Doug Newton is Senior Pastor of the Greenville (IL) Free Methodist Church, a church of about 800 people.
He is also completing his 15th year as senior editor of Light and Life magazine, a monthly periodical with a readership of 100,000 people that won the Evangelical Press Association’s top award, the “Award of Excellence” for denominational magazines in 2000 and 2002. He has served on faculty and presented keynote addresses at several leading conferences for Christian writers.
He and his wife, Margie, are also co-founders and directors of Mary’s Place that serves pastoral couples by providing week-long, all-expense-paid trips to a secluded prayer retreat lodge in Bowling Green, Kentucky, for guidance in reorienting their ministry life around prayer.
He previously served five years as the president of Oakdale Christian High School located in Jackson, Kentucky, a private residential high school for students from around the United States.
Prior to going to Oakdale, Rev. Newton pastored a Free Methodist congregation in Bowling Green, Kentucky, for thirteen years where his congregation tripled in size. During that time he helped found a city-wide ministry to the poor, worked aggressively for racial reconciliation and integration among the local churches, and received an Outstanding Citizen award from the regional NAACP.
Newton travels widely as a church, seminar, college and retreat speaker. Storytelling is a common feature of his speaking ministry, and he is known for his book of Christmas stories titled, Christmas Stories from Enoch.
The issue of developing character in people is a special area of concern for Newton. While at Oakdale Christian High School he was the creator of nationwide program called Spoudazo, a program that offers mentoring materials and opportunities designed to develop specific character traits such as courage, respect, diligence, and perseverance.
He is the author of a book on character titled, Blink With All My Might: Provocative Essays on Personal Character.
The Newtons have two daughters in their thirties.
