Pastor Hank Campbell begins ministry at UCC
March 18th, 2010Gaylord’s United Church of Christ welcomed Pastor Hank Campbell last month.
Campbell began serving the Gaylord congregation on Valentine’s Day. It is a new cooperative ministry between the Gaylord congregation and the New Ulm United Church of Christ.
A welcoming event will be held at Gaylord’s United Church of Christ on Sunday, April 18. Gaylord area clergy and community members are invited to attend.
Although Campbell grew up in Moorhead, he attended and graduated from high school in Ames, Iowa in 1971. He earned his undergraduate degree in mass communications from Moorhead State University in 1976.
Following graduation from college, he worked for a brief time at a radio station in Fairbanks, Alaska. He also was employed in construction and painting, and also at an auditing firm.
Being a pastor is a family tradition for Campbell’s family. His father is a pastor in the United Church of Christ and so is his younger sister.
He attended United Theological Seminary in New Brighton for three years, where he earned his Master of Divinity degree. While attending seminary, he served a part-time internship at Olivet Congregational UCC in St. Paul.
Pastor Hank’s ministerial career has taken him to three congregations in three states. He began his career serving the United Church of Christ in Bradford, Vermont, a community of about 1,500 people. While serving there, he met his wife, Eileen, and his three sons – Tim, Brian and Colin – were born there.
From Bradford, Campbell moved to Jamestown, New York, a community of 30,000, where he served for three years.
He has served the United Church of Christ in New Ulm for 14 years, since November of 1995. New Ulm’s congregation has about 200 members, he said.
In the cooperative ministry, the position is funded 55% by New Ulm and 45% by Gaylord. In actuality, more hours and more time are spent in each congregation, Campbell explained. “It’s an economic benefit to both churches as well,” he said.
Plans are for Campbell to be in Gaylord Wednesday afternoons, all day on Thursdays, an occasionally other days as needed.
His goals for the Gaylord church are to provide a feeling of stability and to help revitalize some areas of the ministry, and to help with social concerns and mission events.
With the shared ministry, both congregations changed their worship schedules. Services in New Ulm are at 9 a.m., and services in Gaylord are at 11 a.m. In mid-summer, the plan is to switch the schedule. “There is a half hour drive, if the roads are good,” Campbell explained.
Campbell’s wife, Eileen, is a physical therapist working at the New Ulm Medical Center and the Riverbend Education District, which includes Sibley East Schools. Their son, Tim is graduated from Macalester College. Son Brian attended Augsburg College and Minnesota State University, Mankato. Son Colin is attending Ithica College in New York. All three graduated from New Ulm High School.
Some of Campbell’s hobbies and interests are tennis, cross country skiing, fishing, playing guitar, music, movies, reading, spending quality time with family. He supports all the Minnesota teams, and locally, supports teams from both Sibley East and New Ulm.
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