1. How long have you lived here?

I was called to Ankeny UCC in 2013, bought a house on a week’s notice in early December, and have loved it ever since. 

2. So where did you live before?

I grew up in Iowa City, then lived in New England (and Olde England) for 14 years before my wife’s job took us to the mountains of Western North Carolina for a bit. So I’ve lived in small cities, medium-sized cities, big-cities, and unincorporated rural areas. 

3. What were you doing in New England?

At 18, I headed off to New Haven, Connecticut, for college at Yale. After graduating with an American Studies degree in 2000, I stuck around and worked for a bioinformatics startup, wearing a lot of different hats. With that company, I moved to Boston, dipped my toes in the telemedicine world, briefly had an amazing funk.com email address, and wound up working for a large computer networking company (which took me to the UK for a year). But while that work was cool, I found that I wasn’t able to really have an impact on people’s lives, and stopped resisting my call to serve in ministry. So we packed up our belongings and moved back to our apartment in Massachusetts, where I enrolled in the MDiv program at Harvard Divinity School. I graduated in 2010.

4. who is this “we”?

I’ve been married since 2005, and have two kids in the Ankeny Schools. The rest of them aren’t running for public office. Yet. 

5. What made you want to run for City Council?

My mother is a community health nurse and taught public health at the University of Iowa for 30 years. My father spent his life helping researchers get the support they needed for their work (and was in the Air Force Reserves until I was 14). My brother teaches high school English in Los Angeles, and my sister has worked in public health for her whole career. Each of us felt called to serve our communities in different ways. As a pastor, I feel called to serve the whole community, including lot of people come through my door who don’t always match the image of Ankeny that often gets carried in people’s minds. I also get genuinely excited about zoning, building standards, water pressure,  and road signs. I’ve discovered that not everyone shares my passions, and wanted to channel them toward productive ends. My kids have loved growing up here, and I want to help build the Ankeny for the next generation.

6. So, uh, you say you’re a Christian pastor?

I am! But I’ve never been a proponent of government-sponsored religion (I’ve read enough tales about my Puritan ancestors to see how that turns out). While I don’t know if I’d be running if my work didn’t give me access to the stories of life in Ankeny I’ve heard, I believe in keeping boundaries between my pastoral work and my campaign and prospective service on the council. 

7. What about us ISU, UNI, and Nebraska fans?

I lived in the Iowa diaspora for a long time. When ISU made the Final Four, I was rooting hard for them, and I was right there in spirit when Drew Foster and David Carr won wrestling national championships alongside Spencer Lee. I’ve got nothing but love in my heart for all Iowa educational institutions. 

8. I’d love to ask you more questions

Please email me! Or send me a direct message on twitter @NathanForAnkeny! I’d love to chat with you about what you think makes Ankeny a great place to live, or what you think needs improving.