Lanette L. Plambeck
Bishop Lanette L. Plambeck
Active
United States
North Central Jurisdiction
Dakotas-Minnesota Episcopal Area
Bishop Lanette L. Plambeck was elected a bishop of The United Methodist Church In 2022 by the North Central Jurisdiction. ____________________
Early Life
Bishop Plambeck was born and raised in Denison, Iowa. Baptized and called into ministry at the age of 10, Plambeck spent her formative years active in the United Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) of Denison, where she discovered an early passion for justice ministries, story-telling and faith-sharing. While a student at United Methodist-related Morningside University in Sioux City, Iowa, Plambeck fell in love with the Methodist Movement and Wesleyan theology of grace finding her spiritual home in The United Methodist Church.
To remain in Christ’s love, she engages in sacred listening. Plambeck has a daily practice where she enters dedicated, set-apart time from 4:30-7:30 each morning. This is the time of day when she reads, meditates, journals, and prays. As she stays accountable in her leadership, she asks God three questions every day: “How may I glorify you?”, “How might I point others to Christ?” and, “Did I love?”. She measures outcomes/actions against the Three General (Simple) Rules.
Education and Ordination
Plambeck was ordained an Elder in the Iowa Conference in 2005. She earned her B.A. from Morningside University in Religious Studies and Political Science. After serving in the United States Army as an Intelligence Analyst, she worked as an executive and therapist for public and not-for-profit agencies. In 2001 she completed her Master of Divinity degree with a specialization in evangelism at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City. In 2013, she received a Doctor of Ministry in Church Leadership Excellence from Wesley Theological Seminary, in Washington, D.C. She was commissioned an elder by Bishop Gregory Vaughn Palmer and ordained an elder by Bishop Charles Wesley Jordan, while Bishop Palmer took time away to attend his son’s graduation.
Ordained Ministry
Bishop Plambeck has served in rural, county, and urban centers and in extension ministry as a college chaplain. Committed to ministry with new people and advancing the culture of call, Plambeck worked both to establish a local Pacific-Islander ministry with the Chuukese of Micronesia and also to launch Fe y Esperanza UMC serving Spanish-speaking neighbors.
Banding together with military veterans she founded SoldierOn, a redemptive and restorative ministry with soldiers addressing moral trauma and the tragedy of war. In the urban center, she worked with the laity of her downtown church designing Tuesday Ministry (Tuesday’s children are full of grace) supporting, serving, and resourcing individuals and families impacted by homelessess, food insecurity, and those in need of transportation, education, employment and health resources and supports. Plambeck also worked with laity in developing and designing a recovery ministry that continues to have regional impact. In 2008, she launched Sister-to-Sister a mental health and soul care ministry for trauma survivors who were harmed by rape, abuse, and/or incest.
In 2015, Plambeck was awarded the Athena Leadership Award, from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for attaining the highest level of professional excellence, contributing time and energy to improve the quality of life for others in the community, and actively assisting others, particularly women, in realizing their fullest potential.
Her ecumenical, interfaith, and community engagements provide opportunities to know, walk with, and serve veterans, the homeless, the addicted, children-at-risk, folks doing the arduous work of recovery, and survivors of violence as she seeks to seek, see and serve the least of these (Matthew 25). If asked about the ministry of her heart, she will talk about the Kid Pastor program she developed and a Confirmation curriculum that drew churched and unchurched students, alike.
Conference Leadership
Prior to her election to the episcopacy, Plambeck served as the Assistant to the Bishop and Director of Clergy & Leadership Excellence in the Iowa Conference. Developing and deploying leaders in our local faith communities is where her energy and interest has been throughout her twenty-five years in pastoral ministry.
Plambeck’s vision for the church is a body of Christ-followers engaged in serving others and finding wholeness for themselves along the way. To that end, Plambeck seeks to live out what Jesus meant when he said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me...I’ve come to bring good news.” Plambeck queries, “‘What did he do?’ He spent time with people who were socially excluded. He worked with people who felt they didn’t count – that due to their current condition, they somehow didn’t matter to the community nor to God. Jesus changes that narrative and asks all Christ-followers to do the same. He took on people as his disciples who had been rejected by everybody else. He brought spiritual good news. He brought social good news. He bought physical good news. He brought economic good news. He brought the good news of justice and redemption. He brought the good news that nothing in this world has the power to separate us from the love of God. This vision is what the church is called into at Pentecost and yearns to be doing present-day.” Bishop Plambeck’s leadership style is guided by the Four Greats of Scripture: The Great Commandment/Shema (Matt. 22:36-60/Deut. 6:4-9); The Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20); The Great Requirement (Micah 6:7-8); and, The Great Invitation (Acts 1 & 2).
Episcopacy
Rev. Dr. Plambeck was elected as a bishop of The United Methodist Church on November 2, 2022, by the North Central Jurisdiction on the third ballot and consecrated on November 5, 2022. In January, 2023, she became the resident bishop of the Dakotas-Episcopal Episcopal Area.
During her ministry, Bishop Plambeck regularly partnered in ministry with the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry and The United Methodist Publishing House.
Family
Plambeck’s daughter Meghan attends Georgetown Law Center in Washington, DC. Bishop Plambeck avidly explores bookstores, antique shops, and art museums. She is fond of kayaking, traveling, walking new and familiar trails, playing board games and spending time with friends over brunch. Attentive to the ebb and flow of the seasons, Plambeck also enjoys cooking, baking, and finding meaningful ways to celebrate holy days and holidays as she delights in the rites, rituals, and rhythms of the Christian year.
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Mailing Addresses
Minnesota Annual Conference Office
122 West Franklin Avenue, Suite 400
Minneapolis, MN 55404
Dakotas Annual Conference Office
P.O. Box 460
1331 University Avenue
Mitchell, SD 57301
Mailing Address
DAKOTAS-MINNESOTA EPISCOPAL AREA - UMC122 West Franklin Avenue - Suite 400,
Minneapolis,
Minnesota
55404,
United States of America