MEET OUR STAFF
Pastor Will Meachum (far right) pictured with (from left to right) his daughter - Hayden, wife - Joy, and son - Ben.
WILL MEACHUM
Lead Pastor
pastorwill@thebridgeumc.org
Pastor Will Meachum was ordained as an elder in the United Methodist Church in June 2025. He has been in a pulpit (or two or six) since 2015. He comes to us from the Prairie River Parish, a six church cooperative parish (Henry, Lacon/Sparland, Minonk, Varna, Washburn, Wenona St. John's UMC) he helped form with co-pastor Cathy Duffy. Before that he served at Green Valley United Methodist Church while completing his seminary degree at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, graduating with honors. Before becoming a pastor, he worked as the Director of Faith Development at Pontiac UMC, and before that he worked as Worship Coordinator and Director of Music Ministries at Crossroads UMC. At our conference and district level, he also serves as the mentor coordinator for North District Committee on Ordained Ministry. He is a member of the Conference Congregational Development Team.
Pastor Will got his undergrad at the University of Illinois in 2002, majoring in Choral Music Education, and he taught high school choir and middle school general music for 4 years. He has also enjoyed being a coach at the Junior high and high school level. While living and serving as pastor in Henry, IL for 9 years, he also coached 5th and 6th grade boys and girls basketball, travel baseball and softball at different age levels, and was on staff at Henry-Senachwine High School as the Freshmen/JV Boys Basketball coach, and as volunteer assistant coach for Golf and Varsity Boys baseball. One of his great passions is using his voice to advocate for the poor and marginalized. He works with the non-profit advocacy group Bread for the World and has gone to Washington DC multiple times to advocate for increased funding for food based programs like SNAP, WIC and USAID to members of Congress and the US Senate.
His wife Joy is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with OSF. Son Ben just graduated high school and will begin his studies in Sports Communication at Bradley in the fall of 2026. Daughter Hayden is a high school student, artist and musician, and will attend Washington High School.
MARY RUNGE
Interim Visitation Pastor
cheerfulmary@gmail.com
It is with great pleasure that the Staff Parish Relations Committee announces the hiring of Pastor Mary Runge as our “Interim Visitation Pastor”. With Pastor Tom going to a part-time pastoral status until his retirement on June 30th, it was recognized that we would need a qualified individual to help him with the congregational care needs of The Bridge. Pastor Mary will be working alongside Pastor Tom and the Congregational Care team.
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Pastor Mary grew up in in the Disciples of Christ Church. She graduated from Eureka College, obtaining her BA in 2010. She graduated from Lexington Theological Seminary in 2016 and was ordained into the Disciples of Christ in 2016. She worked for 8 years at First United Methodist Church as an associate pastor focusing on senior ministries and caring team ministries. Mary is currently employed part time with OSF St. Francis working in Palliative Care, Hospice, and in pediatric transitional care.
She and her husband, Jake, have two little miracles, Isaac (6) and Elinor (4) and reside in Bartonville. She has a great love of animals including her 3 hairless dogs and 4 chickens! When she isn’t working, she enjoys reading, cooking/baking, shopping, drinking coffee, and participating in her children’s activities
ABBIE JOHNSON
Administrator
admin@thebridgeumc.org
Abbie is a Washington resident who taught high school math for many years. She loves reading, crafting, being outside, and spending time with her family. We are all very grateful for her organization as we navigate our Messy Church.
MISSY ZIMMERMAN
CHILDRENS MINISTRIES COORDINATOR
kids@thebridgeumc.org
Missy is a former teacher, having taught in Naperville, Illinois, and at Lincoln Grade School in Washington. She taught her first Sunday School class when she was 15 and continued to help and participate in children’s ministry whenever life would allow.
She and her husband Charlie live in Washington and enjoy visiting their grown daughters (and son-in-law) in their beautiful homes as often as possible.
MEGAN MASON
YOUTH MINISTRIES COORDINATOR
megan@thebridgeumc.org
Megan lives in Washington with her husband, Josh, and their two children, Job and Lucy. She has been involved in youth ministry since 2004, serving as a camp counselor. She is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity degree at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, with a concentration in Deacon Studies. When she is not studying or spending time with her family, she enjoys grabbing a cup of coffee from one of the many amazing local coffee shops and going on a hike at one of our nature preserves.
Megan believes that our youth have so much to teach the Church and looks forward to seeing all the ways that God is working in their lives.
KATHRYN LONGFELLOW
Social Media Coordinator
socialmedia@thebridgeumc.org
Kathryn is our chronically online, world traveler, and formerly retired ESL Teacher turned content creator and librarian. With a background in English, and Gender and Diversity Studies, we're very excited to have her fresh perspective join our team.
BILL ADAMS
Pastor Emeritus
Pastor Bill Adams (retired) is a lifelong United Methodist. Born and raised in Macomb Illinois. He was baptized at Wesley UMC in Macomb and later transferred his membership to First UMC of Champagin. It was from FUMC in Champaign that he began to follow his call into ministry. The first half of his ministry life was as a layperson. He is a second career pastor and began his professional career as a United Methodist pastor since 1997. He retired December 31, 2022.
During his 25-year career he has served in a two-point rural charge, suburban churches, and an urban congregations. At the conference level Bill has served as chair of the Conference Finance and Administrative committee, and as the chair of a District Committee on Ministry.
Having spent half his Christian life as a layperson, Bill believes strongly in the priesthood of all believers. His life scripture is Colossians 3:23-24. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
Bill often says, you may like him but you will love his wife, Cindy. They have been married since 1980. They are the parents of three beautiful, intelligent and independent women, Emily, Ellen, and Erin. Their first grandson, Will, was born in 2023.
REV. RUSS SMITH
Pastor Emeritus
Rev. Russ Smith was ordained in 1970 as a deacon and in 1975 as Elder of the Central Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church. He felt and answered a call to become a minister at age 15 while at Epworth Springs Camp. Russ grew up on a farm west of Springfield. He began preaching in his junior year of college in 1967 in small churches near Mt. Vernon while attending McKendree College. He graduated with a Masters of Divinity from Eden Theological Seminary in Webster Groves, Mo. He served First Federated Church of Clayton, Il, as Directing Pastor of the Pioneer Larger Parish in Jacksonville, Quincy Union UMC, Monticello UMC, Danville St. James UMC, and retired in 2011 from Wesley UMC in Macomb for a total of 44 years.
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Russ led 8 pilgrimages to Israel, Jordan and Egypt over the years and spent several extended study periods in Israel. From these trips he developed a proficiency in relating the Bible to the archaeology and geography that shaped the peoples of the Bible. He enjoyed-in depth courses on Old Testament at Oxford University one summer. He led numerous mission trips, mostly with youth, and directed or counseled at church camps. He participated in mission trips to Appalachia, Liberia, Mexico, and Cuba. He spent many years serving in the area of finance and administration of the annual conference.
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Russ and Karen have been married for 56 years and counting. Karen was an elementary school teacher for 6 years and later earned a MLS at the U of I. She was the librarian for a K-8 school before accepting a position at the Children’s Research Center at the U of I for 20 years. They have two children, Alisa Smith-Reetz and Robert Granville Smith, and six wonderfully amazing grandchildren. Russ and Karen love to travel in Europe, the Caribbean, Canada, and the USA. His primary interests are in reading, travel, model railroading (half their basement is a HO scale railroad) and he is a trainmaster in the Illinois Valley Division of the National Model Railroad Assn.