Welcome to Kenmare

Feature Stories (Vol. 109 No. 29--7/18/2007)

Pastor Kevin Beard was sent to the right place

By Caroline Downs

"I told the Bishop I’d like to go somewhere there was activity and something going on," said Pastor Kevin Beard, the new minister for Zion Lutheran Church in Berthold and Carpio Lutheran Church in Carpio. "And he sent me to the right place!"

Pastor Kevin is new to the ministry, but western North Dakota is familiar territory. He was born in Williston and graduated from New Town High School in 1977.

His wife Marilee is the daughter of Lee and Mayo Miller of Stanley. She is a registered nurse and a medical transcriptionist, working most recently at a hospital in Brainerd, MN.

Pastor Kevin earned his first degree from the North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton and launched a career in drafting and technical design. By 1989, he and his family moved to Staples, Minnesota, and a knack for teaching led to a position at a technical college there.

"We’ve been steadily going east and lived seven, eight, nine hours away from relatives," he said. "This was kind of like coming back home for us."

Christian ministry is a different direction for Pastor Kevin, although his decision to change career paths came about over several years. As a lay person, he stayed busy with various programs at Faith Lutheran Church in Staples.

"The more active I became in Sunday School, ushering, teaching and doing a little bit of leadership, the more I enjoyed it," he said. "God worked through the people of that church to change my heart and understand there was more to life than just me.

He participated in the GIFTS program, which trains and prepares lay people in the church for additional mission and leadership roles, and he studied the Bible. "It was a slow transition where I felt God calling me to the ministry," he said.

He continued, "When I was teaching at the technical school, there was a struggle to discern what to do. I loved to teach. Then I discovered there was something better to teach. I wanted to teach about God."

Finally, in 2001, he quit his teaching position and enrolled at Luther Seminary in Minneapolis as a commuter student. He took classes three days each week and worked part-time as a funeral assistant for a funeral home and as a volunteer coordinator for Faith Lutheran Church.

"Believe it or not, it was all according to plan," he said. "I could be with my family at Staples as much as possible. I planned to graduate from seminary the same year as my youngest son graduated from high school."

Five and a half years later, in May 2007, Pastor Kevin received his Master of Divinity degree. He also completed a Bachelor of Science degree in vocational education from Bemidji State University.

As part of his education, Pastor Kevin served a year-long internship at Zion Lutheran Church in Amor, Minnesota, with Pastor James Gronbeck.

"It was an interesting community on the lakes of Minnesota," said Pastor Kevin. "The town probably had five houses, but a lot of people live on the lakes. Sunday morning, good grief, they came flocking in and just filled the place."

He described the internship as a positive experience. "A lot of those people were just itching for something to do," he said. "We set up a ‘Helping Hands’ organization where people could call the church if they needed something and we had a list of volunteers."

The "Helping Hands" ministry filled a variety of needs for elderly or injured residents, including everything from shopping and mowing to changing light bulbs. "That was a nice ministry the congregation did," Pastor Kevin said.

His seminary education was supported by Faith Lutheran Church, Staples, and Bethel Lutheran Church, New Town. His wife and sons encouraged his efforts, although the two boys stayed behind in Staples while their parents accepted the call to North Dakota. Nathan, 21, will be a junior at Concordia College in Moorhead this fall, where he majors in music education. Brian, 19, will begin his freshman year at North Dakota State University in Fargo.

"They’re both living in Staples, where they have their friends and work," Pastor Kevin said. "When we left Staples, we left our children, all of our friends, our church and our community. It was hard."

However, leaving Minnesota was another part of the Beards’ plan. Pastor Kevin’s parents still live and work in New Town, while Marilee’s mother and siblings live in Williston and Stanley.

"We wanted to come back to North Dakota because of family," Pastor Kevin said. "We found out after graduation I was assigned to western North Dakota."

With the churches in Berthold and Carpio, Pastor Kevin is looking forward to meeting all the parishioners. "The biggest challenge so far has been to get to know the people, but every day I’m getting to know a couple more," he said.

He considers his relationships with church members to be an important part of his ministry. "It’s a privilege to be invited into a family, to be part of a family’s joy and a family’s grief," he said, "to do so, and to be faithful to God."

Pastor Kevin is also discovering the challenges in organizing and facilitating activities at churches in two communities. "They don’t teach you about normal day-to-day life in multiple parishes," he said, with another laugh. "I know how to read that," he continued, pointing to his Bible, "but what do I do day-to-day?"

For now, his general plan is to spend the first half of each week at Carpio Lutheran and the last half based at Zion Lutheran, with the couple living in the parsonage at Berthold. "Generally, I’m at the churches in the mornings," he said.

He uses some afternoons to visit shut-ins and parishioners who live in nursing homes in Minot. Worship services are held at both churches each Sunday morning. "I’m just thankful the people are patient," he said. "I have to learn how to be a faithful pastor. The challenge is to take what I’ve learned and experienced from life and start out a new calling."

Along with meeting the church members, Pastor Kevin is getting to know the churches’ programs and traditions. "It’s important to realize these churches have done ministry in these communities long before I came here, and they will continue to do ministry long after I’ve gone," he said. "My job is to learn about them, and be faithful to their traditions and expectations. As I become more familiar, we may together come up with ideas to do ministry better."

Although Pastor Kevin set aside most of his outside interests, including his woodworking hobby, while he attended seminary, Berthold and Carpio residents may find him fishing or hunting, or indulging his fascination with antique musical instruments.

"I sort of collect musical instruments," he explained, listing a violin, two accordions, a banjo, clarinet, flute, guitars and three sets of bagpipes among his treasures. "Sometimes I fix them up. Sometimes I look at them and wish I could play them."

Actually, he does play the bagpipes, and he built two sets on a lathe. But he remained modest about his own musical abilities. "I’m not a musician," he said. "I just tinker. I love the instruments more than I love the music, the workmanship in them."

His true passion, however, is for ministry, which was evident in the vision for his new calling. "God works through ordinary people in everyday circumstances," he said. "Sometimes God comes to us through those around us, through the simple acts of caring for them, visiting with them or listening to them."

Pastor Kevin can be contacted by cell phone at 701-833-7534. He also uses the churches’ email addresses. "After all, I am a technological person!" he said, grinning as he referenced his former job. He can be reached via email at zionberthold@srt.com or carluth@srt.com.

As the new pastor for the Carpio and Berthold Lutheran parishes, he’s hoping to bring the teachings of God directly into people’s lives. "A lot of times, people think God is only in the church building, but God is actually throughout the world in all people," he said. "In the day-to-day lives we live, that’s how God works through us."