Bishops and other leaders from annual conferences across the South Central Jurisdiction will meet to discuss opportunities for shared ministries while building new bonds and strengthening existing ones Jan. 19-21 in El Paso, Texas.
The meetings coincide with a mid-quadrennial meeting for the SCJ’s Committee on Episcopacy and will include face-to-face gatherings for the College of Bishops, the jurisdiction’s Futuring Taskforce, and teams of directors of connectional ministry, conference treasurers, and communications directors.
“We said, ‘Let’s get all these folks together, in kind of a shared space and a shared time, that we can work and collaborate, together and with one another,” said Eddie Erwin, executive director of the South Central Jurisdiction and director of family and student ministries for Wildwood United Methodist Church in Magnolia, Texas.
The SCJ includes 10 annual conferences — the Great Plains, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma Indian Missionary, Louisiana, Texas, Horizon Texas, Rio Texas and New Mexico.
Erwin said developments in recent years across the denomination and in the SCJ, as well as recent news about the numbers of delegates assigned to each annual conference, made early 2026 a good time to bring leaders together. The ratification of constitutional amendments creating regional conferences mean the future of jurisdictions is somewhat unknown, but shared ministries such as the Lydia Patterson Institute on the U.S.-Mexico border will be important regardless.
One major point of interest is the work of the SCJ’s Futuring Taskforce, which is examining the number of bishops needed to fulfill the unified mission in the region and to help churches throughout the jurisdiction live into this new era for The United Methodist Church. The meetings in El Paso will mark the first time the taskforce will meet face-to-face.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to connect and to lean into one another and to grow in some new and exciting connectional ways,” Erwin said. “We all have relationships that we may not have realized, but there may be relationships that can be fostered and begun here as well, too.
“What can we learn from one another? What new connection points can we find?” Erwin continued.
Rev. Dr. Derrek Belase, chair of the SCJ’s Mission Council and director of connectional ministries in the Oklahoma Conference, provided a video for participants with details about the meetings in El Paso. He said the gathering would focus on the connections of the early church, noted in Acts 2:42-47. Five words — all tied to the Latin word “vocare” — will be highlighted:
- Convoke — Calling together leaders for collaboration, conversation and strategic thinking.
- Evoke — Recall or call out priorities and passions for ministry with our shared great commandment to love all people as much as God loves the world.
- Provoke — Call forward and support the Lydia Patterson Institute, a United Methodist ministry that provides college-preparatory level education for children grades 7 to 12. The school opened in 1913 and serves students from the area around El Paso and just across the border in Juarez, Mexico.
- Invoke — Determine where reconnections are needed with our shared Wesleyan heritage and how that may drive the sharing of resources, ideas, leadership and assistance across the jurisdiction.
- Advocate — Consider how to create an atmosphere of mutual accountability for commitment and care of the next generation of believers in Christ.
Erwin said the most important part of the gathering may be the rekindling or building of working relationships for leaders in the 10 annual conferences of the SCJ.
“I think it’s a time to do some business, but also some time to either create or deepen new relationships within the jurisdiction,” Erwin said. “Sometimes we get so focused and siloed in our ministries that now is not the time to be hoarding and collecting, but to share resources. The South Central Jurisdiction has some incredible ministries and opportunities that we can learn from and grow from one another, but we all often don’t hear about it, or don’t know about it until that opportunity is passed.”
Bishop Laura Merrill, episcopal leader of the Oklahoma Conference as well as the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference and the Arkansas Conference, said she looks lorward to the time together in El Paso.
“There is a lot that is changing and challenging in our current season as a church. But we are clearly still a connectional church, and it’s important that we find our way forward together,” said Bishop Merrill in advance of the gathering.
Part of the discussion from the Futuring Taskforce will focus on how the jurisdiction may be structured in the future.
“Whatever our organizational structure or number of bishops, we need to lean more regularly and intentionally toward each other for learning and collaborative work. I trust that this event will strengthen existing relationships and build new ones, for the sake of our common mission,” Bishop Merrill concluded.
Representatives from Arkansas attending this gathering include:
- Bishop Laura Merrill
- Rev. Judy Rudd, Assistant to the Bishop
- Todd Burris, Conference Treasurer and Director of Administrative Services
- Amy Ezell, Director of Connectional Ministries
Thanks to Todd Seifert, communications director, Great Plains Annual Conference, for contributing to this article.