Bishop David Alan Bard
Bishop David Alan Bard is the presiding bishop of the Michigan Conference of The United Methodist Church. Bishop Bard also served the Minnesota Annual Conference as interim bishop 2021-2022.
Before arriving in Michigan in September 2016, Bishop Bard had served at First United Methodist Church in Duluth, Minnesota, since 2005. He was elected to the episcopacy on July 13, 2016, at the North Central Jurisdictional Conference in Peoria, IL. He has been in ministry for more than 30 years and served in many roles within the Minnesota Annual Conference and the General Church.
Bishop Bard was a General and Jurisdictional Conference delegate in 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012. He was an episcopal nominee in both 2004 and 2008.
Within the Minnesota Conference, Bishop Bard was chair of the Episcopacy Committee and the Higher Education Ministry Team, and he served on the Board of Ordained Ministry and the Congregational Response Team. He was also the conference parliamentarian. He was a district superintendent from 1998 to 2005 and spent three years on the Commission on Religion and Race.
Within the General Church, Bishop Bard was recently elected chairperson of the Committee on Faith and Order. He has served on the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, the Commission on General Conference, the Commission on Theological Education, the Study on Ministry Commission, and the North Central Jurisdiction Committee on the Episcopacy.
Bishop Bard received a BA from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, in 1981; his Master of Divinity was earned at United Theological Seminary, Twin Cities, in 1984; and in 1994, he received a Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University focusing on Christian ethics. He has taught college and seminary courses in United Methodist history, doctrine and polity; medical ethics, and religious perspectives on death and dying.
Bishop Bard has a wife, Julie, three adult children, and two grandchildren. He enjoys music, reading, movies, baseball, and walking in his free time.
- Working for the common good (11/5/2024) - Bishop David Bard says that when the election is over, and the ballots have been counted, the work for the common good begins for everyone, including the church... Many of you may be familiar with the work of Howard Thurman (1899-1981). While I knew of his work before, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I found myself bumping into it again and again. It was a serendipity of God’s grace. Thurman’s writings combined powerful insights into the inner spiritual journey with a prophetic call to engage the wider world in the quest for justice. Perhaps his best-known work is Jesus and the… ...Read More
- ‘We are to wear love’ (9/23/2024) - Leading up to the election, Bishop David Bard encourages us to vote, showing up with a demeanor that enhances democracy and reflects who we are as God’s beloved in Jesus Christ... One unique coincidence between our United Methodist church calendar and the national calendar is that bishops are elected and assigned in the same year as our presidential elections. Just a few months into my time as your bishop, I wrote the following (2016): “We have an election on the horizon and I encourage each of you to go to the polls and vote. Vote with Christian principles in mind… ...Read More
- ‘What did you learn today?’ (9/3/2024) - Bishop David Bard encourages us to stay curious, for doing so can help alleviate some of the problems and divisions in our world today... September is a month memorialized in a variety of songs. “See You in September” is a song about a young couple separated by the long summer holiday: “Will I see you in September or lose you to a summer love?” Another such love song was composed by Carole King and her then-husband Gerry Goffin, “It Might as Well Rain Until September,” expressing the sadness of a couple separated by summer. The Broadway musical The Fantastiks opens with the… ...Read More