1995 - Present
Wichita, Kansas
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Rev. Alan Lindal was appointed to First United Methodist Church in June of 2001, following Dr. Kelly Bender's move to Paradise Valley, Arizona. He and his wife, Annette moved to Wichita from Derby where he had served the Woodlawn United Methodist Church for nine years.
After serving several Churches in Kansas, he was appointed Associate Pastor of First United Methodist Church Wichita when Rev. Richard Wilke was the senior pastor, and continued to serve as Associate Pastor, and later Executive Pastor until 1986 when he was appointed as the Pastor of the United Methodist Church in Wellington, Kansas. In 1992, he became the senior pastor of the Woodlawn UMC, Derby, Kansas.
Rev. Lindal served as senior pastor of FUMC Wichita from 2001 until October of 2003 when he resigned from his position as senior pastor and as a minister in the Kansas West Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church for “personal reasons in the midst of stress and burnout.”
Alan is currently working in chaplaincy services for the Harry Hynes Memorial Hospice in Wichita. He and Annette live in Riverside and are active as laypersons in the College Hill United Methodist Church.
After the vacancy created by Rev. Lindal's resignation, First Church was led by an able Transition Ministry team of Dr. Carl Martin as Transition Coordinator, Rev. Nancy Goddard, Associate Pastor and Rev. Curtis Cadenhead, Executive Pastor. Bishop Richard Wilke returned to First Church's pulpit during the Christmas and Easter seasons. Along with a team of gifted laity, they helped prepare the Church for a new Senior Pastor.
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On June 27th of 2004, Dr. Michael Gardner was installed as the Senior Pastor at First United Methodist Church. Dr. Gardner holds degrees from Baker University in Baldwin City and St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, as well as a doctorate from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. His dissertation on Church renewal earned the designation, with distinction, when his Doctor of Ministry degree was conferred in 1997.
Dr. Gardner was born in 1952 in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, and spent his early childhood in Colorado, so he has had a life-long love of the mountains. His formative years were all Midwestern. His childhood and adolescent home was Kansas City, Missouri. During High School his family moved to northeast Kansas. After a few years at college and working in other states, he moved back to Kansas and in 1978 married Ann, who is a Kansas native. They have been Kansans together ever since. Their mothers, siblings, their children and their families all live in or near East Central Kansas.
Dr. and Mrs. Gardner have four grown children, and five grandchildren. He has special gifts and training in preaching, administration, Church development, worship ministry and Church renewal. He has devoted his ministry to the established large congregation and leading Churches through change. Dr. Gardner has served under appointment as a Pastor in the United Methodist Church since 1978. He served Churches in Coffeyville, and in Shawnee and Olathe in Johnson County. The seven years prior to his appointment to First Church as Senior Pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Dodge City.
Dr. Gardner serves in a number of state leadership roles in the United Methodist Church. He is also the past president of the Coffeyville, Olathe and Dodge City Ministerial Alliances. His international travels and his ministry have taken him to Mexico, Canada, Bermuda, the Bahamas, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Russia, Latvia and Estonia, Israel and Palestine.
His wife, Ann, is a Church Musician and a Music Educator. Dr. and Mrs. Gardner reside in West Wichita in the wooded residential area known as “The Dell.”
 FIFTH QUARTER CENTURY |
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