| A message from the Senior Pastor: |
| Born in Philadelphia, PA, Phyllis Provost grew up primarily in the Washington, D.C. area. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Rider University, with an area of concentration in theatre. She received an M.Div. degree in 1995, and a D.Min degree in Pastoral Counseling in 2009 from Phillips Theological Seminary. An ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, Phyllis has served in the Kansas West Conference since 1990, first as Director of Christian Education at Derby Woodlawn UMC, and then as pastor of Winfield Grandview, Rose Hill, and Winfield First United Methodist Churches. She is currently the lead associate pastor at First United Methodist Church in Wichita, where she is primarily responsible for the pastoral care area. As a biblical storyteller, she travels to a variety of groups, doing retreats and storytelling work-shops and concerts, re-telling the biblical story in ways designed to make it fresh, new, and personal for each person there and helping them to receive God’s Story as their own. Her stories are published in The Storyteller's Companion to the Bible, Vol. 10: The Gospel of John, and Vol. 13: New Testament Women, as well as The Circuit Rider. They are also available on two CD’s: “Phyllis” (which includes a group study guide) and “Women of the Word.” A CD of guided meditations called “A Quiet Place of Healing” is also available, which came out of her work in pastoral counseling. Qualified and certified as a trainer in the Myers- Briggs Type Inventory, Phyllis assists couples preparing for marriage, families, groups and staffs in utilizing type preferences and family systems dynamics and understandings to better understand each other and work and grow together. On the conference level, she currently serves on the Board of Ordained Ministry, works with that group to provide psychological evaluation assessment interpretative sessions for clergy candidates, and leads a Clergywomen’s Consultation Group through the Counseling and Mediation Center in Wichita. With a passion for the revitalization of churches, Phyllis is on the assessment team which meets with candidates who are feeling called to beginning new church starts. On a broader, ecumenical level, she serves as the ecumenical representative on the Regional Board of the Disciples of Christ in Kansas. She loves being an active part of her community and currently lives that out through serving as a tutor at Park Elementary School. In addition to the blessing of being able to answer God’s call to the ministry, her passions include theatre both performing and watching, reading, writing, storytelling, Emmaus, and especially KU Basketball! Her favorite activities, however, center around family time with her 2 sons and their families, (particularly 5 phenomenal grandchildren!) and with spending time with her best friend and love of her life, Paul Saas. They are planning to marry in late June so when she arrives here, it will be as Dr. Phyllis Provost- Saas. Her life verse is from Micah 6:8 - He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? |
 |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |
