The Rev. Darrell Goodwin – a pastor with experience in higher education and in varied ministry settings of the United Church of Christ – will be presented to Annual Meeting voters as the candidate to serve as the Southern New England Conference’s first Executive Conference Minister.
Rev. Goodwin currently serves the Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota Conferences as an Associate Conference Minister, offering care and support to the pastors and churches in the Nebraska Conference and supporting the work of search and call across the Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota Conferences.
He is also the Program Director of the Pension Boards’ Faith and Personal Finance Initiative, a project funded by a $1 million grant from the Lilly Endowment’s National Initiative to Address Economic Challenges Facing Pastoral Leaders. In this role, he administers a five-year program of financial education and wellness for UCC authorized ministers from historically underrepresented groups.
Related article: Executive Search Process Was Unusual
Rev. DARRELL L. GOODWIN
EXPERIENCE
Associate Conference Minister
(2018-Present)
Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota Conferences of the United Church of Christ, Omaha, NE
Senior Pastor (2017 – 2019)
Everett United Church of Christ, Everett, WA
Founding Pastor (2007 – 2019)
Liberation United Church of Christ, Seattle, WA
Director, Ministers’ Financial Vitality Initiative (2016-Present)
The Pension Boards, United Church of Christ, New York, NY
Dean of Students (2008-2016)
Jesuit Higher Education
Associate Director of Multicultural Affairs (2006-2008)
Jesuit Higher Education
COMMITTEE INVOLVEMENT
Nebraska AIDS Project Board of Directors
Council for Health and Human Service Ministries Board
UCC Global Ministries Board
United Church of Christ Board
EDUCATION
Doctoral Candidate, Doctor of Ministry program, San Francisco Theological Seminary, May 2021
Clinical Pastoral Education, June 2017
Master of Arts in Transforming Spirituality, Seattle University, June 2011
Certificate in Pastoral Leadership, Seattle University, May 2011
Master of Education, The University of Vermont, May 2005
Bachelor of Arts- Human Development, and Theology, Boston College May 2003
"My desire to serve the people of the Southern New England Conference is inspired by your boldness to form a new conference with a mission and vision toward the marginalized,” he said. “I hope to bring my commitment to justice which has been curated by the Holy Spirit, my love of God's people, and administrative gifts to propel this vision forward. This role is not a job, but rather a call to fulfill my purpose and honor my ancestors who could never have realized a role of this magnitude in a uniting and united church.”
On Saturday, Goodwin met via Zoom with the Board of Directors, who unanimously voted to bring his candidacy before the Sept. 26 online Annual Meeting. His selection by a search committee came as the result of an unconventional search process that went on during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Read about the full process in this article: Executive Search Process Was Unusual. )
“The search committee relied on the guidance of the Holy Spirit in making this selection. We worked long and tirelessly past our bedtimes and during our vacations to commit to ensuring that we were asking the necessary questions and the hard questions,” said the Rev. Chontell Nelson Washington, chair of the search committee. “We even checked in on his fun factor to make sure that he could fit in with the sense of joy that exists within the SNEUCC.”
“With every interaction we sought for integrity, capability, preparedness and yes… the presence of the Holy Spirit. We knew that the SNEUCC has a mission and we dug deep for the indicators of our candidate to be able to do the traditional thing as well as a new thing. At the end of our time, we agreed that Rev. Darrell Goodwin is the person to lead us into the future as a conference. He has experience, passion, and knowledge about the importance of relationships, partnerships, the UCC, and the Creator.”
The role of Executive Conference Minister is different from a traditional Conference Minister in the denomination – it is seen as being more akin to a University President, with the responsibility for running day-to-day operations lying elsewhere.
The job description calls for the new Executive Conference Minister to be "the standard bearer for our core vision, mission and identity" and to serve as chief vision keeper, communicator and strategist, as well as the chief philanthropy officer and the public face of the Conference in the media and public square. The Executive will also serve as liaison to national settings of the denomination and in ecumenical and interfaith circles.
If affirmed by Annual Meeting, Rev. Goodwin would start in his role Jan. 1, 2021
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| Rev. Darrell Goodwin meeting with the Board via Zoom on Saturday, Aug. 29 |
Author
Tiffany Vail
Tiffany Vail is the Director of Media & Communications for the Southern New England Conference.