Third Bishop elected

The Rev. Mike McKee, senior minister of First United Methodist Church in Hurst, Texas, has been elected as a United Methodist bishop by delegates at the South Central Jurisdictional Conference.

McKee was elected Friday, July 20 at the jurisdiction’s quadrennial meeting in downtown Oklahoma City. On the 23 ballot, he received 186 of 256 votes cast.

McKee was the third bishop elected by the 256 delegates, an equal number of United Methodist clergy and laity, from the eight states that form the South Central Jurisdiction. The assignments of bishops in the South Central Jurisdiction for the next four years will be announced later in the week. His four-year term of service begins Sept. 1.

McKee, nominated by the Central Texas Annual (regional) Conference, currently serves as chair of the conference’s Board of Ordained Ministry and chair of long-range planning for the Texas Methodist Foundation. He has served as a delegate to the 2008 and 2012 General Conferences, the denomination’s top lawmaking body, and is a delegate to the 2012 South Central Jurisdiction.

His previous appointments include experience as an associate pastor Richland Hills United Methodist Church and First United Methodist Church in Fort Worth. He also served as pastor of First United Methodist Church in Joshua and Meadowbrook United Methodist Church in Fort Worth before being appointed to the Hurst congregation in 1997.

He received a Founders Award from Trinity Area Habitat for Humanity in 2007, and the Bishop’s Award in Preaching from the Central Texas Conference in 2010. He is a graduate of Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology.

A consecration service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, July 21, at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City. The ceremony can be watched live at the South Central Jurisdiction’s website (http://scj.umportal.org/main/article.asp?id=8808).