Rev. Linny Hartzell is beginning her appointment as Senior Pastor this year with Transformation Community UMC. She also serves as Pastor of St. Andrew UM church in Homewood. She has two young adult children; Abigail, 22 who graduated from UIC with a Biochemical Engineering and is now working in downtown Chicago. Luke, 19 is second year student at Georgia Tech studying Computer Science. She has two fur babies, Precious and Ollie who are poodle mixes.

Pastor Linny was born in Burma/Myanmar. She was raised as a Buddhist. After moving to the United States she resided on the southside of Chicago, where she grew into adulthood. She has resided in over twenty countries and traveled to over thirty countries. She is a former business owner. Pastor Linny is a Doctor of Ministry candidate at Garrett_Evangelical Theological Seminary with focus in Community Organizating.

Her passion is in pastoral caregiving, healing and restorative ministries, advocacy for the marginalized, and religions and Christian education. She is called to serve in ministry with a prophetic voice for racial, economic and social justice work. Her theological foundation is rooted in Jesus’ love for all people and serving all our neighbors.

In addition to congregational ministry, Pastor Linny also serves on district committies wherever she is needed from teaching courses in the lay academy to presiding at annual church conferences on behalf of the District Superintendent. She also serves as a member of The Conference Committee on Finance Administration (CCFA) at the Northern Illinois Annual Conference.  We welcome Pastor Linny Hartzell as our Senior Pastor.