<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/2/1613705218762.jpeg" alt="The Rev. Karen Rice Ratzlaff. Photos courtesy&nbsp;Great Plains Conference" />
 <figcaption>The Rev. Karen Rice Ratzlaff. Photos courtesy&nbsp;Great Plains Conference</figcaption>
 </figure>The Salina and Hutchinson districts will be getting a new district superintendent, the Great Plains Conference of the United Methodist Church announced earlier this week.According to information from the conference, the Rev. Karen Rice Ratzlaff, will assume the responsibilites of superintendent for the Salina and Hutchinson districts on July 1. She is one of three new district superintendents announced by the conference.“I’m very excited about the skill sets, perspectives, and diversity of the group — age, gender and ethnicity,” Bishop Ruben Saenz, Jr., said. “I’m excited about the different gifts they all bring, their unique pastoral experiences, the contexts they’ve been in, and how they will all add to the cabinet to move the conference forward.”Rice Ratzlaff’s call from the bishop came as she was in the middle of a four-day meeting of the conference’s Board of Ordained Ministry, or BOOM, which determines recommendations of candidates for ordained ministry.“I really didn’t know what to say, and that is unusual for me,” she said with a laugh.“Once I got back to my Zoom meeting and seeing all the faces of the candidates we were meeting and the board, there was something about seeing that connection while getting that call that was really meaningful,” she said.“I just care deeply about pastors,” Rice Ratzlaff added. “I know what it’s like to just work so hard in the local church, and I want to be a supportive presence for clergy.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/2/1613705054256.jpeg" alt="The Rev. Dee Williamston" />
 <figcaption>The Rev. Dee Williamston</figcaption>
 </figure>Rice Ratzlaff will follow the Rev. Dee Williamston, who last month was announced as director of clergy excellence and assistant to the bishop as of July 1, as superintendent of the Hutchinson and Salina districts.“District superintendents are an extension of the office of the bishop. They oversee the total ministry of the clergy and of the churches in the communities of the district in their missions of witness and service in the world. And they relate to people across all theological spectrums. I want somebody that can pull people together, that can coach others, that can work with groups to help them accomplish great things for Christ’s mission,” Saenz said. “Karen checked all of those boxes.”Saenz praised Rice Ratzlaff as being “highly relatable” with a passion for leadership development.“Karen is an amazing, gifted person that has tremendous communication skills and can convene people and help them accomplish great things,” he said.Being named as a district superintendent, she said, “connects me deeply to the heart of the church in our conference — that sense of what the church is going to become. I felt really scared and really excited at the same time.”Rice Ratzlaff has what she calls “just a deep love for all the life-giving aspects of the church.“I can’t give up on the church and what we are called to be together,” she said. “I love thinking about vision and missional alignment. Those are my favorite things because of the excitement that generates and the clarity that brings for next steps and hope in a congregation.”A farmer’s daughter who grew up north of Goodland, Rice Ratzlaff earned a bachelor’s degree from Bethel College and her master’s degree from Saint Paul School of Theology. In January, she began work for her doctorate in ministry from Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, concentrating in spiritual direction.After a little more than three years as an associate pastor at Wichita Calvary UMC, she served 22 years — 16 as associate, six as senior — at McPherson UMC.“Having that long-term partnership, really over the course of a lifetime, built a kind of trust in the church and in the community,” Rice Ratzlaff said, adding that she has performed weddings for church members that she baptized as infants – a rarity in the itinerant United Methodist system.She is proud of the work that McPherson did with justice ministry surrounding poverty. Steps to End Poverty in McPherson County, formerly known as Circles, has assisted many individuals in the area, she said.Rice Ratzlaff stepped away from pulpit ministry in 2019, and in 2020 joined the staff of the Wichita-based SoCe Life for its Good Neighboring Movement, leading cohorts of churches.“I’ve always been passionate about community engagement, particularly building relationships with people across class lines,” she said. “I think being a part of the Neighboring Movement reminds you of how many communities we’re connected in as the church and how the gifts in our community really point the way for our churches.”Rice Ratzlaff, 53, lives in her husband’s hometown of Moundridge, where he is a physician. They have three grown children: one entering medical school residency, another a middle-school English teacher and the youngest a junior at the University of Kansas.The location is ideal for the superintendent posts, she said, since it is 45 miles from Salina and 35 miles from Hutchinson.“Karen is from that area so she knows that area extremely well,” Saenz said. “Her time to on-board to know the churches and know the pastors is almost going to be non-existent. She can step in there Day One and know who people are, where the churches are, and what they’re doing.”Saenz said he is looking forward to working with the new district superintendents as they further Christ’s mission in the Great Plains.“They’re all successful, much-beloved and will be highly effective district superintendents,” the bishop said. “I am extremely, extremely overjoyed and excited about what these three new cabinet members are going to bring to the cabinet and the amazing work they’re going to accomplish in their respective districts and together as part of the cabinet team.”The above story was pulled from a larger story by David Burke, conference content specialist, about the three newly announced district superintendents that was published on the conference <a href="https://www.greatplainsumc.org/">website</a>. The information is republished with permission.

UMC: Rice Ratzlaff new district superintendent for Salina, Hutchinson districts