04 Apr 2026 Couple of the Month: Reverends Lynn and Nathan Kilbourne
HIS STORY:
I am curious — always wanting to learn new things.
Native of: Johnson City, Tenn.
Education: I hold a Bachelor of Arts from Emory and Henry College and a Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School. I am also an Ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church.
Career: I am senior pastor of Conway First United Methodist Church.
Honors: My daughters told me I was the best dad in the world.
Hobbies: I enjoy woodworking, hunting and Duke basketball.
Community activities: All the church activities!
HER STORY:
I’m an introverted extrovert who loves the church.
Native of: White Hall (Jefferson County).
Children: We have two daughters, Eleanor and Lydia.
Pets: We have a rescue dog named Peaches, who is part dachshund and part beagle.
Education: I hold a Bachelor of Arts from Henderson State University and a Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School. I am also an Ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church.
Career: I am vice president of development for the Methodist Foundation for Arkansas.
Church: I am a proud pastor’s wife.
Honors: For the past three years, I have served as the executive director of the National Association of United Methodist Foundations.
Special interests: Jazzercise, reading for book club, and I always think a nap sounds like a good idea.
What is a favorite family tradition? We look forward to dinner at Patron on Sunday nights!
THEIR STORY:
We met at Duke University’s seminary and started dating after sitting next to each other in our preaching class. Lynn received a scholarship from the Methodist Foundation for Arkansas, so she was “For Arkansas. For good.” Moving to Arkansas was an adjustment for Nathan, having grown up in the mountains of East Tennessee. Lynn taught Nathan how to call the Hogs, and Nathan taught Lynn the correct way to pronounce Appalachian.
May 30 will be our 17th anniversary, and through these years, we’ve experienced a full range of all the joys and challenges life can present. We lived through a literal tornado in 2014 while living in Vilonia and later that year experienced a figurative one as our daughter Eleanor was born 13 weeks early. She weighed only 2 pounds and 7 ounces. At that time, Nathan was serving as the pastor of Vilonia United Methodist Church, and Lynn was serving as the associate pastor of Conway First United Methodist Church. As pastors, we were both used to helping others and being present for them in their times of pain, grief and fear. For several months, our churches surrounded us with care and compassion while we picked up the pieces of a wrecked house and as we anxiously watched our daughter grow in the NICU at UAMS.
In 2020, we welcomed our second daughter, Lydia. She, too, was born prematurely, but for different reasons. We were living in North Little Rock, both of us serving as senior pastors – Nathan at Jacksonville FUMC and Lynn at North Little Rock FUMC. Again, we found ourselves being cared for by the people for whom we were appointed to care.
Now we’re back in Conway, a city we have loved since the first time we lived here. Both of our daughters are healthy and strong! We don’t believe that God caused any of the obstacles we experienced, but looking back, we can see how God was present with us through it all, most especially through our church communities.
