Ian Strickland Bio
Ian is coming back to his home state of Ohio from Durham, NC, where he has been living for the past 5 years. Originally living in Durham for seminary at Duke Divinity School where he earned his Master of Divinity, Ian stayed an additional 2 1/2 years as the director of a prison ministry called Project TURN. Project TURN partners with Duke Divinity School to provide graduate level seminary courses inside prison walls. Each class is made up by half seminary students and half incarcerated students. During his time at Project TURN, Ian gained valuable insight in how to create spaces where two very different and separated groups of people could encounter each other as peers and classmates. The reconciling and dignifying work of Project TURN will continue to form Ian's ministry as he enters into the Church.
For the past 3 1/2 years, Ian has also been able to serve on a leadership role at a United Methodist church plant in Durham called CityWell. On a practical level, Ian was able to preach, serve on the leadership team, participate in church formation meetings where they began to shape the identity of the church plant, and stay in a mentored relationship with the pastor of the church, Cleve May. On a deeper level, Ian was able to learn important practices for starting a church seeking to be multi-cultural. Similar to Project TURN, CityWell taught Ian that there is a level of intentionality required in developing a church that seeks to dismantle dividing walls among various groups of people. Across socio-economic, racial, age, gender, and other barriers, Ian began developing practices of humility and empathy on a far deeper level than he had experienced before. Ian is excited to carry these practices with him into a pastoral role.
For over 5 years, Ian has been married to his wife Kelly; by far the strongest and most courageous person he knows. While in Durham, Kelly has worked as a waitress, a clinical and bilingual mental health therapist, and a community organizer working with people across race and class lines seeking to eliminate poverty. Kelly is drawn to the marginalized spaces that most people simply are not aware of, she constantly seeks to humble herself and recognize the dignity in every individual, and is never afraid to share her prophetic voice with the Church through a dedicated love.
Ian and Kelly are grateful for their time in Durham, NC and for all the ways the last 5 years have formed them. Now, they are both profoundly excited to step into a new ministerial capacity within the Over-the-Rhine area of Cincinnati and within the community of Hyde Park Community U.M.C. Ian and Kelly and overwhelmed with gratitude for the opportunity to serve God's call that Hyde Park has been able to provide and look forward to starting in March.
