Meet Dan Hans Dan was born and raised in Cincinnati. He attended Denison University in Ohio where he received a B.A. degree in biology in 1975. While at Denison, Dan was co-captain of the lacrosse team and was selected to the Division II-III All-American Lacrosse Team. Initially intent on going into medicine, he shifted career direction to ministry due to his experiences on the college staff of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes during the summers of his college tenure. Dan received a Master of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts in 1978. While in seminary he was involved in prison ministry and mission work behind the Iron Curtain. Upon completing seminary, Dan married Beth Steadman, an artist from Essex, MA. They moved to Pittsburgh where he worked for a campus ministry organization called the Coalition for Christian Outreach as a chaplain at Duquesne University and as an assistant minister to singles and young adults at First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh. In 1981, Dan began a ministry as Pastor of the United Presbyterian Church in Milford, CT. Dan and Beth's first child, Laura, was born in 1983. Sadly, she died from a brain tumor shortly after her third birthday. In the midst of Laura’s illness, their second daughter Amy was born. Writing became part of the healing process for Dan. He has written numerous articles on grief and loss for magazines and published a book of his sermons on his loss entitled God on the Witness Stand. More recently he wrote another book on loss and grief entitled When a Child Dies. In 1988, the year his son Jim was born, Dan became Pastor Gettysburg Presbyterian Church in Gettysburg, PA. Dan's ministry in Gettysburg has included serving as president of Adams County Habitat for Humanity, board member of the Lincoln Fellowship of PA and annual participant in the November 19th commemoration of the Gettysburg Address, leadership in an annual medical and dental mission trip to Honduras (1997-present) and member of Rotary. In 1998, Dan earned a Doctor of ministry degree from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary with an emphasis on ethics. His doctoral dissertation was entitled Dialogue in Ethics - From Showdown to Powwow: A Responsive and Epistemological Model for Ethical Discourse within a Community of Christian Faith. In addition to pastoral duties at Gettysburg Presbyterian Church, Dan has appeared on a PBS documentary on Gettysburg and a National Public Radio interview related to the 2002 Presidential State of the Union Address. He occasionally writes articles for magazines on preaching and church leadership, regularly plays basketball and runs and, in moments of total insanity, competes in national lacrosse tournaments in Vail, CO and Lake Placid, NY in the Super Masters division (45 years and older). Dan, Beth, Amy and Jim still have their own Gettysburg address. Biographical Information Ministry
Education
Publications Books: God on the Witness Stand (Baker Books 1989)
When a Child Dies: Can Our Faith Survive Our Loss? (Desert Ministries 1998) When a Child Dies is meant for people of faith who have lost a loved one - particularly a child - and for the people who love them. No book can adequately address everyone's response to such overwhelming loss. Nor can any book fully capture all the dynamics of faith as it is questioned and reformed following such a tragedy. Our grief and convictions vary greatly ... yet certain feelings and responses are common to all of us. When A Child Dies is a personal struggle to find light in the encompassing darkness and shelter in the raging storms that befell a father and pastor during his little girl's illness and death to cancer. (This is a help resource for people along the journey of grieving.) Available on www.Amazon.com
Advent Dreams: Messages of Hope in Times of Trouble (Infinity Press 2006) Advent Dreams are imaginative stories about characters that might have been in our near Bethlehem on that silent and holy night. Advent Dreams are messages of promise about God's coming into our world filled with confusion and exclusion, hatred and terror, tragedy and death. To appreciate God's Advent, we need imagination and hope. Imagination allows us to see what is beneath the visible. Hope allows us to see what is beyond the horizon. Faith's imagination and hope invite us to look into and through the biblical witness to Jesus' birth in order to dream of God's presence in our troubled world. (This is a helpful guide for personal use for Advent spiritual devotions.) Available on www.Amazon.com Chapters in books: Hobbies
Dr. Hans’ Statement of Faith I believe in God who creates human beings to know their Creator and to celebrate the gift of creation through obedient love. Sin, the source of which we cannot explain yet the consequence of which we cannot escape, is present in God’s creation. Sin sidetracks life shifting it from a God-directed path to a self-directed one. Whenever life becomes self-serving death becomes the ultimate enemy as death destroys the kingdoms we build for ourselves.
I believe the church to be The church, our church, is called to participate in shaping human history under God’s direction. As the church yields itself to God’s Spirit in pursuit of God’s purposes it will not only reform the world, it will find itself being reformed. Ours is not a call to naïve triumphalism. Ours is a call to redemptive mission. As God was in the beginning so will God be in the end. Therein lies my faith; therein arises my hope; therein emerges my love ~ all to the glory of God. Dr. Hans' leadership style Over the years I have developed ‘Eight Steps of Effective Visionary Leadership’
These 8 steps seek and produce a people-centered ministry in which God is glorified, not by programs and policies, but by liberated hearts, transformed minds, ignited faith, and changed lives. |
