Don Morris, USMB national director, will retire from his role as USMB national director following Gathering 2024. Gathering 2024 will be held July 23-27, in Omaha, Nebraska, and Morris anticipates concluding his tenure in August. The decision was made in collaboration with the USMB National Leadership Council.
“Don has led us in an exemplary way as national director, first in an interim and then in a full-time capacity since 2014,” says Luke Haidle, USMB Leadership Board chair, “and we look forward to his continued leadership during this period of transition. The Leadership Board has been regularly connecting to pray and encourages the MB family to be praying, as new leadership considerations begin.”
Morris was appointed as USMB national director in August 2016, after serving as the interim lead national staff member for two years. From 2004 until 2016, Morris was director of Mission USA, the U.S. Conference of MB Churches church planting ministry. Prior to joining the national staff, Morris was a local church pastor, serving for 13 years as lead pastor at Pine Acres Church, Weatherford, Oklahoma. He is a graduate of MB Biblical Seminary, now Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary.
“It’s been a great and rewarding privilege to serve Jesus through serving our USMB family over the past 18 years as the director of Mission USA and USMB national director,” Morris says. “But I’m not done yet! The next 18 months will be filled with extensive conference work as usual. We have a lot happening right now and it is exciting to see God at work. I also look forward to serving alongside the next national director for a few months prior to retiring in August 2024.”
Morris and his wife, Janna, live in Edmond, Oklahoma, where they attend Cross Timbers Church.
The Leadership Board will begin the search for a new national director in spring 2023. The desire is for Morris and the new national director to work together for three months, to ensure a smooth handoff of responsibilities, Haidle says.