Fran Decker

Rev. Frances Dolores Decker (July 2, 1928– August 25, 2020) was born in Buffalo, Minnesota, to Frank and Carolyn Decker. Fran graduated from St. Paul Bible Institute and College in St. Bonifacius, Minnesota, earning degrees in theology in 1951, and in Christian education in 1958. She earned a master’s degree in religious education from New York University in New York City in 1964.

In 1958, Fran became an instructor of Christian Education at St. Paul Bible College, and then Dean of Women, also teaching classes at Bethel College. She served Brookdale Covenant Church in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, as director of Christian education from 1965 to 1971. In 1970, Fran was one of the first four people in the Evangelical Covenant Church to be commissioned in Christian Education, and in 1975, one of the first two women to receive a ministerial license.

Fran moved to Chicago to work in the denominational offices in the Department of Christian Education as the director of mobile ministry and field service from 1971 to 1980. Throughout that time, she traveled to four hundred Covenant churches in nearly every state to help develop Christian education programs. Decker then returned to congregational ministry, serving as associate pastor and minister of Christian education at Salem Covenant Church in New Brighton, Minnesota, alongside Pastor Glen Wiberg. Covenant pastor James Stanley-Erickson was a teenager in that congregation, and said, “Watching a team of male and female pastors working together: sitting in the chancel, preaching, and leading the sacraments normalized the idea of women in ministry for me.” In 1986 Fran was ordained within the Evangelical Covenant Church. Reflecting in 2008 on changes in the denomination, she noted, “I’m just grateful that the Covenant saw the value in blessing women for ministry.”

In 1992, Fran began serving as chaplain at Bethany Covenant Home, a senior care facility in Minneapolis, a post she would continue for many years, even after 2012, when Bethany was sold by the Evangelical Covenant Church. In 2008, Fran was honored at a party to celebrate her fifty years of consecutive ministry and her eightieth birthday. Over two hundred people attended. At the time, Fran called the celebration “a powerful affirmation of me and my ministry.” She continued working long after others would have retired. “My call is to be faithful to the Lord,” she said. “Until he frees me to leave, I’ll be here.”

Fran enjoyed travel, and she and her sister, Lucille, both made sure to visit every continent. Rev. John Satterberg, formerly chaplain at Covenant Living of Golden Valley, Minnesota, recalled that Fran brought this love of culture to her ministry, creating an often-repeated program for her residents at Bethany Covenant Home called “Thirty Days of Global Awareness.” She gathered full-sized flags from all the countries represented by the immigrant staff workers at Bethany and planned cultural events for a month, opening up the world to her residents and drawing staff and residents closer together. Covenant Living of Golden Valley later adopted the idea and offered a similar program. Fran spent her final years at Covenant Living of Golden Valley.