Rev. Sherill Clontz was appointed pastor of New Life UMC at Annual Conference in June 2008.  Sherill came to New Life after serving Trinity UMC, Epworth UMC, McDonnell UMC, and the Huntsville Korean UMC, all in Huntsville.

Sherill was baptized at Grace UMC in Gaithersburg, Maryland; confirmed at Brooklyn Ave UMC in Dallas, Texas; and married at Gadsden First United Methodist Church. Her longest association with any congregation has been with the Epworth United Methodist Church in Huntsville, where her family had worshiped for 21 years.

Sherill graduated from Gadsden High School and then from Auburn University with a degree in industrial management. She worked for the Department of the Army as a management analyst doing efficiency studies before going to work for McDonnell Douglas Space Systems at first as a logistics analyst and then as an experiment operations engineer on the Spacehab program. Before the birth of their second child, she completed her MBA at Alabama A & M. Following the birth of their third child, she quit her job to stay at home with her children. While at home raising her children, she first began to recognize her calling to ministry. She was licensed as a local pastor at Annual Conference in 1999. Her first appointment was as pastor of McDonnell United Methodist Church and as the associate/English pastor of the Huntsville Korean United Methodist Church from 1999-2001. Her appointment as associate pastor to Epworth came after that, from 2001-2005.  Sherill served as associate pastor at Trinity from 2005 - 2008.  Sherill also serves in several positions in the North Alabama Conference of the UMC, including Associate District Superintendent of the Northeast District, Secretary of Annual Conference and a member of the Board of Ordained Ministry.

Sherill received her Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt Divinity School and at graduation was awarded the Academic Achievement Award and the Florence Conwell Prize for outstanding preaching.  Sherill is currently pursuing the Doctor of Ministry at Columbia Theological Seminary.

Sherill has been married to her husband, Craig, for over 27 years. Craig is an electrical engineer with Dynetics, Inc. They have three children. Steven is 24 and is a student at Auburn University, where he is a graduate teaching assistant pursuing a Master’s Degree in Mathematics and plans to teach math when he finishes school. Phillip is 20 and is a sophomore at UA Huntsville majoring in mathematics and also plans to be a math teacher. Laura is 18 and is a freshman at Birmingham Southern College majoring in education.

(Photo by Melissa Tash)