This happened in early January for North. It is happening now for Speedway.
Having been under appointment for over twenty years, I trust that the Holy Spirit works through this process. Eleven years ago, the Spirit used the appointment system to bring me to you. And now, the same Spirit will work again to bring you the pastor you need for your next phase of ministry. God is no longer calling me to be your pastor. I cannot lead you where you need to go next. But we can trust that the everlasting God is calling a new pastor to take you in God’s new direction.
Finally, on behalf of my family I want to thank you for being so incredibly supportive of us. You have truly been a means of grace to us through some of our hardest moments. Most of all, I want to thank you for allowing me to serve you and serve with you. You have made me a better pastor.
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Our History of Appointments:
- Pastor Darren is the longest appointment in the history of Speedway UMC (2001-2012).
- 2nd: Rev. Howard Wright (1954-1963); 3rd: Rev. Chet Mayflower (1993-2001)
- The shortest appointment of a senior pastor: Rev. John Walton, founding pastor (1948)
- Longest appointment of an associate pastor: Rev. Larry Bush (1986-1992)
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