Pastor Dennis Glad and his wife Barbara, have moved to Belgrade in June where he is serving the Belgrade United Methodist Church and the Hawick United Methodist Church.Glad has been in the ministry 34 years. He served four years in the Evangelical Covenant Church and 30 years in the United Methodist Church. He moved to Belgrade from Luverne where he served seven years.
Glad will serve the two-parish charge full time until Sept. 5, at which time he will retire and become a retired supply pastor for the two churches.
Glad feels the local churches are a good place to be on the eve of his retirement.
At present, his goal is to get to know the communities and the people he is serving in Hawick and Belgrade.
The Hawick United Methodist Church services are held at 9 a.m. and services in Belgrade are at 10:30 a.m. "That gives me a half-hour to drive the 14 miles between the two churches," Glad said.
Barb is a registered nurse who has been active in hospice work. Each winter the two of them lead a work team to the Caribbean. In February, they will take their 10th trip, this year to Bovoni on the isle of St. Thomas to construct a new church.
In March, the parish will host a reunion for the work team. "There are 7,000 United Methodist Volunteers In Missions doing hands on work some place in the world," Glad added
The Glads have three sons living in the metro area and four grandchildren.
Pastor Bart and Claudia Fletcher, and family moved to Luverne to serve the United Methodist Church there.