Bill Spangler-Dunning, Associate Regional Minister
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My Areas of Responsiblity:
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In Bill's Words...
My calling to regional ministry:
I have had many great teachers along my faith journey and my parents being two of the greatest. They deserve a lot of the credit for most of who I am today. It was my parents, Jim and Reva Dunning, who chose to join Davis Street Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). In the beginning, all I understood about that decision was that it was a friendly church with people who went out of their way to encourage me in my faith.
During youth groups at this same church, standing next to my youth sponsor, Skip Smith, I was asked one of the most important questions of my life: "Would you like to go to camp?" Thanks to Tom Felts, my youth minister, I was given a chance to go to the Christian Conference Center for church camp. Amazingly so, at that very camp, directed by a man named "Peaches", -- only years later I learned his real name was Phil Kinton -- I felt the call to enter ordained ministry. I made a promise and pledge that week that I would be a servant and use whatever gifts I had to help.
I brought that call home to my church and to my minister, Cecil Simonton. He lead me to understand ministry as he lived out his call and introduced me to a group of people called the "commission on ministry." I don't remember all of their names, but I do remember the care and encouragement they showed toward me and the challenging questions they asked me when I returned from Lexington Theological Seminary.
Dr William Barr, my theology professor
and many others who taught me during those 3 years at seminary helped
me understand and refine my call. It was their influence which change
the direction of my call from wanting to be a professor in college
or seminary to being a teacher in the local congregation. They pushed
me to take seriously the need for ministers who
love to teach in the local congregation.
So I fell in love with teaching in the local congregation first in Glasgow, KY and then in Owensboro, KY. However, while in both churches, I began to feel the call to help other churches in the area plan and lead retreats together. In Western Kentucky, I had the chance to serve with so many great ministers and lay people. It was this "bringing people together" on the regional level that kept tugging at me to consider regional ministry.