Candidate endorsed for episcopacy

Alvarez Endorsed as Episcopal Candidate
 
Rev. Dr. Iosmar Alvarez, superintendent of the Lexington District of the Kentucky Annual Conference, has received the unanimous support of the Conference’s delegation as an episcopal nominee for the Southeastern Jurisdiction.
 
In response to the endorsement, Dr. Alvarez released the following statement:
 
“Fall is a magic heavenly gift showing how beautiful it is to let things go and be ready to embrace the new. Of all the seeds you can plant in the fall, an essential one is gratefulness.

“I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to be selected as the Episcopal nominee for the Kentucky Annual Conference – a delightful place I have the privilege to call My Old Kentucky Home even though I am from Cuba. You are my family! I grew up here to become first a disciple of Christ, church planter, local pastor, elder, widower, husband and father.

“My passion is to mobilize congregations to make disciples as we create new sacred spaces for radical transformation, to empower new movements that will change the landscape of our denomination.”

Rev. Dr. Bill Arnold, lead clergy member of the delegation said: “By nominating Rev. Dr. Alvarez for the episcopacy, our delegation acknowledges the remarkable leadership he has provided at every level of our Annual Conference. He has been an effective church planter and visionary leader. In his current role as DS of the Lexington District, his Spirit-filled leadership and administrative gifts are clearly on display. We are proud to offer Iosmar to the general church as an episcopal nominee.”
 
Dr. Alvarez will join nominees from other conferences under consideration for the episcopacy in the July 2020 Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. At least four new bishops will be elected in the Southeastern Jurisdiction and would assume their new positions in September 2020.
 
Dr. Alvarez, a native of Cuba, came to the United States in 2001. God began to work in his life in supernatural ways as he began to serve as a local pastor in the Kentucky Conference in 2002. A veterinarian by training, Dr. Alvarez began passionately serving God by planting new congregations and making disciples. In the last 10 years he has planted several Hispanic churches in Kentucky for God's Kingdom.

Dr. Alvarez’s educational theological journey began at Garret-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, with the Course of Studies Program in 2010. In December 2011, he finished his Master in Divinity from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. He earned another master’s degree in Christian Leadership in 2012 from Lindsey Wilson College. He went on to receive his doctoral ministry degree at Asbury Theological Seminary in May 2017.

His previous service to the church includes being a member of the 2016, 2019 and 2020 General Conference delegations. Additionally, he has served in a variety of roles in the Kentucky Conference. These include District Committee on Ministries, cabinet representative for the Board of Ordained Ministry, and Hispanic Ministry, University of Kentucky Wesley Foundation board, church planter in Louisville, Hopkinsville and Lexington, Committee on Nominations, and the New Church Development Executive and Full Teams.

Dr. Alvarez is a certified coach for Spiritual Leadership Inc. (SLI) and Path1, a nationally recognized United Methodist agency for church planting, development and transformation.
He is the founder and CEO of Disciple 21 Church Planting Network and a keynote speaker for nationally recognized networks such as New Room, Fresh Expression USA and an active board member of GO International Network.

He was awarded the Harry Denman Evangelism Award for clergy in 2013.

Dr. Alvarez is a prolific author on leadership development and church growth and has written several books on those topics.  
 
He has been in his current appointment in Lexington for a little over a year.  As DS, Dr. Alvarez has the honor to train leaders on how to plant churches and develop the church’s cultures and processes to make disciples. 
 
Dr. Alvarez is the founder of Fuente De Avivamiento/Spring of Revival which has reached under his leadership more than 400 members and 100 home churches.
 
Dr. Alvarez pastors these wonderful churches with his wife, Zulayne, and his daughter, Sulam Alvarez.  Together they are carrying God’s vision to future generations.