Reflections of an
Urban Ministry
Pioneer
Photos courtesy of Donna Saylor and Amy Charboneau
pg. 24 — lightandlifemagazine.com
urfm You are the church
Donna Saylor’s small-town roots might make her
seem like an unlikely person to become one of the
Free Methodist Church’s leading practitioners of urban
and multicultural ministry.
“I was born in Pekin, Illinois, near Peoria,” said Saylor,
who recently retired after decades as an urban missionary,
in an interview with LIGHT + LIFE. “I grew up in all-
White schools in a very racist town.”
She attended Greenville College (now University) with
the plan of becoming a teacher in Illinois, but that career
trajectory changed through a 1970 revival that began at
a Kentucky college and soon spread to Illinois and other
states.
By Jeff Finley
Jeff Finley is this magazine’s executive
editor. He joined LIGHT + LIFE in 2011
after a dozen years of reporting and
editing for Sun-Times Media. He is a
member of John Wesley Free Methodist
Church in Indianapolis where his wife,
Jen, serves as the lead pastor.
/lightandlifemagazine.com