Scott Jones, resident bishop of the Kansas Area of the United Methodist Church, will be the guest speaker at the weekly chapel service at Southwestern College on Wednesday, Feb. 22.  Chapel begins at 11 a.m. in Messenger Recital Hall in the Darbeth Fine Arts Center.

“We are grateful for Bishop Jones’s service to the Church and especially his willingness to connect with our community,” says Rev. Ashlee Alley, campus minister at Southwestern.  “We are especially grateful for him being here on Ash Wednesday and look forward to him leading us in an Ash Wednesday service.”

Alley added that the imposition of the ashes would occur at the end of the service.

Jones received degrees from the University of Kansas (B.A. in Philosophy), Perkins School of Theology of Southern Methodist University (Master of Theology) and Southern Methodist University (Ph.D. in Religious Studies). His dissertation research was focused on Wesley Studies and the History of Biblical Interpretation.

He was ordained deacon in the Kansas East Annual Conference and elder in the North Texas Annual Conference. From 1986 to 1997 he served as pastor of three congregations in North Texas. In 2003-2004 he served as interim pastor at Stonebridge UMC in McKinney, Texas. From 1997 to 2004 he served on the faculty of Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. In 2004 he was elected a bishop by the South Central Jurisdictional Conference and assigned to serve as the resident bishop of the Kansas Area as of September 1, 2004.

Jones currently serves on the board of trustees for Southern Methodist University, the Russian Seminary, Saint Paul School of Theology, Southwestern College, Kansas Wesleyan University, and Baker University.

Southwestern College chapel services may be heard each week online at www.moundbuilder.com.