President's Biography

On November 15, 2001, the Board of Directors of Flat Rock Homes, Flat Rock Care Center, and Flat Rock Community Services announced the appointment of Rev. Nancy Hull as the new President/CEO of the three corporate entities. Previously, Rev. Hull had served as the Vice President for Program and Advancement. She is an ordained Elder in the East Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church.

My experience has been that ministry is a journey which begins at our birth, when we are created in the great dream of God, and, as far as I can now comprehend, it ends at our death. I received my call to ministry while in my teen years, during a Youth Mission Camp at Lakeside, Ohio. I returned to my home church, Nottingham UMC in the Cleveland District, to preach about that experience. But, because I was a woman in a time period when women were not being ordained (1964), I did not fully discern the form of the ministry into which God was calling me.

In 1980, at thirty years old, I was finally able to publicly speak my heart-felt understanding that God's claim had been upon my life since my birth, and I was able to respond "yes" to the call to ordination and service as an Elder in the UMC.

During those intervening years I was being prepared for the appointment I am currently serving. I was honored to have founded Nottingham Senior Ministries, a program of ministry to the frail elderly in the Collinwood area, in collaboration with Rev. H. Daniel Drew and members of the Nottingham UMC. That ministry evolved into Ecumenical Senior Ministries of Collinwood, which is an agency still serving persons today. We also founded the Collinwood Meals on Wheels program during that time. That 10 year lay ministry, focused on the social and spiritual needs of God's people, taught me many lessons about the variety of forms which ministry may take.

Because my three children and I needed to survive, I also worked in the Social Services/Activities area of the Eastern Star Nursing Home to support my family. Participation in the life of that agency gave me a deep appreciation for the place of institutional healing ministries in the lives of persons.

In 1984 I received my first appointment, a student charge in Green Springs, Ohio. What I was not prepared for was the amazing qualities of character and authentic faith that I would meet in the beautiful persons of God whom I was honored to serve.

I was a "city girl" appointed to ministry in rural northwest Ohio. I had no idea what a "four corners" was, and I had never driven a tractor, but I soon discovered the joy of rural ministry. Those kind and patient folk nurtured me through those first few years of ministry, and through my seminary years.

I loved that congregation and community so much that I returned there 18 months after being re-appointed to a new parish, this time as the pastor's wife. I had been blessed to meet and immediately come to love the pastor, Rev. Charles Frye, who was appointed to follow me at Green Springs, and we were married in 1989. Today we are a blended family with nine children and eleven grandchildren.

Upon returning to the city I rediscovered the mystery of growth and grace in what is too often seen as an urban wilderness. In a multi-cultural setting I was reminded that all people are children of God. In a parish where too many children and adolescents died before they truly knew what it means to live, I was set afire with God's passion and concern for the children in this modern and complex world.

Among the blessings of God that I took with me from that urban parish were three young children that Charlie and I adopted, who are now "our children". God has richly blessed us.

My journey has always included a little wrestling with God... and my appointment to Flat Rock was no different. But, having served here for ten years, I find myself immersed in the love of God which lives in this place. God has shown me over the years that divine love reaches across all obstacles and barriers to embrace God's children. When I see and hear the children here remembering each other in prayer, I am deeply moved by the depths to which God's love exists within each of us. When I see and hear the shouts of excitement when our children make a basket during a Special Olympics basketball game, I am deeply moved by the emergence of gifts that none of us could have dreamed existed in the people we serve.

I am once again fully aware that "nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus..." Not death nor life. Not rulers nor powers. Not health or lack of health. Not the measure of one's intellect, nor the presence of mental health issues. Not poverty nor wealth. Not outward vulnerability nor inner turmoil. Not the inability to speak nor the ability to speak with eloquence.

We are all a gift to the world... and the children and adults that I am honored to serve are as much so as any other, including myself.

In this place ministry happens in different forms than in the local church, but nevertheless, ministry does happen. Lives are transformed and hope replaces despair, and we learn acceptance of each other, whether we are mentally challenged or challenged in some other way. Flat Rock needs the United Methodist Church, but I also believe the United Methodist Church needs Flat Rock, for we are a part of the whole which God has created and given to the church as a message of love.

Rev. Nancy S. Hull serves as the President/CEO of Flat Rock Homes and Care Center. (Her appointment to that position was announced by the Board of Trustees of Flat Rock on November 15, 2001. She is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, East Ohio Annual Conference appointed to serve in Extension Ministries at Flat Rock Homes and Care Center). Flat Rock Homes and Care Center is in a covenant relationship with the United Methodist Church through the Board of Global Ministries, and is a Health and Welfare Agency.

Previous appointments for Rev. Hull include the Simpson UMC (Cleveland District), Bloomville/Republic charge (Mansfield District), Lake Avenue UMC (Painesville District), and Green Springs UMC (Mansfield District). Her home congregation is Nottingham UMC (Cleveland District).

In June of 1998 (Nancy) was awarded the first "Church in the City" award by the Cleveland District Council on Missions for excellence in urban ministry. She had previously received the "Green Springs Citizen of the Year Award" in l985 while she was a pastor in the Mansfield District.

Rev. Hull is a graduate of Cleveland State University with a B.A. in Sociology, and Methodist Theological School of Ohio (Methesco) with a Masters of Divinity degree. She completed a post-graduate program at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland.   In 2006, Nancy received the John and Ruth Mount Alumni Award for "Excellence in Specialized Ministry" from the Methodist Theological School of Ohio.

In 2008, Nancy received the "2008 Administrator of the Year" Award for Administrators of United Methodist agencies serving Children, Youth and Families, awarded March, 2008 in Orlando, Florida, by the United Methodist Association.

Rev. Hull is a member, and serves as Secretary, of the Board of Ordained Ministry of the East Ohio Conference. She was Mentor for a Probationary Cluster group for over 12 years. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Otterbein-North Shore Retirement Community. Nancy is also a member of the Board and leader for the Membership, Marketing, and Public Relations work area of the United Methodist Association (UMA), a national association for United Methodist Church related institutions. Nancy is also a Peer Reviewer and Team Leader for peer reviews in the Eagle accreditation process of UMA.

Nancy is a member of the Bellevue Hospital Foundation Board and Bellevue Hospital Corporation Committee.

Nancy was co-chairperson of the Joint East and West Ohio Urban Ministry Training for 3 years. She serves on the Board of the East Ohio Foundation. She is a former President of the Board of Managers of the West Side Community House in Cleveland.

Among the positions she has held in the East Ohio Annual Conference in the past are the following:

During her years as a lay person at Nottingham UMC she served as the UMYF counselor, leading her group on 4 mission trips; and in other leadership capacities such as Lay leader, VBS Director, Administrative Board, PPR and Trustee member, etc.

Her parents were George and Edith Hull. Rev. Hull is married to Rev. Charles Frye, a retired UMC clergyperson. She is the mother and step-mother of 9 children and the grandmother of 11.