NEW ASSOCIATE PASTOR HIRED AT NEW MCKENDREE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

Richard Northcutt is the new associate pastor at New McKendree United Methodist Church.

He was a former journalist in Fredericktown and Flat River (now Park Hills). For the past eight years he has been teaching journalism at Northwest Missouri University and Midland College in Freemont, Neb.

Northcutt just completed a 10-day intensive licensing course where he was trained to perform weddings, funerals and pastoral duties. In the fall, he will be attending a seminary.

His primary responsibilities will be ministering to the youth of the church, assisting with church services and helping with the Jackson Ministerial Alliance Food Pantry.

The decision to become a minister wasn't an easy one for Northcutt.

"I felt God was asking me to do more for the church," Northcutt said.

"I'd like to say I embraced it right away, but I ran from it," he added.

He was just given the chairmanship of the Journalism Department at Freemont College and he and his wife were tenured professors.

So it took three years for Northcutt to come to this decision.

"I finally came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to be happy if I didn't pursue it."

Northcutt is from Bloomfield and graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1984. His move to Jackson is somewhat of a homecoming.

"I'm really lucky to be here."