By Loretta Fulton

Aldersgate Methodist Church will soon begin the process of finding a new minister following the announcement that Dustin Wilhite will be leaving effective Thursday, July 24.

Wilhite came to Aldersgate in 2019 from Grace United Methodist Church in Alamogordo, New Mexico, where he had served for five years. At the time, Aldersgate was a United Methodist congregation, but disaffiliated and joined the Global Methodist Church Jan. 1, 2023.

The next step in the process will be a town hall meeting immediately following the 9:30 a.m. Sunday, July 27, service. It will be spearheaded by Rick Enns, superintendent of the West Plains Conference of the Global Methodist Church, which includes Abilene congregations. Wilhite informed the church leadership of his departure on July 9, said Brady Harwell, chair of the Aldersgate Leadership Board. 

“It was a surprise,” Harwell said. 

Dustin Wilhite

Beginning with the town hall meeting July 27, congregational input will be sought to compile a pastor profile. Sunday School classes, which normally convene following the 9:30 a.m. worship service, will not meet that day so that everyone will have an opportunity to speak. Once the profile is complete, it will be sent to the West Plains Conference office in Lubbock. From there, applications will be taken, and eventually resumes will be sent to the Aldersgate Leadership Board for consideration. The Global Methodist Church estimates the process will take a minimum of three to four months, Harwell said. In the meantime, Aldersgate will be served by interim pastors, primarily an ordained minister who is on the staff.

“We’ll be able to lean on him,” Harwell said. 

Brady Harwell

Besides searching for a new minister, Aldersgate is in the midst of a $1.3 million capital campaign for repairs, improvements, and technology upgrades. The church celebrated its 75th anniversary in June. 

Wilhite’s appointment to Aldersgate was effective July 1, 2019, and just eight months later COVID hit, with all its disruptions. That was followed closely by the launch of the Global Methodist Church on May 1, 2022. Almost immediately, Aldersgate and other United Methodist congregations in the former Northwest Texas Annual Conference, had a decision to make. Many congregations, including Aldersgate, began a discernment process to decide whether to stay in the United Methodist fold or disaffiliate and join the new, more conservative, Global Methodist Church, become independent, or join another Methodist branch. Most churches in Northwest Texas chose to join the Global Methodist Church. Only two United Methodist congregations remain in Abilene, St. Paul and St. James. 

When Wilhite came to Aldersgate in 2019, he had served in two congregations, Haskell from 2011 to 2014, and Alamogordo from 2014 to 2019. Before that, he was an English teacher in New Deal, near Lubbock, and Muleshoe, his hometown. In an Abilene Reporter-News article in August 2019, Wilhite said he had a teacher’s heart and would take that with him from the classroom to the pulpit.

Now, he will be leaving the pulpit and heading back to the classroom. Wilhite declined to be interviewed for this article, and he declined a going-away reception at Aldersgate, Harwell, the chair of the leadership board, said. Instead of a formal goodbye, the congregation will show its appreciation in other ways.

“We’re just going to love on him and his family,” Harwell said. 

Loretta Fulton is creator and editor of Spirit of Abilene