Staff

The Rev. Gary D. Philips came to be pastor of Salem in June of 2016.  He has previously served in 6 pastorates across the South Carolina Conference.  He is originally from the State of Kentucky, born and raised. He is the son of a U. M. minister.   He studied  for his undergraduate degree at Berea Collage.  He likes to say that they taught him to think.   He met his bride, the Rev. Patricia Parrish, while they were both seminary students at Emory University. He credits Emory and his bride for teaching him to think theologically.  Patricia is a native of York, SC.   Her ties to SC were stronger than his were to KY so she brought him home with her.  Gary has been a proud South Carolinian for over 35 years now. As a pastor he claims to be a Jack-of-all-trades and master of none.   He attempts to be a good listener, effective speaker and earnest pray-er.   It is his hope that though his life in ministry he will help others  to come to know the love of Christ, the joy of life, and the delight of devotion to the way of the kingdom of God.

Rev. William Childs is a former pastor of Salem U.M. Church.  Upon his retirement he and his wife, Faye and son, Andy moved back to the Greater Columbia area.  It was Fay’s choice for them to return to Salem.  It was our good fortune that he was willing to take on the role of helping to keep the church connected with our members that are currently not able to be active any longer in the life of the congregation.

Mr. Jim Magaan is our one full time program staff person.   He was hired initially to direct and give hands on leadership to our Youth ministries and to our Mission program.   Since then he and has been the go to Worship Liturgist and has acquired responsibility to work with  P. A management for all our rooms.   He is “the guy” that develops a committee of folk to ensure that the dream of what we do next technologically is in place as well.He has been a part of this church since September of 2013. He has previously worked with youth at First UMC in Myrtle Beach for 10 years and at Union UMC in Irmo with children for 5 years. He is married with two girls.

Ms. Tina Overton is the Director of Creative Ministries and is the longest tenured member of our staff.  Her portfolio includes working with and coordinating the work of Family Ministries (including Senior Ministries, Church Family Meals, Congregational Care ministries, & Disaster preparedness & response), The Adult Education/ Discipleship Comm. and The Evangelism Committee. She also coordinates with the Worship Committee to develop visual arts for our worship, and will be assisting the Trustees on issues related to the appearance of our facility & property.   All this in 15 hours a week.  Tina lives in Chapin with her two boys, Blake and Braxton.

Ms. Ashley Anderson is our incoming Director of Children’s Ministries.  Her work area will include everything from the nursery to Children’s church to VBS, to working alongside of the Children’s Council.  She is new at this and will covet your support, encouragement and kind assistance.  Ashley, her husband Cory and daughter  Clare are delighted to be part of the life and ministry of Salem UMC.

Angie Lain is the Business and Finance Manager.  As the title implies she handles almost everything finance related.  She is directly related to the Finance Committee, she records income and prepares the out flow of funds for the church.   She manages to keep up with each of the small groups and their cash flow.  She tracks our spending.  Make reports to and for the Finance Committee.   She receives or pledges and tallies the result as well as prepares the pledge campaign materials.  She handles, in a very private and discrete manner, our background checks to verify Safe Sanctuary compliance.    She handles all matters of employee compliance with regards to hiring processes at the direction of the Staff Parish Relations Comm.   She is the person to talk to if there is a question about the church budget or about your contributions to it.  Angie worked for Salem for many years, then took about a year off to travel wither husband as he worked out a military contract assignment in Germany.  Angie is a three day a week person being in the office Monday through Wednesday.

Marie has been with Salem UMC since April 2012.  Marie is the first face of Salem for folk that come to our offices or contact us by phone.  She collaborates with staff and members to produce worship bulletins and other printed materials.   She makes sure the office and other areas are supplied, she manages the church calendar she manages the membership roles.  She works with a wide variety of committees to ensure that things flow smoothly and that communication lines are open and information flows to the appropriate persons.  She is our “Ask her first” person on a good many matters of the life of the church.   Marie and her husband, Fred love hunting and fishing together.  She is in the office Monday through Thursday.

Ms. Sarah Bridges is the director of all things musical here at Salem.  She directs our Chancel Choir, the children’s choir, the youth choir and coordinates the Handbell Choir.  She is also the Director of Choral Activities  at Mid-Carolina High School.  A native of Georgia, she came to South Carolina for graduate work at USC  and stayed after to begin her career.   She gets great results from her entirely volunteer Chancel Choir and  enjoys helping them learn new abilities and to delight in the final results of praise to God in the context of Holy Worship.

Ms. Miriam Y. Lovett is an accomplished organist.  She has served as Salem’s organist for 40+ years.  Miriam received both her B.A. and M. Ed. from  the University of South Carolina.  She taught  school in the Lexington-Richland School District  Five for 30+ years.   Miriam assists  in the Sunday School Department with music by playing for group singing.   As a former school teacher she knows well the significance of preparation and presentation.  She is always ready to enhance our worship services with her music.  For her, it is a gift to the worshiping community  and to God.  She and her husband, Don are longtime members of Salem, now extending into the third generation.

Ms. Stephanie Knott came to us simply to play piano for our Choir practices and Sunday worship services.  Since beginning with us she has settled into life here and made her skills a dynamic part of our worship time.