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.
- ‘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
- Grace and power to respond (8/5/2024) - Looking back on the past month, Bishop David Bard highlights a few challenging news items and the shared work in Jesus Christ that is now before us.It has been quite a month... We have had an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The current president, Joe Biden, has withdrawn from consideration for a second term, which has not happened since Lyndon Johnson withdrew from seeking another term in 1968. The Olympics began in Paris with controversy over part of the opening ceremony. Wildfires are burning again this summer in the Western United States… ...Read More
- Consider the whole of our history (7/2/2024) - In our July 4 celebrations, says Bishop David Bard, may we remember the complexities of our history and enlarge our memory so that our future might be better than our past... On June 18, the great baseball player Willie Mays died at age 93. I have long loved baseball, and Willie Mays was one of the legendary players still playing when I was a boy. I started collecting baseball cards in elementary school, and his was a prized card. I did not consider card collecting some investment, simply a joy. Nor was I ever one to take a clothespin and… ...Read More