Rio Texas Annual Conference
Rio Texas is the United Methodist annual conference covering much of central and south Texas, from the Hill Country to the border.
Wherever you are in your discernment, the conference's formal on-ramp begins with the Candidacy Summit.
Candidacy Summit
A required six-hour gathering for anyone exploring licensed or ordained ministry. It introduces the candidacy process, the conference's leadership, and your peers — and forms the mentoring group you will continue with.
Offered periodically (e.g., August in San Antonio); a January and later summer session also recur. Watch for application deadlines roughly three to four weeks before.
$200, with the application, a statement of call, ministry-involvement documentation, and Safe Ministry certification. A credit check and disclosure forms are brought to the summit.
Group Candidacy Mentoring
After the summit, you join a small group that meets over five sessions (via Zoom) for prayerful reflection, conversation, and communal discernment. This is the second half of the conference's two-part candidacy pathway.
Lay Servant Ministries
If your call may be a lay one rather than an ordained or licensed one, Rio Texas certifies lay servants, lay speakers, and certified lay ministers under ¶¶266–268. Ask your pastor to connect you with your district's Committee on Lay Servant Ministries for the current Basic Course schedule.
A ministry career here, by the numbers.
Numbers help discernment feel less abstract. Here is what a ministry career has actually looked like in Rio Texas — drawn from the appointment histories of every clergyperson in the 2025 conference journal. The shape depends almost entirely on which order you are called to.
Elders
Ordained and itinerant — you agree to be sent. The classic moving career.
- Over a career
- a median of 6 churches over a ~29-year career (those now retired)
- Each appointment
- about 3 years per appointment; roughly a third last only 1–2 years
Deacons
Ordained to a specialized ministry, and far less itinerant — most settle into one setting.
- Over a career
- often just 1–2 appointments across a whole career
- Each appointment
- the longest tenures of any order (a 5-year median)
Licensed local pastors
Licensed rather than ordained, often part-time and bivocational; many begin as a second career.
- Over a career
- a median of 3 churches over a shorter conference career (~11 years)
- Each appointment
- about 3 years each, but nearly half last only 1–2 years — the most frequent moves
Source: Rio Texas Annual Conference Journal 2025 clergy records. Figures describe the past, not a promise. Gender and race are not shown — the journal does not record them.
New to all this? Find your path first →
Drawn from riotexas.org/candidacy-summit. Details change — confirm with the conference office.