I grew up on a farm near Northwood, North Dakota, very active with church and music activities, while simultaneously doing all the chores one would expect of a boy on a dairy farm.  I graduated from college at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, South Dakota, in 1987.   I served as the pastor of Letcher United Church of Christ and Loomis Congregational Church, small towns in South Dakota, for 14 months while I was a senior in college (and working as a tour guide at the Corn Palace. )

I moved to Minneapolis to attend United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities and completed my Master of Divinity in 1990.  I worked in an inner city congregation and grew to love urban ministry – it was an example of the Beloved Community of all races, ages, and sexual orientations actively engaged in the very real needs of its neighbors living in poverty.  I also served as the interim pastor of Wishek UCC in North Dakota the summer of 1988.  

I spent the fall semester of my senior year in Washington, DC, at Wesley Theological Seminary, in a program specializing in the intersections of theology and public policy with students from around the country.  I thrived in DC, so upon graduation I moved back to work at the UCC Office for Church in Society, where I had interned.  My particular responsibility was mobilizing church members around the country to respond to action alerts about legislative matters the church was involved with – especially matters of war, nuclear disarmament, equal rights, and hunger.

From DC to Cleveland to Denver, read more below.

To read my Doctor of Ministry research project, go to:  Openly Gay and Lesbian Pastors Called by Predominantly Straight UCC Congregations

Email David HERE

Read more: A Biography of Rev. Dr. David Bahr