Confirmation events, clergy retreats and conferences for college students are all part of the job for Rev. Ben Burnside.

Burnside serves at the Texas Annual Conference’s Center for Leadership Formation and his role is to develop and recruit leaders for the United Methodist Church.

He has been in this new position for a few months and sees “connectional excitement” among the TAC clergy.

“Clergy are far more willing and excited to reinvest in connectionalism. Our numbers for the Clergy Gathering and other retreats reflect an increase in participation now,” Burnside said. “We have less churches, but overall a lot of hope, excitement and willingness to engage.”

He said retreats are only part of what the TAC offers in the way of clergy development.

The TAC also offers clergy opportunities like the Clergy Coaching Program, which partners clergy with ministry coaches to help them in a variety of ministry areas like discipleship and management.

In terms of clergy recruitment, Burnside said there is a steady influx in those exploring a calling to ministry.

He said there are high school students, college students, second-career adults and retirees among those discerning a call to ordination.

“This is the cool part of my job – helping with that,” Burnside said.

In the past few weeks, Burnside attended the Exploration 2024 UMC conference for college students discerning a call to ministry and Confirmand Day for those in the confirmation process in the TAC.

He said for both existing and future clergy there is an optimism for the future.

“The theme for annual conference this year is ‘renewal’ and when I look at our conference today verses a year ago or two years ago, we are in a state of renewal,” he said. “We are discovering who we are as a conference. Things are different, there’s a lot of movement. We are in a time of renewal and excitement and figuring out what the new landscape looks like.

We are something different now, and it’s exciting.”

Rev. Ben Burnside has worked as a pastor in the Texas Annual Conference for 12 years, serving in appointments in Beaumont and Cypress prior to joining the Center for Leadership Formation. He and his wife, Leah, are expecting their first child in April. He can be reached at the TAC office at (713) 521-9383.