Meet Our Team

Here are the people who help to guide and lead us in our ministry and mission.

Senior Minister: Rev. Dr. Mandy Sloan McDow

E-Mail: mandy@LAFirstUMC.org

Rev. Mandy Sloan McDow is a native of Knoxville, Tennessee. After hearing her call to ministry while working on staff at Camp Wesley Woods, Mandy attended Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, GA, which, ironically, had no religion department. Regardless, Mandy was admitted to Princeton Theological Seminary, from which she received her Masters of Divinity and the sudden realization that she was an adult now.

After graduating from seminary, Mandy began a Masters in Sacred Music in Voice at Westminster Choir College, but was especially grateful to be appointed to serve West Farms UMC in Farmingdale, NJ, who taught her how to be a pastor. A year later, the church was yoked with Bethesda UMC in Adelphia, NJ, and the experience of preaching on a two-point charge while mothering an infant gave her the false assurance that she was invincible.

In June 2005, Mandy joined the staff at Grace United Methodist Church as the Children’s Minister in Atlanta. In 2007, she was appointed to serve as the Minister of Christian Education and Spiritual Formation at Saint Mark United Methodist Church. It was here that her heart was warmed to ministry for and with the LGBTQ community, and she became an advocate for marriage equality.

In June 2014, Mandy was appointed to serve as the Senior Minister at Laguna Beach United Methodist Church in Laguna Beach, CA. She spent three years suffering for the Lord with an ocean view from the sanctuary and a marvelous and inclusive congregation with whom to serve before feeling a strong call to do something strange: plant a new church in the heart of an urban area.

In July of 2017, Mandy confirmed to most onlookers that she had, in fact, “lost her damn mind” (author unknown) when she eagerly accepted an appointment to serve Los Angeles First United Methodist Church in the heart of Downtown LA. She exchanged a beautiful church, with beautiful people, and a beautiful ocean view for a church with a long history, but no building. What remains is a hopeful remnant congregation and a surface parking lot in the middle of the nation’s second largest city. It’s Mandy’s job to figure out what to do with all of this (details forthcoming in her first book most likely to be titled, Losing my Damn Mind: I Left Paradise and Took on a Parking Lot).

Mandy graduated from Candler School of Theology with her Doctor of Ministry Degree in May 2023. Her project, entitled We Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot: How Church Assets Can Be Repurposed for the Sake of the Congregation and the Community focused on developing a theology of land and place, so as to understand the significant value most churches hold in their existing properties. The project also explores how churches can identify their theological values so as to utilize the resources in which they are most abundant for the sake of benefitting both the community and their own ministries. This is not necessarily a question of evangelism, but a question of how to create a reciprocal financial and pastoral relationship between congregations and their communities. The project uses discipleship as the lens through which to view a congregation’s land/place, so that other churches can use this model to evaluate their own circumstances and opportunities.

Mandy holds a black belt in Taekwondo, makes music whenever possible, enjoys cooking (but loathes making dinner), knits to sit still, and is the deeply proud mother of Jackson, Cooper and Sloan, and three impossibly small dogs named Posey, Daisy, and Duke. Together, they watch a lot of baseball.

Music Director: Stephen Folds

E-Mail: stephen@LAFirstUMC.org

Stephen Folds grew up in Titusville, Florida but is based in LA. He’s a proud Father, and a working Actor. Stephen has been developing Modern Music Ministry over the last 14 years. His artistic endeavors have taken him to Greece, Italy, Spain, and Turkey; from California to Florida, Costa Rica, Texas, and DTLA. In working with Rev. Mandy and El Dorado team, his intention is to be a conduit, fostering creativity though unifying Music, Art, and Theatrical/Film experiences; to honor our Divine Creator.

Business Administrator: Debbie Bowlus

E-Mail: debbie@LAFirstUMC.org

Debbie is a California native ….

Photographer/Videographer/Social Media:

Savannah Smith

E-Mail: office@LAFirstUMC.org

Savannah Smith was raised attending St. Mark UMC in Atlanta, Georgia. As a young child, watching her church open its doors to the gay community and fight for the rights and dignity of the Atlanta homeless community taught her the kind of person that she wanted to be. Within that church family, she learned the value and importance of social justice, unconditional love, and celebration of the Holy Spirit through the arts.

Through the United Methodist Church, Savannah also got the opportunity to work as a teaching assistant at a summer arts camp at Asbury UMC in Savannah, Georgia, participate in the youth ministries at Midway UMC in Cumming, GA, and spend two summers volunteering with the Appalachian Service Project.

Savannah graduated as the salutatorian of her high school class and later attended the University of Southern California.

Her professional experience includes working in the Admissions Office of the USC School of Dramatic Arts as an Admissions and Academic Services Assistant. Later, she worked as the literary, research, and administrative assistant for the future dean of the School of Dramatic Arts, helping to get a play published. She has 10 years of experience working as a tutor for all grade levels wherein she frequently helped develop her students’ organizational, planning, and communication skills, known collectively as Executive Functioning. Additionally, she is a teaching assistant at the Village Studio in Burbank. Savannah also works as an actor, writer, director, and producer and brings the creative, administrative, and interpersonal skills she has garnered from that interdisciplinary work with her into her administrative, multi-hat position at LA First UMC.

Savannah’s main goal is to be of service to the revolutionary vision set out by Mandy and the members of Los Angeles First UMC, so that the church may flourish, the congregants may be spiritually fulfilled and comforted, and so that the church may make a lasting and meaningful impact on the surrounding community and Los Angeles as a whole.