Gil Wise to be Beacon DS, Richard Stone retiring The Rev. Gil Wise, lead pastor of Solid Rock UMC with five campuses in the Gateway District, will become the Beacon District superintendent, effective July 1, Bishop Hope Morgan Ward has announced. The appointment change was announced at Solid Rock on Sunday, March 3. The Rev. Richard Stone, superintendent of the Beacon District, is retiring on July 1. Wise will sit with the cabinet during the appointment making process. Other pastoral changes, also effective July 1, will be announced in congregations on April 7.
The first pastoral appointment for Wise was to Zion in 1997. In 2000 he was appointed to The Rock in the former Fayetteville District. That church was renamed Solid Rock in 2002 and currently has five campuses. With Wise as the lead pastor, there is a campus pastor at each location. No changes were announced for the other campus sites.
Stone, in the third year as a district superintendent, began his local church appointments in 1980 at Ellis Chapel. He then was appointed to Caledonia in 1981, Wendell in 1987, Horne Memorial in Clayton in 1993, St. Andrews in Garner in 1998, Kitty Hawk in 2001, and Fuquay-Varina in 2006. In 2010 he was appointed the Elizabeth City District superintendent and Beacon District superintendent in 2012.