Rev. Marla Brown
On Monday, January 7th, 2008, Rev. Marla Elifritz Brown was introduced to the Leadership Team as the new district superintendent beginning July 1, 2008. Rev. Brown served the Grace United Methodist Church in Dayton, Ohio. She comes to us with much experience in pastoral and district ministry.
Rev. Brown has served mostly in the Dayton area. Her appointments include ministry as a student associate in Englewood UMC while attending United Theological Seminary, associate pastor at Fairview UMC, the director of Church and Community Ministry for the Miami Valley Mission Society, lead pastor at Faith UMC and as previously stated, she is currently the senior pastor at Grace UMC. She has experience both as a staff member and the leader of a staff, and experience in smaller struggling congregations as well as strategic ministry in changing demographics in an urban church.
Rev. Brown’s Conference experience includes having served as a member of the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry, training as an Intentional Interim pastor, involvement in the Conference Urban Ministries Network and she currently serves on the Conference nominations committee and is the chairperson of the Hispanic Task Force for the Annual Conference.
Along with all of her vocational and professional experience, Rev. Brown is a very relational minister, has gifts in team building, and understands a variety of cultural contexts, including life in our rural areas.
Rev. Brown was raised on a farm south of Fletcher, Ohio. She is married to Len and she and her husband have six children, Tami, Stephen, David, Matthew, Alisha and Phillip and seven grandchildren, Robert, Hannah, Haley, Braden, Jenna, Evan and Tate. While she has spent her ministry in and around the Dayton area, her husband Len is a native of Toledo. Len’s family was one of the founding families of Church of the Cross UMC on Cass Avenue. He remembers fondly the caravan from Broadway to the Cass Avenue site many years ago.
We welcome Rev. Marla Brown and her husband, Len to the Maumee Watershed District and give thanks for her ministry among us.
In ministry with you,
Bishop Bruce R. Ough
Rev. Rae Lynn Schleif
Education:
BA in Political Science from Wright State University
Masters in Business Administration from Wright State University
Masters of Divinity from United Theological Seminary
Ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church, West Ohio Conference
Previous Appointment:
Englewood United Methodist Church, June, 1984- June, 1986
Fairview United Methodist Church, June, 1986- Dec., 1994
Director of Church and Community Ministries, Miami Valley United Methodist Mission Society, Dayton North and Dayton South Districts, Jan., 1995 – June, 2004
Senior Pastor, Grace United Methodist Church, Dayton, OH, July, 2004 - July, 2008
