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For new DS Roy, ministry is about helping others
February 12, 2015 / By UNY Communications / .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
The Rev. Abel Roy (top left) is pictured with his family (clockwise from top right): daughter Abigail, 17; wife, Rebecca; and daughter Priscilla, 11. Submitted photoThe Rev. Abel Roy has a heart, a passion for evangelism.
In fact, Rev. Roy’s enthusiasm was recognized in 2003 when he received the former Western New York (WNY) Conference’s Denman Award for Evangelism. “Everything we do reflects the love of Christ in us,” Rev. Roy said. “Once we reflect His love, that love reflects to our neighbors.”
The Rev. Abel Roy (top left) is pictured with his family (clockwise from top right): daughter Abigail, 17; wife, Rebecca; and daughter Priscilla, 11. Submitted photo
An important part of that is sharing “what God has given us with others who aren’t as fortunate,” he said.
That means giving others a helping hand: feeding those who are hungry, sheltering the homeless, providing help with prescriptions or rides to the hospital, and empowering them through education and relationships.
“I strongly believe in a personal salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, which involves sharing the story, sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” Rev. Roy said. “I take James 2:17 very seriously. Faith and action are our right and left hands, so mission and evangelism go hand in hand.”
Beginning July 1, Rev. Roy will serve as a Conference superintendent, appointed by Upper New York Resident Bishop Mark J. Webb to the Mohawk District. Rev. Roy will bring that passion to the clergy and laity of the district.
“Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead,” he said, quoting James 2:17.
The ministry of a district superintendent, according to Rev. Roy, is to equip clergy and laity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to serve their neighbors. He said he believes that one of his strengths is the ability to help equip laity to fulfill the ministry that calls to them, and added that it has been an essential part of his ministry for the past 30 years.
Equipping people in ministry empowers them, he said, by giving them the right tools so they can share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others.
“Equipping is helping in every possible way,” he said. That includes offering training in leadership and in mission and evangelism. “As a pastor, I would help my congregations figure out how they could go about (doing) ministry, sifting through the gifts and graces given to each one of us to reach out into the community.”
Becoming a district superintendent is a call to a different kind of ministry, one that both excites him and makes him nervous.
“I rely on the power of God to help me, which God has done often in the past,” he said. “It is in my weakness (when) I feel God’s strength to do what God has called me to do.”
As he reflected and prayed about the call to district superintendency, he said a key scripture that helped him decide was Revelations 3:8: “I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.”
Rev. Roy earned a Master of Divinity in 1986, and a Master of Theology in Missiology in 1989, both at Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, Ky. Ordained an elder in 1990 by the Iowa Conference, he served United Methodist churches in Huxley and Cambridge before transferring to the former WNY Conference to be closer to family living in Toronto, Canada, and Long Island.
For the next 15 years, Rev. Roy served at the East Randolph UMC, before becoming lead pastor at the First UMC in Springville four years ago.
Rev. Roy served on the Board of Ordained Ministry of the former WNY Conference and Upper New York. He currently serves on the Committee on District Superintendency and the Leadership Team of the Niagara Frontier District. He also serves on the Conference’s Financial Advisory Consulting Team (FACT).
He and his wife, Rebecca, both born in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, have been married since 1991. The couple has two daughters, Abigail, 17, and Priscilla, 11.