Serving Beyond the Sanctuary
In his 37 years of ministry, the Rev. Daniel Humbert has served 27 of those years within a 10-mile area — at Argyle United Methodist Church, Fellowship UMC in Trophy Club, and the last 13 at Trietsch UMC in Flower Mound.
On May 31, Daniel will preach his final sermon before retiring and turning the Flower Mound church over to only its fifth senior pastor in 43 years.
He remembers being at Argyle UMC in 1999 when Lantana was being built and thinking ‘who would want to live all the way out here?’ Fifteen years later, the answer would be the Humberts, as they moved to Lantana to serve at Trietsch.
The last few years have been challenging for churches with the pandemic and recovery. Trietsch had offered online worship for years, so they were positioned for the change. Today, one-third of the congregation worships online at tmumc.org. They’ve reached all 50 states and over 100 countries.
But one of those places holds a unique place in Daniel’s heart. During Lent 2016, Daniel led Trietsch to raise money for water wells to be dug in Ethiopia with the “Thirsty” sermon series and campaign. They raised $77,000 and changed the lives of over 5,000 people. Today, those villages in Ethiopia worship with the congregation in Flower Mound.
Another area engaged online is Chicuque, Mozambique, where Trietsch has worked since 1998 to build the community to be self-sufficient and has sent missionaries every other year, often working with the rural hospital and scholarship students.
Upon retirement, Daniel said he’d miss “the people and the purpose.” He’s not an overly emotional person, he said, but at a recent staff meeting, Daniel found himself getting choked up when they were talking about their Mission, Vision, and Values, which he’d helped develop and infuse into the DNA of the church.
“The other thing I appreciate is our ability to reach beyond ourselves,” Daniel said. They’ve done three Interfaith Habitat for Humanity builds in the last decade, working with people of other faith traditions including Muslims, Hindus, Buddists, and Jews to build homes for those in need.
Last year, Trietsch also brought 1,000 people from the community together in the Rise Against Hunger campaign, raising over $100,000 and packing over 285,000 meals for people in the Philippines. In 2026, they plan to put together 300,000 meals for the Dominican Republic.
And part of every Christmas offering goes to a local nonprofit, including Kyle’s Place, Refuge for Women, and the Methodist Children’s Home in Waco.
Daniel and his wife, Kay, are natives to the Metroplex, and both grew up in Farmer’s Branch where they attended the same church and were members of the same youth group. They’ve lived almost their entire lives here, and that won’t change after retirement because “it’s too hard to leave family,” he said.
During college, he had internships in Oklahoma and England, where they lived for a year. His first appointment — United Methodist pastors are “sent” to the churches they serve by the regional conference’s bishop — was in Wichita Falls for three years. Then Argyle… then DeSoto.
“That was a blessing for our church, and for our family,” Daniel said. The Humberts have adopted two biracial children, Jeremiah and Sadie, and they found lifelong friends in the suburb south of Dallas.
“We spent four years in DeSoto,” Daniel said. “When we started, there were two African American couples in the church. And when we left, 40 percent of the congregation was African American, and five percent was Hispanic.”
But leaving DeSoto “was the hardest move we ever had to make.” Nonetheless, his leadership at Fellowship UMC in Trophy Club was a time of growth for the church, which also built a new sanctuary.
Then, in 2014, he heard Trietsch needed a senior pastor, and for the first time, Daniel went to the Bishop and asked to be sent because of Trietsch’s reputation for long-lasting impact on the community — not only through service, but also as a home for the arts including concerts by the Flower Mound Symphony and Voices of Flower Mound, musicals, and plays.
Trietsch Memorial, named for the chicken farmers Edwin and Velma Trietsch who had donated the land, began March 1983 when 117 people worshipped together in the Timber Creek Elementary school’s cafeteria. Their mascot, a tiger, looked out over the altar.
Today, Trietsch is undergoing a $9.5 million revival and campus refurbishment, and the church is drawing new members, both young families and older residents from senior adult communities being built in the area.
“It’s healthy when you see growth in both the young and old,” he said. “There’s a revival happening here.”
Daniel and Kay (who retired at the end of last year) plan to travel — they already have five trips planned stateside and internationally before next Spring. And they want to spend time with their two grandchildren, volunteer, read, and relax. “I’m toying with maybe doing some raised bed gardening,” Daniel laughed.
On July 1, Trietsch will welcome their new Senior Pastor, the Rev. Daniel Hawkins, who most recently has served at Martin UMC in Bedford. “He’s a younger pastor who will bring great energy and vitality to Trietsch,” Daniel said.
