Andrew Lovins set to pastor Senath First United Methodist Church

The Senath community welcomes a new face to the First United Methodist Church as Andrew Lovins takes over the pulpit.

"Before I came here," said Lovins, "I pastored in Dexter for three years, then I pastored for five years in Illinois near the St. Louis area.

A native of St. Charles, Missouri, Lovins said that he came to Senath by conference appointment.

"The conference studies the needs of the church and they try to match the church up with a minister that can meet those needs," said Lovins, "They felt like this would be a good match for me and the church to go in a forward direction."

Lovins said that he thought his church was very receptive to new members and that his messages would positively change people.

"I think we have a church that is really open and receptive to new people coming," said Lovins, "I also think that our services are quite inspirational and uplifting and that people will be positively challenged by the messages that are spoken from the pulpit."

Though First United Methodist Church does not have a large community outreach program, Lovins said that its members have always been active in the community.

"The church has always been active in the community," said Lovins, "We have a lot of our members who are active in the community with different service organizations."

Lovins said that his concentration is on building the children and youth ministries in Senath.

"Right now, we're concentrating on building our children and youth ministries. We're having success in both of those areas and we're starting to do things and provide things to make them to feel connected."

Lovins and his wife, Cathy, who is a new advertising representative at the Daily Dunklin Democrat, come to the area with three children, Andie Elizabeth 8, Elijah 4, and Israel 1.