Meet Our New District Superintendent
September 30, 2011
Our new District Superintendent, Reverend Rene Perez will be
preaching Sunday, October 9, 2011 for our Centennial Celebration
worship service.
Rene was born in El Salvador, Central America. His parents
brought the family to New York in 1983. In 1988, he met his
wife Wanda when her father became the pastor of his United Methodist
Church in Hempstead, NY. Rene and Wanda married in 1991.
They have three children: Kayla, 18; Isaías, 14; and Ezekiel, 12.
In 1993, God called both Rene and Wanda to serve as co-pastors of a
small church in Philadelphia, PA. When they first arrived, the
church had dwindled to about 25 people in worship and was in need of
healing and growth. When they left six years later, the
congregation had grown to about 90 people in worship.
In 2000, Rene was appointed as a Director of Church Multiplication
(Congregational Development) and Latino Ministries for the Eastern
PA conference. His mission was to work in leading the Annual
Conference in starting nearly 20 churches throughout the whole
conference, strengthening the Latino Ministries, and developing a
system for identifying, recruiting and equipping church planters.
They organized training events for the redevelopment of churches,
restarting some and multiplying others, and began training a cadre
of coaches in Natural Church Development and in clergy support.
They also created a Racial-Ethnic Ministries Team that worked in
Cultural sensitivity and strengthening relations among all ethnic
ministries and pastors in their Conference.
In 2008, Rene was appointed as Senior Pastor of Lititz United
Methodist Church, a church of about 450 youth and adults in worship
attendance (there were about 100 children also who participated in
Sunday School and Children’s church). He served Lititz UMC
until coming to New England in July. During his time at LUMC
they faced many challenges, including a steady decline during his
first 1 1/2 years as their pastor. By the second year the
church began to grow again. They now hold three worship
services, have establish a new discipleship process, began to
establish a strong prayer ministry, continued emphasizing the
importance of small groups, and the importance of living out their
mission statement of “leading people to Christ and equipping
believers for ministry.”
In his letter of introduction to pastors and Staff Parish Relation
Committee Chairs Rene wrote, "as I begin my ministry as district
Superintendent in the New England Conference, I not only understand
the struggles of faithful Christians who live on the edges of fading
congregations, but I also understand some of the basic principles
and strategies that will help many of them THRIVE. My hope is
that during the next few years God will help us THRIVE, and bless us
in such a way that we will experience God’s presence through our own
spiritual growth, the growth of our congregations, and a fervent
desire to serve God by serving others.”
We are all invited to formally welcome Rev. Rene Perez to our
district on October 23, 2011 at 4:00pm at Westboro United Methodist
Church where he will be officially installed as our District
Superintendent.