Meet Our Staff

Todd Seifert is communications director for the Great Plains Conference and is excited to serve as pastor at Centenary United Methodist Church as of July 1, 2021. In his position with the conference, he oversees communications ministries across the 1,000 churches in Kansas and Nebraska. He provides training, resourcing and consultation for local churches, and he works closely with the bishop on initiatives critical to fulfilling the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ. He has earned awards from both the United Methodist Association of Communicators and the ecumenical worldwide Religion Communicators Council for his “In Layman’s Terms” podcast, which focuses on telling stories of people serving as disciples and helping people better understand the Bible. 

Todd is a Certified Lay Minister who has a deep appreciation for scripture, in particular the lessons for the church found in the Book of Acts, which he has studied extensively and about which he has led studies for the Wilke Institute of Discipleship on BeADisciple.com.

Ministry is his second career, following 20 years as a journalist with Gannett, the owner of USA Today. He served the last 14 years with that company as its regional editor in St. George, Utah.

Todd grew up in Leavenworth and earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas. He is married to Rev. Amy Seifert, who is currently serving at Lawrence Central United Methodist Church. They have two grown children: Emily is a former college basketball player who lives in Colorado Springs, and Joshua is a former college baseball pitcher who is starting seminary this fall at St. Paul School of Theology in the Kansas City area.

Jean Drumm has served for 25 years at Centenary United Methodist Church. Prior to her service at Centenary UMC, Jean served as a vocal music educator for 16 years in schools K-12, a music minister for 4 years, and a Suzuki piano instructor for 30 years.