Pastor Chuck Kurfman was born in Beardstown, IL, and grew up in several small towns throughout central Illinois. He has wonderful memories of attending Sunday school, Vacation Bible School and youth group at local United Methodist Churches, as well as other churches in these small towns.
He is a graduate of Virden Community High School (go Bulldogs!), the University of Illinois Springfield, and Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, KY. While in high school, he felt the call to ordained ministry, but he fought that call until he accepted a full-time ministry position in 1999 serving as youth pastor and pastor’s assistant.
His began serving at his first appointment in 2007 at the New Salem United Methodist Church, just west of Springfield. He then was appointed to the then two-point charge of Pawnee and Thayer United Methodist Churches in 2013, and that appointment became a three-point charge in 2016 with the addition of the Divernon United Methodist Church. On July 1, 2021, he began serving at his new appointment at Highland Hope United Methodist Church.
He met his wife, Amy, at the church she grew up in, Douglas Avenue United Methodist Church in Springfield, IL, where he was attending and singing in the choir. (He knew her parents before he met her…) Pastor Chuck and Amy were married in 1991. He and Amy have four awesome children: Lily, A. J., Emma and Liam.
Pastor Chuck wants everyone to know that there is nothing they can do to make God love them less and there is nothing they can do to make God love them more. We are not loved by God because of who we are but because of who God is.