Reverend Kristyne Young is a Deacon in Full Connection with the United Methodist Church since 2019. She has a heart for developing and encouraging small groups and for connecting the congregation into the life of the church.
Before being on staff at Lake Deaton UMC, Pastor Kristyne was on staff at New Covenant UMC. She started there in 2009 as their Coordinator of Children and Family Ministries. During this time she started many new children’s ministries. Highlights included BEACH, a Wednesday after-school program that provided a safe place for children to worship and fellowship together, and Teacher’s Kid’s Camp, a camp put on at the start and end of summer. In 2015 she transitioned to a new position at New Covenant UMC, Director of Congregational Life and started to serve alongside the Lake Deaton Campus of New Covenant UMC. In the spring of 2016 she graduated from Asbury Theological Seminary with her M.Div. and in June of 2016 she was commissioned as a Provisional Deacon at the Florida Annual Conference.
Kristyne was ordained as a Deacon in Full Connection with the United Methodist Church in 2019 and continued to serve at the Lake Deaton Camp us as the Pastor of Discipleship.
On May 31, 2020 Lake Deaton Campus became Lake Deaton United Methodist Church and Kristyne was appointed to serve as the Associate Pastor. Her role especially focuses on connecting the congregation into opportunities to grow in their faith, through discipleship, small groups and by connecting with each other.
Loida Divine is from Honduras, where she spent her childhood as a “Preacher’s Kid” along with her four siblings. She is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary in Orlando, FL., where she received her Masters of Divinity. Loida attended University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, AR, where she majored in Business Administration. Loida served as a missionary in Costa Rica and Mexico and has been heavily involved in ministry most of her life. She is passionate about living the Christian faith through mission and service and hopes to bring that passion into Lake Deaton UMC. Loida has a commitment to the spiritual growth of each individual in our congregation. She appreciates worship as an opportunity to sit and stand in awe, of a God who calls each of us to a special purpose. She has long experienced the church as one of the most special places to live in relationship with other human beings – equally called and loved by God. And, she admits, those relationships make for interesting living! She is fluent in both Spanish and English and loves to meet new people and learn from their life experiences. Loida desires to live authentically into the vision God has set for her and for this congregation.
Jim Divine has a passion for seeing people on the fringe of the church become deeply committed followers of Christ. Jim has been in ministry for over 27 years. During his first years in ministry, Jim and his wife Loida served as missionaries in Central Mexico as part of a church planting team. Since that time, Jim has now spent over 20 years in the United Methodist Church, serving in the Florida Annual Conference. During his time within the Florida United Methodist Church Jim has worked for three years within an urban church, helping it work through a process of revisioning, and has launched two new ministries.
The first of these ministries, The Coffee Pub, was launched in Tallahassee, Florida in 1994 as a non-traditional missional ministry geared primarily to reach college students and “mid-twenty-somethings”. In 2013 Jim started working as the campus pastor for New Covenant UMC, launching a new campus, Lake Deaton Campus, now Lake Deaton UMC.
Jim and his wife, Loida are both Clergy in the United Methodist Church and are Co-Pastors of Lake Deaton UMC. They are blessed to have three adult children and three granddaughters.