| Simpson named council director By Erik Alsgaard
UMCONNECTION STAFF The Rev. David Simpson, administrative analyst for Bishop Felton Edwin May, has been appointed by the bishop to serve as the next director of connectional ministries following the retirement of the Rev. Donald Stewart. 
Simpson | While the appointment is effective July 1, the connection between Simpson and Stewart has been effective for years. 'Don has been my mentor, teacher,' said Simpson in an interview. 'When I was an exploring candidate, he was assigned to me as my counseling elder. When I was assigned as a local pastor and all through my probationary period, Don was my supervising elder. After I was ordained, Don became my D.S.' And now, Simpson follows Stewart as head of the multi-staff, multi-million dollar program arm of the Baltimore-Washington Conference that oversees and coordinates the conference Council on Human Development and Council on Ministries. 'I'm indebted to Don Stewart,' Simpson said. 'I've been with Don, somehow, my whole career. I'm grateful for Don, because without his nurture and his mentoring, no telling what I would be able to experience.' Simpson brings a rich diversity of experience to the position, having served in small and large membership churches, and for the last five years, in the episcopal office. 'Having watched that for five years, I have some sense of how much the bishop needs to know,' said Simpson. 'That'll help me with communications with the (new) bishop and to help keep the staff informed about what's happening in the episcopal office and at cabinet level.' Doing ministry in that office has also enabled Simpson to see the church and the conference from different perspectives. 'Bishops are bishops of the whole church,' he said. 'It's helped me to get a more global view of the church. I've also had the privilege of seeing this annual conference with a wide-angle lens. I think I have a better view now of what this annual conference is made of and the scope of it, the diversity of it, the uniqueness we have, the strengths we have, that I wouldn't have had without that.' As Simpson approaches this new ministry, he brings goals and visions with him. He said that if people are going to be asked to be stewards of a vision, they must first know what that vision is. 'I bet you we can't find 20 people who could tell us what (the vision of the conference) is,' he said. 'One of the problems with that is that we don't articulate it often or well. I don't know how many pages and pages long it is, (but) it's difficult to wade through.' Evangelism and social witness are two sides of the same coin for Simpson, who shares a passion for discipling people or, as he said, 'encouraging people to move in their faith.' 'It's okay to have lots of programs, but if the programs don't move folk in their faith and help them move toward a place of holiness, then we need to re-examine the program.' We also need to bring people to church, he said. 'I was very disappointed to read again that this annual conference lost membership (last year), and even more scary, a reduction of 3 percent in worship,' he said. 'We need to learn basic evangelism again; what it means to witness in the name of Jesus Christ; to invite people lovingly and openly into our churches. If we don't do that one, all this other stuff that we do is for naught.' 'And when we bring them inand get them into a relationship with God, they then, in turn, begin to reach out to the world in love and service social outreach, social justice, because they know Jesus and because they know Jesus loves them.' Another piece that excites Simpson is prison ministry, an area, he said, that the conference has not done well. Using Luke 4, he said that many United Methodists do a good job of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked or visiting the sick, but visiting people in prison? 'Most of us, we're just scared to death about it,' he said. 'We've got a prison industry in Maryland,' he said. 'Our penal system doesn't work, and we certainly don't have any clue how to help people re-enter society after they get out. I know Sandy (Ferguson) has been working on some of this stuff and we're starting to see some progress, but I'm hoping we can do more.' As Simpson begins this new chapter in his ministry, he said he's going into the work with his eyes wide open. 'I don't have any allusions about how much I know, what I don't know. My first goal is to go there and learn.' | 
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