Rev. Duane Carlisle is an ordained Elder in the Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church. He is a second career pastor who came to ministry after sixteen years of working in a small family owned business in the commercial and industrial H.V.A.C. field in Indiana.
His ministry experience began after accepting the invitation to be the Pastor for Children, Youth and Families at Broadway United Methodist Church, a historic church in an urban community near downtown Indianapolis. In his eight years there on staff, he worked with young people and families nurturing formation and discipleship. He also served as one of the primary pastors for Broadway’s “Celebration” worship service—a new non-traditional worship experience that began through a Worship Renewal Grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.
One of the best parts of this early phase of his ministry was being able to work with people of all backgrounds from both the Broadway congregation and from the neighboring community and finding ways to bring diverse people together into conversation.
During his time at Broadway, Duane felt his calling to pursue ordained ministry and began attending Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis while continuing to work full time at Broadway. He graduated Summa Cum Laude with his Master of Divinity degree and was honored with the Christianity and Culture Award by the faculty of CTS.
Pastor Duane’s ministry experience also includes working at Roberts Park United Methodist Church in the heart of Indianapolis’ downtown area studying downtown ministry, and later being appointed to serve as lead pastor at Main Street United Methodist Church in Kokomo’s downtown setting.
In 2018, Bishop Trimble chose to send Pastor Duane back to Broadway as the associate pastor to support and care for the congregation as they recovered from a significant fire that burned their Fellowship Hall in December of 2017. It was a privilege to return to serve in the congregation that had nurtured his call and sent him forth.
Pastor Duane is passionate about issues of justice that impact social and economic inequality. He has led several Race Dialogue Circles for the North Central District and for the Hamilton Southeastern School system.
He is also involved in supporting the ministry of the Indiana Conference by being a member of the Central District Committee on Ministry, the Conference Nominations Committee, and the Creation Care Alliance Mission and Justice Sub-Committee. He is also a steering committee member for Indiana Reconciling Ministries Network.
At the 2019 Indiana Annual Conference, Pastor Duane put his name forward as willing to serve and was elected as a delegate to represent Indiana at the General Conference in Minneapolis in May of 2020.
Pastor Duane truly loves the joys and challenges of doing ministry in center city locations that are poised to experience transformation and new growth. He has found much delight in getting to know the people in the neighborhoods around Broadway, Roberts Park, and Main Street and has been grateful to work with wonderful, community-focused congregations that care about their neighbors and who continually seek to hear how God is calling them as congregations into their own unique form of community ministry.