News from us [link removed] FALL 2025 RETIREE NEWSLETTER
Greetings Missouri Conference Retirees! We have a packed newsletter edition this fall. Keep scrolling to read about what Missouri Conference retirees have been up. May these stories provide a bright spot in your day and invite you to connect with one another to continue sharing encouragement and hope.
Conference News and Announcements
A New Chapter for The Missouri Methodists Magazine
After nearly 25 years of faithfully telling the story of Missouri United Methodists, our longtime publications editor, Fred Koenig, will conclude his tenure at the end of December. Fred’s journalistic eye, steady presence and care for local church stories have shaped The Missouri Methodists for a generation, and the December issue will honor his ministry among us. That same issue will also share more about the magazine’s next chapter as we shift to a quarterly format beginning in 2026. Read more about the upcoming changes in the digital edition of the December magazine available Nov. 21 at [link removed] www.moumethodist.org/magazine.
Clerical Robe Needed for Visiting Bishop
The Missouri Conference is seeking to receive the donation of a clerical robe for Bishop César Llanco Zavaleta, who will join us at the 2026 Missouri Annual Conference Session as a special guest of Bishop Farr. Bishop Llanco will participate in the Celebration of Ministry: Commissioning and Ordination Service, and we would like to gift the robe to him following the service. If you have a robe suitable for an average-height man that you would be willing to donate, please contact Rev. Kim Jenne at mailto:[email protected] [email protected].
Join Us in a Miracle: Supporting Future Church Leaders
The Council of Bishops invites United Methodists worldwide to join a Holy Spirit–led effort to strengthen the Endowment for Theological Education outside the United States. This endowment supports 500 students annually across Africa, Europe and the Philippines and helps to close the gap in theological training where fewer than 5% of pastors hold a master’s degree, compared to more than 70% in the U.S.
As those who have dedicated your lives to ministry, we invite you to prayerfully consider a gift to this worldwide effort. Your generosity will plant seeds of faith that will bear fruit for generations of pastors and congregations to come.
Ways to Give
Online: Give securely through the Missouri Conference’s online giving portal. Select Other Gifts/Miscellaneous and include “Miracle Sunday” in the memo field. [link removed] Click here to give online.

By Mail: Mail checks to the Missouri Conference Office, 3601 Amron Ct., Columbia, MO 65202. Please include “Miracle Sunday” in the memo line.
Thank you for continuing to lead with love, serve with joy and inspire courage in ministry. Together, we can make this Miracle Sunday truly miraculous.
Church Triumphant
Clergy and clergy spouses that have gone on to glory:
[link removed] Elva Needles - 1/8/1933 - 4/13/2025
[link removed] Rev. Patrick Kelley - 10/27/1948 - 4/15/2025
[link removed] Rev. Don Ehlers - 6/18/1950 - 4/21/2025
[link removed] Rev. Wendell Stoneburner - 9/7/1941 - 4/29/2025
[link removed] Michael Cochran - 7/31/1949 - 5/4/2025
[link removed] Rev. Harold Johnson - 10/7/1941 - 5/19/2025
[link removed] Betty Hurt - 3/10/1930 - 5/20/2025
[link removed] Rev. Franklin Marlin - 9/2/1937 - 5/27/2025
[link removed] Rev. Cesar Paniamogan - 2/12/1932 - 5/27/2025
[link removed] Rob Smith - 7/6/1953 - 6/5/2025
[link removed] Rev. Sue Noakes - 2/3/1947 - 6/8/2025
[link removed] Norma Winslow - 1/11/1935 - 6/22/2025
Rev. Carol Blackwell - 4/28/1961 - 6/23/2025
[link removed] Rev. Carol Koenig - 7/22/1939 - 6/25/2025
[link removed] Katherine Smith - 3/27/1954 - 6/29/2025
[link removed] Verna Bingenheimer - 6/25/1936 - 6/30/2025
[link removed] Nancy Smith - 2/9/1933 - 7/19/2025
[link removed] Rev. Livingston "Vann" Anderson - 6/20/1935 - 7/28/2025
Rev. James West - 8/30/1953 - 8/6/2025
[link removed] Vinnie Mae Marshall - 12/16/1945 - 8/19/2025
[link removed] Sallie Pittman - 10/10/1947 - 8/20/2025
[link removed] Rev. Randy Lee Gilmore - 9/28/1955 - 8/21/2025
[link removed] Lynda Mildren - 1/14/1952 - 9/4/2025
[link removed] Patricia Sleade - 1/2/1937 - 9/8/2025
[link removed] Rev. Rodger Rice - 11/17/1944 - 9/18/2025
[link removed] Karen Johnson - 3/8/1943 - 10/3/2025
[link removed] Rev. Elroy Hines - 9/12/1930 - 10/14/2025
[link removed] Rev. Janis Kay Roorda - 5/31/1947 - 10/16/2025
[link removed] Louise Miller - 11/27/1935 - 10/22/2025
Gleanings From Around the Conference
[link removed] [link removed] Retirees Featured in Church Planter Video
At the Missouri Annual Conference Session in June, the Center for Congregational Development report featured a video of Missouri Conference church planters. Two of those planters, Rev. Fred Leist and Rev. Susan Marner-Sides, are retirees! [link removed] [link removed] Welcome the 2025 Class of Retirees!
At the Missouri Annual Conference Session in June, we celebrated the retirement of the Class of 2025 retirees. Watch their testimonies and words of wisdom! [link removed] Ann Mowery - Grieving Loss and Staying Involved at New McKendree
Again the Mowery family has navigated a difficult year. In 2024 we found our son Jeff diagnosed with the same cancer which took his sister in 2023. In March 17, 2025 we lost him. [link removed] Donna Nichols - Serving in Tulsa, Oklahoma
I am still working! It seems as though our awesome God is withholding the word "retire" from my vocabulary.
[link removed] Willard Spencer - Saying Hello from an Old Timer
Hello, fellow retirees. Greetings from on old timer. Still alive and enjoying the days. [link removed] Bishop Fritz Mutti - Grieving Etta Mae and Connecting with the College of Bishops
Greetings to brothers and sisters in Missouri, I now live in an assisted living facility in Lee's Summit. There is a comfortable living room where I chat with visitors and watch TV. [link removed] Dr. David Kerr - Preaching Around Missouri
During this Conference year I have preached in six of the seven Missouri Churches that we served. [link removed] [link removed] Jim Quist - Taking Wildlife Photography
I have enjoyed photography for as long as I can remember. For the past five years, I have been taking a lot of wildlife pictures. [link removed] Carolyn Steinhaus - Moving and Meeting with RUMPS
I am still alive and seem to be outliving most of my long-time friends and relatives! I am 92 and almost the oldest person in our RUMPS Group. [link removed] Bruce and Peggy Jeffries - Expecting a New Grandchild and Filling In as Organist
We got word recently that Nathan and Amy Jeffries (both clergy in the Illinois Great Rivers Conference) are expecting a second child in June 2026. [link removed] [link removed] David Bennett - Winning Most Engaged Neighbor
Missouri’s Most Engaged Neighbors for 2025 Recipient David Bennett [link removed] [link removed] Mary Ann Cieslak - Playing Music and Writing Books
I had my shoulder replaced on May 6. After six months of rehab, I am finally finished with physical therapy except for exercises to continue to do at home. [link removed] Roger Jespersen - Staying Well and Taking a Big Trip
Susan and I continue to age pretty well for folks our ages (that is our story, and you can believe it or not).

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Missouri Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church
3601 Amron Court, Columbia, MO 65202 | 573-441-1770
www.moumethodist.org