Business Insider: Former minister spreads the word about Old National Bank

John Myrland works for Old National Bank, but he’s quick to note he’s not a banker. You might say he’s an evangelist.

“There’s a line in our social responsibility report that really hit home with me,” Myrland said. “It essentially says, ‘When the community flourishes, the bank flourishes.’ ”

The idea of putting community first fits Myrland’s worldview whether he was preaching from the pulpit of McCordsville United Methodist Church or, as he does now, spreading the word about the Evansville-based bank in Central Indiana.

For Myrland, service is a way of life, something that comes naturally, even when he was doing the weekend weather forecast on Fort Wayne’s WKJG Channel 33 right out of Indiana University. It’s what motivated his tenure atop the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce.

For 25 years, beginning in 1980, Myrland was among those sowing seeds for the city’s renaissance. He’d spent time with the Fort Wayne Chamber and the Indiana Chamber before sliding over to the IndyChamber to handle government affairs.

Well-versed in the small-p politics and group dynamics, Myrland ascended to the local Chamber’s presidency in 1991, a job he called his “first calling.”

“I was able to do good things in the community,” he said. “If you’re not in the business of running a Chamber for service and to serve, you’re in the wrong business.”

Myrland likes to tell the story of hosting former Mayor Stephen Goldsmith’s first State of the City speech. After the national anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance, it was time to call up a minister for the prayer.

The minister was a no-show.

Myrland delivered an impromptu prayer that drew loud applause from the crowd.

Still, Myrland’s call to the seminary was years away. It started in January 2004. Julie Grice, who remains with the Indy Chamber, gave Myrland a book for Christmas, and he read it during a business trip/vacation to Florida.

The call hit him when he reached the bottom of page 58 of John Ortberg’s “If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat.” The passage, to Myrland, was a call to use his talents to full potential, and it became clear that ministering to others was it.

Myrland spent a lot of time talking with friends, many of them members of the clergy such as Bishop T. Garrott Benjamin Jr. of Light of the World Christian Church and the Rev. Richard Hamilton of North United Methodist Church.

Myrland’s own pastor, the Rev. Kent Millard of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, helped him navigate his way into Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary on the campus of Northwestern University.

Six months after leaving the Chamber on Dec. 31, 2005, Myrland was standing before the congregation at McCordsville United Methodist Church. Once again, Cynthia Wicker’s advice carried him through an uncertain situation. Myrland, who replaced Wicker as the legislative affairs director of Fort Wayne’s Chamber in 1976, confessed he didn’t know what to do.

“She told me, ‘When you walk into the front door at the Statehouse, you’ll know what to do,’ ” Myrland recalled. “I know that sounds trite, but it’s true. I knew what to do, and it’s been the same thing every time I’ve moved on to something different.”

The advice was sorely tested after June 29, 2008, the day Myrland suffered a stroke. As he reached for a platter on a kitchen counter, Myrland’s right hand wouldn’t move. When his wife, Nancy, saw him, she knew he was in trouble, and before long the house was full of Washington Township firefighters.

The quick attention meant doctors were able to effectively treat the stroke. Myrland has some weakness on his right side, but after 10 days in Methodist Hospital, followed by nine days of intensive therapy at the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana, he was left with relatively minimal long-term effects.

“I never once doubted I’d recover,” Myrland said. “My thoughts always were, ‘Let’s get better.’ ”

Nancy was joined by a long parade of friends who cheered every physical therapy breakthrough in the three months after he was released from RHI. His church buoyed his spirits, too.

“They opened the church the night I had the stroke to pray,” Myrland recalled. “I have been so blessed.”

Yet, with his 64th birthday looming next month, Myrland spent time last summer trying to decide his future. His eight years as pastor was the longest in the McCordsville church’s history, which began in 1844. Still, it wasn’t clear to him what he should do.

Chambers in cities in North Carolina and South Carolina interviewed him, but even Myrland knew he was too old for the jobs. Then last August, Tom King, a longtime friend and head of the Indiana State Museum, was in Evansville talking with Old National’s leaders about museum business. They mentioned they were looking for someone to define the bank and its philosophy in Central Indiana.

King told them Myrland was their man, and within a few days, he was in Evansville talking with many of the same people King had visited. By month’s end, Myrland was telling his congregation goodbye, a wrenching task.

“The way things worked out, this is just one of those things that was meant to be,” Myrland said.

Now he spreads the word of the largest financial services holding company headquartered in Indiana, thanks to growth radiating out of Evansville. He touts the bank’s inclusion among the world’s most ethical companies as ranked by the Ethisphere Institute. He’s quick to mention a program that encourages employees to volunteer with not-for-profits on company time, with the possibility of earning two days off a year.

Retirement seems a little further off now, and it’s clear he’s just as comfortable in his business suit again as he was in his vestments. And he has a lot of friends who keep him grounded, including Phi Gamma Delta fraternity brother Rob Rogers.

“He told me it’s a good thing the name was Old National Bank,” Myrland said, “because if it was Young National Bank, they wouldn’t hire me.”

Age is just a number for Myrland as long as he’s able to spread the gospel.

John Ketzenberger is president of the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute, a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization toresearch state budget and tax issues. Email him atjketzenberger@indianafiscal.org. Follow him on Twitter: @JohnKetz.