Weekly Greeting - February 27, 2026
This week I want to share with you a little bit about my volunteer role with the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Annual Conference and invite you into prayer.
Since 2022, when the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference was created out of the former Memphis Conference and former Tennessee Conference, I have served as the Chair of the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference Board of Ordained Ministry. It is a great honor and privilege to do this work, but don’t be impressed too quickly. I truly believe that I was elected to this role because no one else actually wanted to do it. It’s funny. But it’s true.
The short description of the Board of Ordained Ministry, found in ¶634 of The Book of Discipline, is that it is responsible for recruiting, nurturing, evaluating, and credentialing clergy, including local pastors, provisional members, and full members. If that sounds like a lot, it is. Fortunately, this work is shared among 50 - 60 gifted laypeople and clergy who commit to bringing their best to it.
Next week we will meet to conduct interviews with thirteen men and women who have applied for both full and provisional membership in the annual conference as both elders and deacons. This is only part of the work that we do throughout the year, but it is, by far, the most intense.
And so I ask for your prayers for all of our candidates and for the entire Board of Ordained Ministry as we do this important and holy work. And if you want to offer an extra prayer or two for me as I lead the board in this work, it won’t hurt my feelings one bit!
I am excited to be with you this Sunday as we hear the good news that we can love God by loving our neighbor!
Ready for good news with you!
Mary Beth