Sitting at the Children’s Museum after enjoying the stories and wonderment the museum brings to children and families, I found this same wonderment in the story behind the man of Dr. Kent Millard, Senior Pastor at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church and a long time Rotarian. His mission to children and families from Indianapolis to Kenya, to Haiti and Zimbabwe, brought both a tear and a smile as I listened to his life story and ministries.
Kent was born in Hereford, Texas. He and his family later moved to Faith, South Dakota. Yes, he really grew up in Faith! Kent graduated from Dakota Wesleyan University where he majored in English and History and played football. He attended seminary at Boston University School of Theology and did graduate work at Cambridge University in Cambridge, England. He received his Doctor of Ministry degree from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.
Kent and his wife, Minnietta, have 2 children and 7 grandchildren. His son, Kendall, and his wife, Katherine, have 4 children: Madison, McKenzie, Morgan and Marshall. Kendall is also an active Rotarian. His daughter, Koretta and her husband, Eddy, have 3 children: Tre, Jalen and Taylor.
Kent has been senior pastor of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church for 17 years. St. Luke’s is an open community of Christians that shares Christ’s unconditional love for all people and sponsor mission teams providing loving service somewhere in the world every month. There are 6,200 members with an average attendance of 3,000 with 10 different services and 3 locations.
I asked Kent if there were turning points in his life that brought him to the ministry. He recalled his Father’s struggle with alcoholism and the day he began his recovery. This turning point in his Father’s life not only changed him and redirected his life’s journey; it did the same for his entire family because then they started attending church. The second turning point was his decision to go to church camp as a young teen. He actually made this decision because he heard he could play sports and meet pretty girls. He accomplished both and much more as he met his future bride, Minnietta, and accepted Christ. He remembered a warm, summer night as he was sitting at a camp church service hoping no one would go up for altar call so that he could have more time with Minnietta. The next thing he knew he was the one walking to the altar. He remembers silently asking himself this question, “Where are you going, and why are you going there?” Kent, at that moment, realized he was being called to the altar. This was the moment of his calling to the ministry. He still fondly speaks of the peace that embraced him that night.
The ministry of Kent and St. Luke’s touches many lives both at home and globally. He is President of the Indianapolis Interfaith Hunger Initiative where Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh leaders work together to help feed 15,000 children in Indianapolis through Gleaners and 12,000 children in school lunch program in Kenya. He is also on the National United Methodist Global AIDS and Global Health Task Forces where funds are raised to help make an AIDS free, Malaria free and TB free world. He compared these missions to that of the Rotary dream of eradicating Polio.
Parishioners and volunteers have joined Kent on his many mission trips as he encourages others to give of their time and talents serving those in need. I asked him to share some of these stories and his successes of these missions and his ministry.
He began with a time he struggled to convince a parishioner in another community to join him on a mission trip as this parishioner was not convinced that mission work was something he wanted to be involved with or believed in. During the trip he and the parishioner visited a school in Haiti. They soon observed that some days the children were not being fed. When they asked the teachers why the children were not eating each day, they were told the food to feed the children is totally dependent upon the mission giving in the United States and when mission giving is down there is not enough food to feed the children daily. The doubt the parishioner had in his heart when he arrived in Haiti melted away that day. He now speaks on behalf of the mission teams and raises funds to help feed the children.
He spoke of another mission experience of a young Father in Zimbabwe performing very hard labor in extreme conditions of heat, hunger and thirst for hours a day without a break to make pennies to feed his family. Kent realized the young man was doing all of this without complaint of pain or discomfort and with shoes on his feet that had large holes that exposed most of his feet to the elements. Kent bent down, took the old tennis shoes off of his feet and handed them to the young Father, named Phillip. Phillip rejoiced as if he had been given the gift of life, which, perhaps, to him was exactly what these old shoes were. Kent also spoke of a doctor on a trip with him in Haiti treating a young girl with a rare tumor. He could not perform surgery there, so he convinced Methodist Hospital and other doctors to help him arrange a trip to Indianapolis for the little girl and her Mother so that she could have a life-changing surgery.
I listened to many stories that afternoon of one man making a difference in many lives, and, of one man creating a village to make a difference in many lives. I found that Dr. Kent Millard, Senior Pastor, St. Luke’s United Methodist Church is as so many Rotarians are, true servants to others and has a pure life mission of service above self.
I asked Kent if he could share a few words of advice what would they be? He replied, “If you want to be happy practice compassion and do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I also asked him what he thought most connected him to Rotary. His response was one word, compassion.
Written by: Brenda Jackson, Stewart & Irwin, P.C.
