Andy Kinsey, pastor at Grace United Methodist Church, is retiring on Sunday after spending the past 15 years at the Franklin church. During his time at Grace, he helped lead the congregation to focus on poverty and hunger throughout the community as priorities.
RYAN TRARES | DAILY JOURNAL
The next chapter is about to begin.
For the first time in more than 40 years, Pastor Andy Kinsey will not be serving in ministry. He has been preaching since he was 18 years old, starting in small churches around southwestern Indiana and finishing his career at Grace United Methodist Church.
Kinsey is ready to see what God has in store for him now.
“I taught a group of younger pastors last week, and told them the torch is passed to them now,” he said. “Four decades is fine; now it’s their time.”
On Sunday, Kinsey will give his last sermon at Grace United Methodist Church, as the longtime pastor enters into retirement. A program and special gathering is planned for 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the church.
Kinsey’s time at Grace has been marked by a commitment to fighting hunger and poverty throughout the community, in addition to using his experience to plant churches, train new pastors and support efforts to spread the Word of God.
Without his leadership in the community, Franklin and Johnson County wouldn’t be the place it is today, people who know him well say.
“Pastor Andy really cares about everyone in our community. He has a very outward-focused approach to everything he does, always trying to positively impact others. That’s resulted in his church being outward-focused in ministries throughout the community,” said Carol Phipps, executive director of the Interchurch Food Pantry. “Pastor Andy’s love for the community is apparent in everything he does. He’s made a huge impact over the years through his caring approach.”
Slowly but surely, the accumulation of 15 years of ministry found its way into the boxes filling Kinsey’s office. Shelves of books, gifts from the congregation, special documents and more had to be packed up and moved — a process that had been ongoing for weeks.
The time has been bittersweet, a chance to reflect on his time at Grace United Methodist Church and other churches, while remembering good times and bad.
“A lot of thoughts have been going through my mind,” he said. “While serving at Grace, I’ll always remember what a good congregation it has been. I’ve been blessed to serve the people here for as long as I have. There has been a wonderful spirit of generosity, mission-mindedness, and just overall acceptance.”
The list of achievements Grace has accomplished under Kinsey’s leadership is long. The church has been a leader in supporting efforts to decrease food insecurity and hunger throughout the county, with members deeply involved with organizations such as the Interchurch Food Pantry and the Good Cheer Fund.
When David Sever was serving as board president for KIC-IT, he and his wife, Cheryl, learned more about the church’s community mission work and they became members of Grace.
“I quickly grew to love Andy as a willing participant in a wide-reaching number of community initiatives and non-profit organizations. Andy has a gift for engaging individuals and the congregation as a whole in our community as one who rarely says ‘no’ when asked for support,” Sever said. “The true mission of any church should be to care for those in need. Grace exemplifies that philosophy.”
As the community was reeling from the 2008 flood and concurrent economic recession, Grace planned a free Christmas Day dinner where anyone could come for a hot meal. Each year, the church brings in more than 40,000 pounds of potatoes to give out for free.
They have supported and provided a place for Bridges Alliance of Johnson County — an anti-poverty program — to meet.
“Pastor Andy is woven into the fabric of our community and involved in so many ways,” Phipps said.
All of those efforts illustrate the way they’ve benefited from the unique community that exists in Franklin.
“One of the ideas that came out of my first few years here was the image of the bridge. We felt God was calling us to be a bridge to the community, and to find ways to build those bridges with others,” Kinsey said.
Despite his long career as a pastor, Kinsey didn’t always think he would go into the ministry. Growing up in Mt. Vernon, he had dreams of being a basketball coach. He had devoted his life to playing basketball — not uncommon for young people throughout Indiana.
But with the direction of his pastor and other mentors, he started to see a different path for himself.
“I sensed that God could use me in a different way,” he said.
After graduating from the University of Evansville, he attended the Candler School of Theology and Perkins School of Theology, in addition to studying at the University of Gottingen in Germany. After returning from Germany, he served in churches in Terre Haute and Brownsburg.
Kinsey had been senior pastor for 11 years at Calvary United Methodist Church in Vincennes when he fielded a call to come to Grace. He was invited to come be an associate pastor, working with Bob Coleman, the senior pastor at the time, on a transition plan in advance of Coleman’s retirement.
“It took us three years, and he retired. Then I assumed the senior pastor role,” he said. “That happens very little in any church.”
As part of that transition plan, Coleman and Kinsey assembled a staff they felt would best allow the church to be a community congregation. One of the first people who joined that staff was Jenothy Irvine, associate pastor.
“I could tap into my passion for outreach. Then we were able to create the staff where people could utilize their gifts,” he said. “I’ve been blessed to work with amazing people. One of the reasons I’ve been able to do what I’ve been able to do in Franklin is, I’ve served with a great staff.”
Irvine has worked with Kinsey for the past 15 years — an unusually long length of time for United Methodist Church pastors. To describe their time together, she said it was a journey of learning to work together, to know the community they served and figure out ways to best serve it.
She also called it an adventure.
“Some days it was the adventure of pulling together ideas and opportunities and finding a way to make them a reality in the church or the community. Other days it was an adventure of navigating local tragedy, grief, loss, and pain and being a presence in the midst of such overwhelming emotions. Our time working together was an adventure taking what was once a building used primarily on Saturday and Sunday by a single group of people for worship and making it a building used everyday of the week by multiple groups of people for multiple purposes,” she said.
The adventure brought challenges and struggles; they didn’t always see eye-to-eye, Irvine said.
“In those tumultuous times, we learned to trust each other, trust our staff, and trust that God was at work, even in the hard stuff — especially in the hard stuff,” she said.
With retirement approaching, Kinsey and Irvine invited Sever to meet, helping to further plan Grace’s outreach work in the transition to a new pastor.
The more he learned about all of the organizations the church was involved with, the more he understood how Kinsey’s leadership has affected the entire community.
“While I will miss Andy for his energy, compassion, generosity, inspiring and inspired sermons, and love for the people of this community, his legacy will continue,” Sever said. “I am extremely blessed by his exemplary example of Christian love and friendship.”
In retirement, Kinsey and his wife, Peggy, plan to continue serving in the community, in addition to taking some time to travel and take on additional projects. He has three books that he’s writing and editing.
With his lengthy experience, he also wants to teach and mentor the next generation of people entering the ministry. That includes Joseph Mulongo, a pastor from the Democratic Republic of Congo who Grace United Methodist Church is sponsoring as he attends seminary in Ohio.
“I’m not leaving the ministry per se, I’m transitioning to a different kind of ministry, which I’ve wanted to get to but haven’t had time to,” he said.
IF YOU GO
Pastor Andy Kinsey Retirement Celebration
When: 2-5 p.m. Sunday
Where: Grace United Methodist Church, 1300 Adams Ave., Franklin. The program and reception will be held in the church santuary and Price Hall.
All are welcome.
