Photo courtesy of the Muncie Star Press

Pastor at Friends Church has 'been
around' both geographically, denomination

By John Carlson

Want to follow David Brindle's education and career path to his present position
heading Friends Memorial Church?

You're going to need a program, folks.

"I never did what my parents expected me to do," the native said with a smile, hinting
at the free-thinking spirit -- and perhaps, the sense of wanderlust -- that has
propelled him through life.

As he spoke, he was seated at his desk in his church office, a room filled with books
and art, not least of which was a large poster featuring The Andy Griffith Show's
Deputy Barney Fife, his eyes wide with surprise and confusion.

Pointing to it, Brindle laughed. "If you don't have that look on your face at least once a
day, and you're a pastor, you're not doing your job. That's why it's on the door."

And speaking of law. ...Brindle was a kid just out of high school in
1966 when, eschewing enrollment in Earlham College, he went to work for the
FBI in Washington, D.C., under a program that would ostensibly combine clerical
employment with a college education. When that worked out less well than planned, this
young son of Lutheran parents returned home, converted to Catholicism and
headed off to St. Meinrad, to finish college and study theology.

Having pondered the notion of becoming a friar, he entered the monastery as a
novice, decided that wasn't for him and finally made his way to the Earlham School
of Religion, meeting his wife, Linda, and studying for a master's degree.

Having embraced the Quaker faith and Catholicism, he considered himself both a
Quaker and a Catholic.

"We'd go to Mass on Saturday," he recalled, "and to meeting for worship on Sunday."

As the Brindles' religious and familial journey continued, they had a daughter,
Ruth, served a Quaker church in Fountain City, then wound up in Pennsylvania, where
Linda was hired into management of a Cokesbury religious bookstore.

He, meanwhile, having pursued further studies at the University of Dayton, was
pondering the study of Roman Catholic canon law when he accepted a pastor's call
to a United Methodist church in Harrisburg, Pa., staying 10 years before eventually
taking over the Wilmington (Ohio's) Friends' pulpit for a four-year stint.

Following this, he globe-trotted as associate secretary of Friends World
Committee for Consultation based in London, with responsibility for the Americas
and Africa, then returned after two years to spend seven years in North Carolina at
Goldsboro Friends Meeting.

"So," he said, with laudable understatement, "I've been around."
Now that he and Linda are in Muncie?

"This has been like coming home," said Brindle, who is 63 and a Benedictine oblate.

There are geographic and family reasons for this, the pastor explained.

"But the real factor was this church," he said, calling it "a good fit theologically" and
"an active meeting" with a congregation that he admired for choosing to stay in the city.

Its food is a favorite ministry, with regular disbursements that feed 1,000 people in need.

 "And we do it every month," he added, noting the church also hosts neighborhood
suppers. "The idea is to treat people like human beings. It's a big thing here, a real
service to the community. We do it because it's what Christ would have us do."

Brindle also appreciates his new church's reputation as friendly and welcoming, likes
the fact his parishioners' concerns run the gamut from education to social justice, and
delights in the depth to which folks delve into Bible study.

"It's not your grandfather's Bible study," he said.

So, with a United Methodist pastor's stint also in his past, does he now consider himself a Quaker, a Catholic and a Methodist?

"Yeah," he said. "A little bit of all that stuff."

But that, he continued, isn't important.

"What's central here?" Brindle asked, before answering his own question.

“Following Jesus. Being disciples of Christ."

 

John Carlson profiles good neighbors, community activists and other Difference

Makers weekly in The Star Press. To suggest a subject for a Difference Makers

article, contact John at jcarlson@muncie.gannett.com   or 213-5824.