From inner-city ministry to dean of nursing to starting fresh in Rochester: meet Linda Duncan

Interview by Jill Pearson

As a young girl growing up in a multi-generational Christian household in a blue-collar immigrant neighborhood in Chicago, Linda Duncan did not suspect that her life would hold such a whirlwind of experiences. I heard bits and pieces of Linda’s story in our Renovaré small group, but I wanted to hear more, so we met at Fiddlehead Coffee recently for an interview. 

In characteristic Linda-style, she did not just order coffee, she asked the employees to decide what she should drink, sat down across from me with a lovely vanilla latte, and shared stories from her compelling life. You see, she has a knack for engaging people of all ages and walks of life wherever she goes, which is the fruit of a life dedicated to ministry and education.  

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.

Proverbs 16:9

Linda met and married Howard shortly after college. He graduated from Moody and was ready to embark on ministry, and Linda was fresh out of nursing school. During the Vietnam War, they landed at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. Instead of being sent overseas, Howard was handed the keys to a church gym and asked to run their youth program as his assignment. This was just the beginning. A verse she feels describes their story well is Proverbs 16:9… In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.

After two years, they headed back to Chicago to run a large teen program at Northside Gospel Center, which is where the AWANA program was founded. Their kids, Darlene, and Mark, were in the first ever Cubbies program. For the next twenty years, the Duncans ministered to youth in one of the most diverse areas of Chicago, driving a van around to pick up kids from extremely challenging homes.

At this time North Park University recruited Linda and she began teaching on the nursing faculty. In the summers, they moved the family north to run Camp Awana, a Christian camp near West Bend, WI. During these years, they were also leading weekend retreats at the camp for forty-four weekends/year, driving 125 miles each way, and then returning in time for Linda to head back to her position at North Park on Mondays. When asked for a word that described the essence of their family life, it was “adventure.”

In 1995, the Lord led them to leave the Center. Linda turned her focus to teaching. She eventually became the Dean of the School of Nursing and Health Sciences at North Park, launching three graduate programs that tripled the size of the school’s student body. She shared how she would disarm her students by saying, “I am a Jesus follower, and when I look at each of you, I see an amazing work of God.”  She quipped, “No one ever pushed back on being called amazing.” She said that Howard called her a “Proverbs 31 woman, soaring to the highest heights,” during these busy years.

In 2002, Howard and Linda stepped back into ministry at Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, IL. Part of the assignment was working with 50 to 60 young single professionals called 20/20. Linda felt the 20/20 group was composed of individuals serious about seeking God and was a blessing to work with. In 2012, Howard resigned from Calvary and assumed the role of Senior Pastor of the North Side Gospel Center. God had brought them full circle and enabled them to merge the Center into a vibrant ministry called The Bridge Community Church (a multisite congregation).

Linda is thankful for the experiences her children had as part of a family living on mission. As well as having exposure to people of many races and ethnicities, she said a seminal experience for her children was taking care of their dying grandfather, who lived across the alley. She believes it is one of the factors for both Mark and Darlene going into the medical field…Darlene as a pulmonary specialist and critical care doctor at Mayo and Mark as a psychiatrist at the University of Washington. 

Linda and Howard decided to move to Rochester in 2021 to be close to Darlene and her family. She said God’s orders this year have been “to rest.”  This message was reiterated when Linda had a non-traumatic subdural brain bleed last January and was told to take it easy for a year after surgery. She has still found ways to serve her family and volunteer as a Sparks leader at Calvary, as well as do some traveling. She also takes “grandma prayers” very seriously, saying that the stakes have never been higher for our youth. She looks forward to seeing what God has for her next as she adapts to the pace and culture of Rochester and integrates into the Calvary family. 

I encourage everyone to get to know Linda. She is honest, direct, and passionate about ministry.  She has a wealth of wisdom about living intentionally and sharing the gospel compassionately. She is certainly a Proverbs 31 woman whom I admire deeply.