Panelist

Scott Jameson Jones is a bishop of the Global Methodist Church.

He was born in 1954 in Nashville, Tennessee, and was raised in Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana and Colorado. He graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in Denver, Colorado, the University of Kansas (B.A. in Philosophy), and Perkins School of Theology of Southern Methodist University (Master of Theology). In May of 1992, he received a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Southern Methodist University. His dissertation research was focused on Wesley Studies and the history of biblical interpretation.

From 1986 to 1997, he served as pastor of three congregations: the United Methodist churches in Prosper, Howe and Commerce, 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. There he taught courses in Evangelism, History of Christianity, United Methodist Studies and Wesley Studies. He was the Director of the Center for the Advanced Study and Practice of Evangelism at SMU and was awarded the rank of associate professor with tenure in 2003.

Scott was ordained deacon in the Kansas East Conference of The United Methodist Church in 1978 and ordained elder in 1987 in the North Texas Conference. On July 16, 2004, he was elected a bishop of The United Methodist Church and consecrated on July 17, 2004, at the South Central Jurisdictional Conference. He served the Kansas Area 2004-2012, the Great Plains Area 2012-2016 and the Houston Area 2016-2022. On January 9, 2023, he was received as an elder and bishop in the Global Methodist Church.

He is the author or co-author of 11 books. His most recent books are The Once and Future Wesleyan Movement (2016), Ask: Faith Questions in a Skeptical Age (with his son Arthur D. Jones), The Wesleyan Way, Staying at the Table: The Gift of Unity for United Methodists (2008), United Methodist Doctrine: The Extreme Center (2002) and The Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor: A Theology of Discipleship and Witness (2003), all from Abingdon Press. His previous books are John Wesley’s Conception and Use of Scripture and Gathered Into One: The World Methodist Conference Speaks. He was co-author of Wesley and the Quadrilateral: Renewing the Conversation.

Scott is married to Mary Lou Reece, who recently retired from being president of Reece Construction Company. They have three children and seven grandchildren.