Don Boren, 47, is looking forward to seeing Abilene's Methodist community grow.

Boren is the new district superintendent overseeing 56 United Methodist Churches in the Northwest Texas Conference's Abilene offices.

Coming to Abilene from First United Methodist Church in Borger, where he served for five years as pastor, Boren was appointed to the position by Bishop Max Whitfield.

Churches in the Abilene district have just under 13,000 members, he said.

"I will be overseeing and helping pastors and churches in their work," he said.

The district plans to work on strengthening pastoral leadership and growing its churches, he said.

"We will be looking at growth areas in Abilene and examining what we need to do to reach some of those new areas through church plants and new types of ministries," he said.

It is important for the future of the denomination, not just in Abilene but nationwide, to revitalize existing churches while taking on new ones, Boren said.

The Journey, a recent Methodist church plant that currently meets at Prime Time Family Entertainment, is a good example of the sort of success the district wants to see more of.

Boren's father was a sportswriter in Enid, Okla., who bought a small newspaper in Booker.

"I was raised there from fourth grade through high school, then went to school here at McMurry University," he said.

Boren graduated from McMurry in 1983, then went to Asbury Theological Seminar in Wilmore, Ky., he said.

He has been married to Rose Boren for more than 24 years, he said. His two sons, Devin, 17, and Trevor, 14, will attend school in Clyde.

Boren has served churches in Sweetwater, Lorenzo, and Friona, and then in Albuquerque, N.M., before returning to the Lone Star State for his assignment in Borger.

Previous district superintendent Ava Berry is now director of missions and administration at the Northwest Texas Conference office in Lubbock, he said.