Meet our Senior Pastor
Rev. Dr. SungJa Lee Moon received her Master of Art in Christian Education (MACE) degree from the Northern Theological Seminary in 1982 and Master of Divinity (M.Div) degree in 1985. In 1992, she received her doctoral degree in Pastoral Counseling from the Chicago Theological Seminary. Rev. Dr. SungJa Lee Moon had in-depth study on various throries of counseling such as Jungian theory, Freudian theory of dream interpretation, and the Gestalt Therapy while she was in the pastoral counseling program at the Chicago Theological Seminary. She has been trained in many other areas of church minsitry such as Leading Change Through Self-Differentiation training from Lombard Mennonite Peace Center. She has a certificate for Conflict Transformation and Mediation Skills. Rev. Dr. SungJa Lee Moon has participated in the training for Domestic Violence Prevention and the Religious Community. She is a certified Stephen Ministry Leader since 1996. She has been a part of the Institute for Church Growth of Northern Illinois Conference. Rev. Dr. SungJa Lee Moon was ordained in 1988 and has served various churches in the Northern Illinois Conderfence as an ordained Elder. She has served the First United Methodist Church of Des Plaines as Senior Pastor since 2005. Rev. Dr. SungJa Lee Moon believes that diversity is a blessing from God and inclusiveness in the diversity creates true beauty of God's creation on the earth. She believes that church should welcome everyone and invite all people to know God through Jesus Christ because everyone is God's beautiful and precious creation. Everyone is special to God.
