David J. Lawson - Episcopal Ministry

Episcopal Ministry

Elected to the Episcopacy by the North Central Jurisdictional Conference of the U.M.C. in 1984, Bishop Lawson was assigned the Wisconsin Episcopal Area (1984–92) and the Springfield Area (1992–96). As a Bishop he served as Vice President of the U.M. General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (President of Division on Chaplains and Related Ministry), and as Vice President and President of the General Board of Discipleship (Chairperson of Long Range Planning Committee). He served as a member of the Steering Committee for Africa University (Chairperson of its Curriculum and Design Committee, and Chairperson of the Selection Committee for the first Dean of its School of Tehology).

Bishop Lawson also served as President of the Wisconsin Conference of Churches. He was the President of the U.M. North Central College of Bishops, and on various committees of the Council of Bishops (including chairing the Committee to Study the Ministry). He was also a member of the Executive Committee of the World Methodist Council and President of its Committee on International Theological Education. Bishop Lawson also held many other responsibilities throughout the Church.

He served as a Trustee of many colleges and universities, including University of Evansville, North Central College, Illinois Wesleyan University, McKendree University, and MacMurray College. He also served as a Trustee of hospitals, including Methodist Hospital of Indiana, Meriter Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, Methodist Medical Center of Peoria, Illinois, and several retirement homes in Wisconsin and Illinois.

Following retirement in 1996, Bishop Lawson served as Bishop-in-Residence and a faculty member of the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.