(RNS) — A small United Methodist church in Texas is “absolutely heartbroken” after losing its pastor to COVID-19 as the pandemic spreads to rural areas of the country previously spared by the virus, according to its district superintendent.
The Rev. Tom Wood, pastor of First United Methodist Church of Itasca, Texas, died July 29, according to his obituary posted on the church Facebook page. He was 83.
Leah Hidde-Gregory, Central District superintendent for the United Methodist Church’s Central Texas Conference, confirmed Wood had died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
“He was well-loved within the community and through the church, and he came in with so much excitement,” Hidde-Gregory told Religion News Service. “Itasca is a very small town in the northern part of Hill County, and he came in with a lot of energy and just really revived that congregation, and they were blessed to have him for so long.”
Wood was a successful salesman and business owner who came to ministry later in life, according to his obituary.
He served First United Methodist for 17 years, but, Hidde-Gregory said, he always told other pastors, “You know, I’m not a real pastor.”
The pastors he served alongside disagreed, she said.
When the pandemic struck, Wood began meeting weekly on Zoom with a group of nine pastors serving similar churches in Central Texas led by the…
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