Doug and Margie Newton are co-pastors here at the Evanston Hillside Free Methodist Church.
Over the course of their 48 years together in ministry life, Doug has been a youth director, senior pastor of 4 churches, president of at Oakdale Christian Academy, an editor of the award winning Light and Life magazine, Greenville University trustee, seminar speaker, and author of 24 books.
Margie has served as manuscript manager for Light & Life magazine, church administrator at the West Morris Street (Indianapolis, IN) FM Church, speaker at women’s retreats, facilities manager at Oakdale Christian Academy as well as having served as children’s ministries director. She has also been a nursery school, Jr. High, first grade and art teacher over the years.
In January 2000 Doug and Margie co-founded a ministry called Mary’s Place to create ideal opportunities for people in ministry and churches to reorient their lives around prayer and the Word of God. Mary’s Place has published numerous prayer resources, conducted scores of seminars, retreats and prayer events, and coordinated the prayer program of the last five General Conferences of the Free Methodist Church. In 2015, they through Mary’s Place, co-founded the National Prayer Ministry of the FMC-USA. They have traveled widely to assist pastors and lay people in developing prayer-centered churches.
From 2006-2017 Doug and Margie served at the Greenville (IL) Free Methodist Church where Doug was senior pastor and Margie was pastor of prayer and counseling.
During the Covid year of 2020 – 2021 they assisted the Free Methodist church of Canada by teaching via Zoom the scriptural call for every church to be a true house of prayer and served as consultants for their prayer team until mid 2022.
Margie and Doug have two married daughters and five grandchildren. After 13 years of in-home care of three elderly parents, they transitioned to Milwaukee thinking that would be their last stop in the remaining years of ministry. The Lord had different plans. They felt called by the Lord to pastor Hillside FM and are grateful to be partnering with the people here in prayerfully discovering the next steps for us as kingdom people. We are asking the Lord to help us love one another, others and our Heavenly Father as Jesus did – scripture being our guide.