Reverend Dr. Dwight Nash has been elected district superintendent of the Kansas District of The Wesleyan Church. Dwight brings district leadership experience, a background in church planting and a passion for helping churches discern and pursue God’s call in their neighborhoods and among the nations.
Dwight’s leadership in the former Texas-Louisiana District and as senior pastor of what became Sent Church in Plano, Texas, helped cultivate “sending cultures” — churches that mobilized all people to be missionaries in their own contexts and encouraged leaders to explore God’s calling toward church planting and revitalization work.
In 2019, Nash helped launch what became Mobilize the Church, a ministry focused on disciple making, pioneering new works, equipping sending churches, and training church planters. Through that work, he has coached pastors, supported church planters and strengthened multiplication efforts across districts and networks.
For Dwight, leading in Kansas feels integrative: reflecting a strong alignment between his own calling and the Kansas District’s stated mission.
“Their whole mission was around raising up disciple-makers, equipping leaders and planting churches,” Dwight said. “That is the whole pipeline mission of our organization. It is already what we do, already what I love, already who I am created to be.”
Dwight also steps into the Kansas District with existing relationships in the region. He previously coached sending churches and church planters connected to the district, and several leaders within the Kansas multiplication ecosystem have worked alongside him through Mobilize the Church. “Dwight already has so many relationships here in Kansas,” outgoing district superintendent Reverend Nate Rovenstine said. “That is going to set him up for success.”
As Dwight begins this new role, he sees an opportunity to strengthen the culture of multiplication already taking root across the district. He pointed to the work of district leaders, churches and multiplication networks that have helped make disciple making, leadership development and church planting shared priorities.
“Nate and the team have created a great culture,” Dwight said. “Many of their churches are championing disciple-making and doing it. The mission they have decided on is very clear.”
Dwight believes the Kansas District has already begun to see fruit from its multiplication strategy, including recent church plants and growing collaboration among churches. He sees his role as building on that foundation, strengthening pastors, encouraging churches and helping the district continue to take next steps.
That sense of continuity is central to the leadership transition. Rather than entering a blank slate, Dwight is stepping into a district that has already been shaped by years of intentional collaboration, experimentation and investment in multiplication.
Rev. Nate Rovenstine, who has served in various roles within the Kansas District for 39 years, said the district has spent recent years building the kind of foundation Dwight can now extend. Under a co-vocational superintendent model, Kansas shifted toward a more collaborative approach to district leadership, freeing resources for church multiplication and developing networks and teams to support church planters.
During the past seven years, the district planted eight churches while also closing eight. For Nate, those realities underscore the value of the structures now in place and the need for a leader who can help the district move from preparation toward greater multiplication and vitality.
“We have some great structural pieces in place, but we need a leader that can take this to that next level, and Dwight is that leader,” Nate said. “You can just see how he can build on what we have established here.”
While Dwight brings broad experience in church planting and organizational leadership, his first priority will be pastoral. During his first year, he plans to meet with every pastor in the district, listen closely to their stories, learn their ministry contexts and help them discern what faithfulness looks like in the season ahead.
That listening posture will shape his leadership. Dwight hopes pastors experience him as someone who listens well, asks good questions and enters each situation with curiosity rather than assumptions.
“I want to hear their story,” Dwight said. “I want them to know I love them, care about them personally, want to get to know them and want to know their situation.”
Dwight’s own story gives him a wide range of pastoral imagination. Though he has lived and ministered in large metropolitan areas, including Chicago, New Orleans and Dallas, he grew up in South Dakota as the son of a small-church pastor. His ministry experience has included small and larger church contexts, district leadership, nonprofit leadership and coaching pastors across a variety of settings.
“I get small church,” Dwight said. “I love pastors. Whether they are in a rural church or a metropolitan church, a large church or a small church, a sending church or another ministry context, let’s hear the Lord’s ‘well done’ in your situation and work on that together.”
Dwight is a 1988 graduate of Oklahoma Wesleyan University in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. He earned a master’s degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, a doctorate from Dallas Theological Seminary with a focus in church planting, and a master’s degree in nonprofit administration from Louisiana State University. He also serves in leadership with Wesley Seminary in Marion, Indiana.
As he begins serving the Kansas District, Dwight brings the heart of a pastor and the vision of a leader committed to helping churches become sending communities.
“I love developing pastors,” Dwight said. “I love churches. I love the local church. I love helping churches hone their vision and mission. I love leadership development.”
For more stories of service and multiplication in The Wesleyan Church, visit wesleyan.org/news.
Rev. Ethan Linder is the pastor of discipleship at College Wesleyan Church in Marion, Indiana.
