Former hospital exec nominated to lead GCOM
9/15/2000
DAYTON, Ohio (UMNS) - A newly retired hospital administrator has been nominated to lead the United Methodist Church's program agency staff.
Daniel K. Church, 55, had been savoring his retirement earlier this year from Edwin Shaw Hospital, a large, freestanding rehabilitation facility, in Akron, Ohio, when he was nominated to head the church's General Council on Ministries (GCOM). The former college professor of communications had been chief executive officer and president of the hospital for 15 years.
The Conciliar Forum, which functions as the executive committee of GCOM, elected Church on Sept 15, subject to a mail ballot by all of the 76-member council. If approved by the entire council, Church expects to begin work in mid-October.
Church succeeds C. David Lundquist, 65, who is retiring Sept. 30 after 14 years as GCOM's chief executive. Lundquist, a former lawyer and a lifelong United Methodist, is moving to Kalamazoo, Mich.
Church said he finds his new position "terrifying and exhilarating." He explained that he believes GCOM is in a position to provide leadership in the "meeting of tension for change and opportunity for growth," at least partly fueled by the 2000 General Conference mandate to move in "transformational directions."
The son of a Free Methodist pastor, Church became a United Methodist as an adult and has served as a director on the churchwide Board of Global Ministries from 1988 to 1996. He also served as a director of an independent nongovernmental organization focusing on the effects of the Soviet nuclear-testing program on the people of Kazakhstan. He also serves as a volunteer consultant with the board's program to revitalize former mission hospitals.
He is a member of the Church of the Savior, a United Methodist congregation in Canton.
A native Californian, Church has a master's in communication/speech therapy from San Francisco State University and a doctorate in communication theory from the University of Washington in Seattle.
He and his wife, Lorinda Blews Church, have been married 35 years and have three adult children: Keith, a lawyer in central Oregon; Cullen, a director of an English-language school in Chile; and Anne-Catherine, a professional dancer in Iowa.
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