Is Bishop David Wilson the first Native American bishop of The United Methodist Church? Or would it be better to say he’s a new bishop in the church’s South Central Jurisdiction, who happens to be Native American?
In a word: Yes.
Wilson, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, was elected in November alongside Bishops Delores Williamston and Laura Merrill on the first ballot during the jurisdiction’s meeting in Houston. Wilson has been assigned to lead the large Great Plains Conference, which encompasses the entire states of Kansas and Nebraska.
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His first few months as a bishop have been about getting moved from Oklahoma City to Topeka, Kansas, making appointments, dealing with disaffiliating churches and redistricting plans and making preparations for the Great Plains Annual Conference June 7-10 in LaVista, Nebraska.
Did you grow up as a United Methodist?
My father met my mother when they began attending the Methodist church in Tulsa and then later moved to Muskogee (Oklahoma) and started attending in 1966 or 1967, before it was The United Methodist Church (in 1968).
I grew up in the church active as a layperson. I did everything, like teaching Sunday school when I was 15 years old, leading worship and assisting with Communion. It became a natural part of who I was as a layperson, and I later accepted the call.
What are your priorities around Native American issues?
I'm looking forward to getting to talk about issues around Native people in the Great Plains Conference, like around boarding schools.
The other piece, although our numbers are very small in the Great Plains for Native people, just finding ways where they can use their talents and gifts in the annual conference. It's not just with Native issues, but with everything that we do.
How is the disaffiliation process going?
The people in the Great Plains Conference are so ready to move past disaffiliations. There's so much ministry and mission that needs to be done.
This disaffiliation conversation has stifled us to a certain extent, since it's been the top conversation. But the good part about the Great Plains, the trustees and the conference have made this such an amiable process that we have had very little controversy among churches around disaffiliating. … It's been so easy. It's been a fair process. Folks who want to leave are doing that and I think they’re finding it to be a good process.
You were in the running to be a bishop two times before being elected. What would you have done had you lost again?
There's always ministry work to be done. I’d go back to doing that, which I did after 2016.
When we were preparing for 2020, people encouraged me to run again. They said they will do everything we can to get you elected. And based on the demographics of our delegates, I realized I had a better chance. There were many folks who promised to help me and they made it happen.
Why do people need The United Methodist Church?
I appreciate The United Methodist Church’s work around inclusion, in terms of understanding that this Gospel is for everybody. It’s like we say when we serve communion. “This table is open for everybody. Come and partake.” Also, its emphasis on social justice and how we help the world through the United Methodist Committee on Relief, things we're doing for the community, all sorts of things. Feeding the hungry, caring for the poor, the programs we do around the world, we’re doing this because we’re part of the church. We're doing this because you're a human being and we're called to care for you and help you out.
Four years from now, what do you want to have accomplished?
Part of my job is helping to find ways for lay people to be able to play into what God has given them to be effective ambassadors for Christ. And in communities that are growing, for us to grow. … How do we prepare the church for our young folk? There are some great ideas, good things happening.
excerpt from a story by Jim Patterson, UMNS reporter, Nashville, Tennessee.
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