Pastor Elmer Bowman accepted a call to pastor Zion-St. John’s in June 1971. The ministry of Pastor Bowman included changes in the understanding of the call of the Pastor, as well as a more open form of communication.

Pastor Bowman has been a pastor in Illinois South Conference for 55 years, 53 of that as an ordained minister.  He has served local churches and 20 years as an administrative chaplain for the Department of Corrections in Centralia, Illinois.  The past 15 years have been spent as a supply pastor for vacationing or ill pastors, or churches without pastors. He also assisted with services at Zion from 2008 until the present.   From 1971 until January 1981, he served as pastor at Zion UCC and Summerfield UCC. In 2020, he was made pastor emeritus of Zion UCC.