Conference Managerial Staff

Sherry Austin

Phone: 317-924-1321
Sherry Austin joined the Indiana Conference Center staff as a Benefits Assistant on January 4, 2010. She lives in Pendleton, Ind. with her husband, Steve, who is pastor of First United Methodist Church in Pendleton. They have two children, both in college. Before moving to Pendleton, Sherry was the Administrative Assistant in the Warsaw District Office in the former North Indiana Conference. Currently, she works with the Conference Pension Program for Clergy. She holds a degree in History from Ball State University and enjoys reading, watching the History Channel and playing in the church’s hand bell choir.

Steve Clouse

Phone: 317-924-1321
Steve Clouse, a native of Elkhart, Ind., previously served as director of worship ministries at First UMC of Goshen, a position he has held since 2000. He also has served in church worship, music and/or youth ministries since 1993 in Michigan, Maryland and Kentucky. He graduated from Grand Rapids Baptist College in Michigan in 1989 with a Bachelor of Music degree, from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville, Ky. in 1994 with a Master of Church Music degree and from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary at Elkhart in 2008 with a Master of Divinity degree. Clouse serves congregations in the western part of Indiana.

Brian Durand

Phone: 317-924-1321
Rev. Brian Durand is an ordained elder serving the conference in identifying, recruiting, nurturing, supporting and inspiring new leaders for the church in Indiana. He served for two years prior to this role as Associate Director for Youth, Young Adult, and Campus Ministries in the conference. Brian earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1994 and a M.Div. degree from Christian Theological Seminary in 2005. He was ordained as an elder in 2009. Prior to serving with the conference, Brian was Director of Youth Ministries and then Pastor for Family Ministries at St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Indianapolis. While there, he expanded youth ministry offerings and oversaw the building of Luke's Lodge, their youth ministry facility. Brian is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Indianapolis teaching classes in Christian vocation and a Field Guide with the Young People's Ministry Division of the General Board of Discipleship. He served on the design team for Youth 2011, The UMC quadrennial youth event at Purdue University, and he serves on the Alumni Board of Christian Theological Seminary. Brian is married to the love of his life, Cheryl, and they have two children. Hobbies include playing with blocks and Legos with his kids and a very occasional game of golf.

Ed Fenstermacher

Phone: 317-924-1321
Ed Fenstermacher is a native of Harrisburg, Pa., but only lived there a few months. His parents were missionaries who served in the Congo and later served in Nome, Alaska. He has lived in northern Indiana since he was eight-years old. He is a graduate of John Glenn High School in Walkerton and Taylor University (B.D. Degree in secondary education English). He taught high school English in Kendallville from 1980 to 1984. He then served as Director of Church Growth and Revitalization at Simpson UMC in Fort Wayne from 1984 to 1995. Since then, he has served as Associate Director for Church Development and Revitalization in the former North Indiana Conference. He and his wife Marlene are members of Covenant UMC in Fort Wayne. They are the parents of Erik, Kyle and Andrew. The Fenstermachers spend a lot of time watching their three boys’ sporting events. Ed also volunteers at “In As Much,” a downtown ministry that serves the poor. He also likes to play racket ball, work crossword puzzles, garden and collect banana stickers. In his new position which becomes effective July 1, he will develop and implement the conference strategic plan for church development, with a focus on making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Helene Foust

Phone: 317-924-1321

Ian Hall

Phone: 317-924-1321

Hall works under the direction of Jennifer Gallagher, director of Indiana Conference Financial Services, and is responsible for the financial management of the conference’s camping ministries.

Hall is a graduate of Sheffield Hallam University in South Yorkshire, England, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and Outdoor Recreation Management.

A native of England, Hall’s first exposure to Indiana was through a pastoral exchange program in 1995. Ian’s father, exchanged pulpits with Pastor Aaron Wheaton, and the Hall family spent the summer at Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church in Terre Haute. Hall returned to Indiana in 1997 to volunteer as a counselor at the Camp Mone’to and Retreat Center near Nashville, Ind., in Brown County. Throughout his college years, Hall returned to Mone’to each summer to fulfill the role of program coordinator.

He moved to Indiana in the winter of 2001 to serve as the marketing director of the former South Indiana Conference Outdoor Ministries program, where in 2005 he was named as the new director of the conference’s Outdoor Ministries. He served in that capacity until the creation of a new Indiana Conference.

Hall and his wife, Laura, live in Bloomington, where they are members of St. Paul United Methodist Church. They have two sons.

Heidi Harding

Phone: 317-924-1321
Heidi Harding joined the Indiana Conference Staff in January 2010 and serves as the assistant to the director of financial services. She is responsible for maintaining the general ledger and its subsidiary accounts as well as financial reporting. She worked for the former South Indiana Conference Center for 11 years. She has an Associate’s Degree in Accounting from Ivy Tech and a B.A. in Business Administration from Indiana State. She has a teenage son named Christian. She enjoys spending time with her family and pets, gardening and cooking.

Sandy Harlan

Phone: 317-924-1321
Sandy Harlan has worked with the South Indiana Conference Board of Ordained Ministry in several capacities during the past 11 years. In 2007, she was named to the full-time position of Director of Ministerial Services and continues to serve in that capacity. From 1993 to 2007 she also served as Director of Financial Ministries for St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Bloomington. She was consecrated a Diaconal Minister in 1998 and ordained Deacon in 2000. She is a 1965 graduate of the University of Evansville hold a B.A. degree and has done graduate work in theology and church administration. She is mother to two adult sons, one of Greenwood, the other of North Fort Myers, Fla. She also has a grandson in Bloomington who is married and father to twin five-year-old girls. Besides time with family and friends, she enjoys movies, reading, walking, travel and oil painting.

David Neckers

Phone:

Ruth Ellen Needler

Phone: 317-924-1321
Ruth Ellen Needler is a native of Sweetser, Ind., five miles west of Marion, and a 1977 graduate of Oak Hill High School. She was employed by the North Indiana Conference for 32 years has worked in various areas of the conference service center. For seven of those years, she has held her present position. She is a life-long member of the Mount Olive UMC in Marion. She is married to Roger Needler, her high school sweetheart. They have three adult children: Pete, Ty and Brad. As pastimes, she enjoys sports, reading and travel. In her position, she will provide oversight of office services, including supervision of the support staff pool and conference services, including support needs of the annual conference session. She will be supervised by Brent Williams, the new conference director of administrative services.

Sharon Washington

Phone: 317-924-1321
Sharon Washington came to Indiana in July 2009 from North Carolina where since May 2006 she served as an associate pastor of the World Tabernacle Church, a new, independent congregation with more than 1,500 members, in Rocky Mount. There she assisted in establishing a new church start in a marginalized community. Previously, she served as chaplain at two hospitals in Atlanta, Ga., and as a lay pastor in Bluefields, Nicaragua. She served as a pastoral intern with Eastern Seminary at Iglesia del Barrio, a UMC start in Philadelphia and as a short-term missionary in Mexico. Prior to her call to pastoral ministry, she worked in pharmaceutical research and development for AstraZeneca in Newark, Del. form 1992 to 1999. She graduated from Duke University at Durham, N.C. in 1992 with a B.S. degree in Engineering and from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (of the American Baptist Churches USA now Palmer Seminary) in 2002 with a M.Div. degree.

Nick Yarde

Phone: 317-924-1321

Yarde is a graduate of Purdue University with a bachelor’s degree in Forestry and Outdoor Recreation and a master’s degree in Natural Resource Agency Management. He also holds a Certificate in Fund Raising Management from the IU Center on Philanthropy. He will serve in the area of the conference’s Connectional Ministries under the direction of Bushfield.

Yarde first came to camping at Camp Rivervale near Mitchell where he served from 1990 to 1993. He moved to Camp Indi-Co-So near Springville, for a season (1993-94) before settling at Camp Lakewood near Wolcottville (1994-2001). At Lakewood, he oversaw a period of construction that culminated in the raising of the new, timber-framed dining hall while seeing the site through growth in retreats and summer program which increased more than 50 percent in the number of campers.

Yarde and his wife, Nanette, reside in Huntington County where they are members of Mt. Etna United Methodist Church. They have three children: Zach, a sophomore at Huntington University; Jonathon, a freshman at Purdue University; and Leslie, a home schooled sophomore in high school.

Upon his selection to lead in conference camping, Yarde said, “This is the opportunity to continue to ‘make disciples for the transformation of the World’ that is really exciting to me. I don’t know of any tool of the church that holds more promise and delivers more current impact than camp ministry. Together, we now have more resources and a shared geography to really push forward.

“We have a new powerful and skilled camping board, a broader geography and variety of sites, probably the single best collection of camp staff in the country, a very deep and strong history, a very effective current program. We have just started construction on new facilities at Epworth Forest (Conference Center in North Webster), and we have 1,200 supporting churches whom we are anxious to serve. What an amazing opportunity for Kingdom impact. I am blessed to have this opportunity.”