Erin Hernandez is new United Methodist pastor

     Rev. Erin Hernandez is the new pastor of the United Methodist Church in Springfield.  She began her new pastorate July 1.  She will be serving both the Springfield congregation and Faith United Methodist Church in Sleepy Eye.

     Hernandez has been leading as pulpit supply for United Methodist Churches in southern Minnesota for the past five years.  “Essentially that would mean when a pastor was out of town or out for a Sunday, I would come deliver the message and direct the service for them,” she said in a recent interview.  She has served churches in Hutchinson, New Ulm, Fairmont, Sleepy Eye and Springfield.

     Pastor Erin was born in St. Louis, Missouri but was raised in Faribault, Minnesota.  She graduated from Faribault High School in 2001.  “In school I was in sports and the arts.  Finding friends in all sorts of different groups of kids was never hard for me.  I traveled with a teen theater troupe to other schools to perform and really found that I was comfortable in front of a crowd.  I would say that was a definite foreshadowing to what I am doing today,” she said with a smile. 

      See complete story in this week's issue of the Springfield Advance-Press.