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 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. Having been in ministry for over 30 years, he has 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.
In the Minnesota Conference, Bishop Bard was chair of the Episcopacy Committee and the Higher Education Ministry Team, and served on the Board of Ordained Ministry and the Congregational Response Team. He served as the conference parliamentarian, 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.
After receiving a BA from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, in 1981, he earned a Master of Divinity at United Theological Seminary, Twin Cities, in 1984. 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.