Holston and West Virginia Meet
During an Aug. 27 meeting of United Methodists from southwest Virginia and southern West Virginia, the Rev. Chip Bennett talks about the need for clean water in isolated regions. (Photo Courtesy of Holston Conference)
Holston Annual Conference | Sept. 05, 2025
Key points:
- Groups from the Holston Conference and West Virginia Conference are joining together for training, learning, fellowship and mission work.
- The two conferences share a bishop, while they’re separated by state lines and a United Methodist jurisdictional line.
- A coalition of church leaders along the southwest Virginia and southern West Virginia border are collaborating to address problems of sustainability, lack of clean water, and aging populations.
BLUEFIELD, Va. – Weary of division and determined to help churches serve their Appalachian communities, United Methodists are reaching across state lines and institutional boundaries to collaborate for change.
“My goal is that we get rid of the boundaries and start doing God’s work together,” said the Rev. Daniel Bradley, a Holston Conference pastor in Bishop, Virginia, whose church is steps away from the West Virginia border.
In recent months, clergy and lay members from the Holston Conference and West Virginia Conference have responded to a rising realization that they are not only beneficially connected by geography. The two United Methodist conferences also share a resident episcopal leader, Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett.
“The energy emerging from this collaboration is both encouraging and inspiring,” Wallace-Padgett said on Sept. 4. “Some of what we are learning from each other may be replicable in other locations.”
One collaborative group started meeting in May 2025, initiated by leaders of Main Street United Methodist Church, a Holston Conference congregation in Tazewell, Virginia.
The Rev. Ethan Johnson (left) leads a discussion among church leaders from Holston and West Virginia in May 2025. (Photo Courtesy of Holston Conference)
“We noticed that Central Appalachian counties … shared the issues of growing poverty, decreasing economic opportunity, population decline, and cycles of substance use disorder and incarceration,” said the Rev. Ethan Johnson, Main Street's former associate pastor. “Concurrently, we saw that the traditional model for church seemed to be growing less viable in those communities that needed it most.”
Johnson said that he and other church leaders saw an opportunity to organize a coalition of church leaders along the border of southwest Virginia and southern West Virginia after Wallace-Padgett became the bishop of both areas.
Wallace-Padgett has been assigned to Holston Conference since September 2021. She was assigned to also lead the West Virginia Conference in September 2024.
“I am thankful for the collaboration happening along the West Virginia and Holston border,” Wallace-Padgett said. “This has developed organically as the clergy, laity and district superintendents have recognized common challenges and strengths."
Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett (center) was assigned to the West Virginia Conference in September 2024. (Photo courtesy of West Virginia Conference)
The West Virginia Conference sits to the northeast of Holston Conference’s region. The Holston Conference currently includes 513 active local churches and 431 appointed pastors in southwest Virginia, east Tennessee, and a small part of north Georgia. The West Virginia Conference includes 660 active churches and more than 750 appointed pastors, all in West Virginia, according to conference staff.
The coalition had their most recent meeting on Aug. 27 in Bluefield, Virginia, a town that sits on the state line and shares a community with Bluefield, West Virginia. Twenty-four participants talked about sustainability, getting clean water to isolated regions, and offering financial incentives to young people so they will come serve in their towns.
The coalition includes the Rev. Chip Bennett, Southern District superintendent, West Virginia Conference, and the Rev. Jane Taylor, New River District superintendent, Holston Conference.
Bennett talked about how connecting homes with safe water as a beginning project could bring in aid and lead to other missions. "This does not need to be a divisive thing. People need clean water, and anybody can understand that and get behind it," he said.
The coalition's next meeting will be set in October, Johnson said. “The United Methodist Church is uniquely positioned to serve these communities. We may be the only ones with the reach needed to overcome the obstacles of this region.”
Other Holston and West Virginia members have also seen opportunities to work together. In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene last fall, disaster response workers from the West Virginia Conference delivered supplies and sent mission teams to hard-hit areas in Holston Conference.
More recently, members from the two conferences joined for an extended cabinet retreat in Gatlinburg, Tennessee (Aug. 20-21); a laity retreat in Pipestem, West Virginia (Aug. 22-23); and lay ministry training by Zoom (Aug. 28).
Cabinets from two conferences attend a picnic during a joint retreat. (Photo by Susan Arnold)
At the extended cabinet retreat, staff participated in UMCOR disaster training together. They also discussed “what has gone well and what we wish was different about sharing a bishop across conferences and jurisdictions,” said the Rev. Tim Jones, Holston communications director.
In the U.S., United Methodist conferences are organized into jurisdictions. Holston Conference is located in the Southeastern Jurisdiction, while the West Virginia Conference is located in the Northeastern Jurisdiction. Because Wallace-Padgett is assigned to two jurisdictions, collaborative groups in Holston and West Virginia sometimes have to reach across the red tape of jurisdictional boundaries in order to work together, church leaders say.
After the Gatlinburg retreat, cabinet members said they wanted to have more joint meetings, “to see how we can be connectional and move in the same direction,” Jones said.
In Pipestem, a “fall laity retreat” was attended by 85 persons: 44 from Holston, 41 from West Virginia. Wallace-Padgett served as teacher and leader for the spiritual gathering.
Jim Minutelli, lay leader for the West Virginia Conference, said the retreat was attended by “a group willing to go beyond the boundaries of their respective areas to embody the truth that God’s mission is stronger when shared.”
A few days later, members of the two bordering districts in Holston and West Virginia participated in a Zoom laity training for about 60 people. The training was led by Gary Hartsog, director of lay servant ministry for the Southern District of the West Virginia Conference, and the Rev. Jim Goddard, who has the same title for the New River District of the Holston Conference.
“The training not only offered practical insight into evangelism but also demonstrated the power of collaboration when conferences come together in the spirit of shared mission,” Goddard said.
Wallace-Padgett said she’s cheering on the work of the people she serves.
“Our two conferences have many commonalities, including an Appalachian heritage, love for God, gratitude for the people we serve, mission orientation and deep appreciation for the beauty of the geography in which we live,” she said. “We are resilient, faith-filled, relational and hopeful as we move into the future.”
Holston Conference includes United Methodist churches in East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and North Georgia, with main offices in Alcoa, Tennessee. Sign up for a free email subscription to The Call.
Author
Annette Spence is editor of The Call, the Holston Conference source of news and stories.