Two new full-time pastors will be joining Sun Lakes United Methodist Church in July.

Rev. Marvin Arnpriester follows Rev. Jim O’Neal who retired in June. He will be serving as Senior Pastor and Rev. Jean Newell will be Associate Pastor.

Rev. Arnpriester retired in 2011 after more than 40 years of ministry in Iowa and moved with his wife Carolyn to the Sun Lakes area. He came out of retirement to serve as Interim Senior Pastor at Dayspring UMC from 2013 to 2014 and most recently was Interim Senior Pastor at Cross in the Desert United Methodist Church in Phoenix.

Rev. Arnpriester is a graduate of Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri. Throughout his years of ministry, he has served in many leadership roles both inside and outside the United Methodist Church system, especially in the areas of education and health. He is passionate about mission work, having traveled to Liberia, Guatemala and Mexico and believes that the church “must address and seek to change those situations which demean and dehumanize persons.”

Rev. Arnpriester and his wife have two sons and four grandchildren. His son, Rev. Jonathan Arnpriester, is Senior Pastor at Chandler United Methodist Church.

Rev. Jean Newell comes to Sun Lakes UMC from Green Valley United Methodist Church in Henderson, Nevada, where she was Associate Pastor. After a 25-year teaching career, she graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California in 2002. She was then commissioned a Probationary Elder and served as an associate pastor in Mesa, before becoming a Full Elder in 2005. Rev. Newell served two congregations in the Phoenix area for seven years as a solo pastor before moving to Nevada.

A mother of three, Rev. Newell has eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.