District Lay Leader News
Please join us in thanking Judy Craun for her service and devotion to our district over the years and all the reconfigurations. Judy stepped down at the start of the new conference year.
And please join us in welcoming our new district lay leader, Deb Beutel.
Deb Beutel, Bethel United Methodist Church, Lay Leader, Certified Lay Minister
Biography
Deb joined Bethel UMC, located in Lively, VA in the Fall of 2021 after relocating from Stafford Virginia to Lancaster Virginia and settling into her ‘Retirement Home”. Although she had been very active in her former church, Ebenezer United Methodist Church for over 27 years, leading and teaching in various capacities, she has witnessed and lived into a “different model,” of service in a small rural church.
She became Lay Leader for Bethel UMC in Lively, VA in January 2022, started taking Lay Servant Ministry courses and never looked back. She completed a ten-week Health Minister course of study through Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC in the Fall of 2022 and completed the two-year program and requirements in the Virginia Annual Conference in June of 2025 for certification as a Certified Lay Minister. She is passionate about Missions in the local community and abroad and Youth and Children’s Ministry.
She is a retired Marine. She is an advocate of life-long learning, loves being a part of small group and bible studies. She loves reading, sewing, crafting, and sailing. She feels extremely blessed to have had numerous opportunities to preach the word of God to the people of God as Pulpit Supply throughout the Northern Neck, Middle Peninsula and the Mission Rivers District. She is married to Ken Beutel, and they have two adult children, James Schoppe and Michael Beutel and a hound dog named Rio.
She is humbled and excited to be onboard as the incoming Missions Rivers District Lay Leader and looks forward to sharing her excitement and passion to encourage and partner with Laity and Clergy across the Mission Rivers District.
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