Online Archives

By Melissa Lauber
UMConnection Staff

On July 1, 85 pastors in the Baltimore-Washington Conference moved to new appointments. Among these changes were several conference staff people, who will be serving as Adventure Guides. District realignment also went into affect, moving from nine districts to eight.

The new district configuration, which will not reduce staffing, evens out the number of churches in most of the districts and creates a Baltimore Metropolitan District to bring unity of vision and resources to the churches in Baltimore.

The district alignment is expected to draw the conference deeper into its vision of providing a regional approach to ministry, which allows Adventure Guides to coach pastors and churches to become Acts 2 congregations.

Each of the four regions, Baltimore, Western, Washington and Southern, will be comprised of two districts.

The regions employ Adventure Guides, who each coach approximately 30 pastors, providing training and personalized coaching each month.

The Guides partner with pastors and congregations to assist them in living into their vision and mission.

These collaborative relationships are focused on local church ministry by developing clear goals that will enable the growth of Acts 2 congregations.

Acts 2 congregations grow in worship attendance by two percent a year; receive, by profession of faith, at least one member per every 25 worshippers; are engaged in mission by paying 100 percent of apportionments and demonstrate the presence of God's signs and wonders.

The eight district superintendents and most of the program staff serve as Guides.

Organizing the Guides and churches into regions acknowledges that congregations in specific geographic areas have unique issues, concerns, traditions, and political realities that influence the ways churches do ministry in those settings.

The regions are as follows:

• Washington Region: Central Maryland and Washington Metropolitan districts;
• Annapolis-Southern Region: Annapolis and Washington East districts;
• Baltimore Region: Baltimore Suburban and Baltimore Metropolitan districts;
• Western Region: Cumberland-Hagerstown and Frederick districts.

A complete listing of each church and the district in which they are located can be found on the conference Web site at www.bwcumc.org/realignment.

New Adventure Guides assigned

The Rev. Ianther M. Mills, team leader of the Southern region, will serve this year as the dean of the Cabinet.

Since 1997, she has served as a pastor in the Baltimore-Washington Conference at Catonsville UMC and Good Hope Union UMC in Silver Spring. She has served as a superintendent of the Washington East District for the past three years.

Prior to entering the ministry, Mills worked for 15 years in the software engineering field.

The Rev. Susan Keirn Kester, a new Adventure Guide for the Southern Region, has served as a United Methodist pastor for 27 years. For the past six years she has served in the Texas Annual Conference as creator and founding partner of Praxis with Grace, a consulting ministry, and as an interim pastor. She also served in the Peninsula-Delaware Annual Conference as Wilmington District superintendent and in several other positions.

Her interests include reading, travel, the symphony, ballet and enthusiastic preaching.

The Rev. Karin Walker is the new team leader for the Baltimore region. She has served for one year as a superintendent of the Baltimore North District and is now superintendent of the new Baltimore Suburban District.

She has been in ministry for 19 years, serving the Texas Charge, Salem UMC in Upper Falls and St. Paul's UMC in Kensington.

Walker has garnered a national reputation for her work in conflict transformation and appreciative inquiry.

The Rev. William Chaney, a new Adventure Guide in the Western Region, has served at West Baltimore UMC for two years. Previously, he served as a church planter in Georgia and as an organizational consultant for church growth with Chaney and Associates, LLC.

He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in leadership and ethics and serves on the design team for the Center for Community Transformation at Wesley Seminary in Washington.

The Rev. George DeFord, a new Adventure Guide for the Southern Region, has served under appointment for 26 years in five churches: St. Marks in Laurel, Mt. Zion in Baltimore, Ebenezer in Washington, D.C., Metropolitan in Indian Head, and Metropolitan/Indian Head Cooperative Parish.

In addition to serving on several conference committees, he has pursued his passion for social justice as a chaplain and director of outreach and prison ministries with the Ministers Alliance of Charles County and Vicinity and other community groups.