Bishop Easterling and her cabinet have appointed Rev. Dr. Kyung-hee Sa as senior pastor of Aldersgate Church, effective July 1, 2023. A native of South Korea, Rev. Sa first worked in the field of print journalism, having done graduate work in mass communications and journalism in South Korea. Upon her call to ministry, she left Seoul in 1999 to attend Drew Theological Seminary in Madison, New Jersey, graduating summa cum laude in 2002. She was ordained an elder by the New England Conference in 2007, during her time serving as a lead pastor at a church in Maine. Rev. Sa was trained and licensed as a Natural Church Development Coach, and she served on the Church Transformation Committee of the New England Conference for Congregational Development for three years.

She transferred her conference membership to the Peninsula Delaware Annual Conference in 2008, and served at Kent Island United Methodist Church as Pastor of Caring and Servant Ministries, while completing her Doctor of Ministry program at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. Rev. Sa served as a member of the Conference Conflict Transformation Committee while mediating churches’ conflicts. In July 2015, she was appointed as the Dover District Superintendent for the Conference, and since completing her six-year term, she has served as the lead pastor at St. John’s UMC in Seaford.

Rev. Sa practices the belief that everyone has sacred worth and is to be welcomed into the body of Christ, and she views cross-racial, cross-cultural ministry as key to expanding that body. As a certified coach, she believes in the power of coaching as an approach to ministry, finding joy and passion in coaching both pastors and laity. In addition, she believes in peacebuilding in a proactive manner within church communities, a passion which formed the basis for her doctoral project while at Wesley.

Rev. Sa has been married to Jung-Moon Kim for 38 years, and they have two grown and married sons, Paul and David, one living in Maryland, the other in Spain, and feel blessed to have a four-year old grandson Luke.