UM Bishop tells of a lifetime of scouting experiences 

When Will Willimon worked with his pastor on the God and Country Award, it’s doubtful that either of them would have guessed that the youngster would later become a bishop in the United Methodist Church. However, it was that experience that was instrumental in the bishop’s call to the ministry.

Willimon later attained the rank of Eagle, and he called the attainment “a great moment in my life.”

“I loved scouting,” the bishop told UM Men magazine. “The work I did with my pastor on my God and Country award was instrumental in my call to the ministry. Later, I served as an assistant scoutmaster of an inner-city scout troop and got to see the good effects of scouting on a group of at risk boys who greatly needed the lessons that scouting teach so well. Still later, I was active in my son's troop, taking them to scout camp one summer. My son made me proud when he earned his Eagle award and his God and Country Award too. Scouting is a wonderful program.”

The Rev. Dr. William H. Willimon was elected to the episcopacy in 2004 and was assigned to the Birmingham Area. As bishop of the North Alabama Conference he presides over UM congregations with some 157,000 members and 792 pastors.

Prior to his election, he served as dean of the chapel and professor of Christian ministry at Duke University, Durham, N.C. (1989 to 2004). He also held several teaching positions at Duke and served churches in Georgia and South Carolina. 

The bishop is a graduate of Wofford College (B.A., 1968), Yale Divinity School (M.Div., 1971) and Emory University (S.T.D., 1973).

He is the author of over fifty books and 600 scholarly articles and has given lectures and taught courses at many pastors' schools and at colleges and universities around the world.