Director of Mission, Service, & Justice Ministries
avega@riotexas.org
Abel Vega serves as Director of Mission, Service, and Justice Ministries for the Rio Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. In this role, he serves as staff liaison to the Transforming Communities Vision Team – which envisions the transformation of communities through ministries of mission, service, and justice within the Rio Texas Conference.
Current portfolio work of the office includes the development of the Transformational Communities Network learning cohort program which is about seeking the Shalom of communities, network and infrastructure development of immigration / migration response and border ministries, Creation Care and Justice Ministries developments, Disaster Response and Volunteers In Mission ministries, and general outreach and mission ministry resourcing and support for local churches and communities.
Vega is currently serving on the following boards: Texas Impact, Texas Christian Community Development Network, National United Methodist Volunteers In Mission, the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, the Interfaith Welcome Coalition, and the Administrative Board of Chapel Hill United Methodist Church - San Antonio.
He previously served as the Director of Connectional Ministries for the Rio Grande Conference of the United Methodist Church for ten years.  Aside from general program administration duties, many of his responsibilities revolved around resourcing the conference through deep systemic change as well as resourcing the unification process of the Rio Grande and Southwest Texas conferences’ work in becoming the Rio Texas Conference.
His learning and formation in outreach ministries began in 1985 through involvement in local church youth ministries and through the development of a Children’s Sidewalk Church School program and summer and after-school programming for children and youth that eventually became a non-profit entity serving families on the west side of San Antonio and beyond.
In 1983, Vega graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture. Prior to his fulltime work with the church, Vega worked on residential and commercial projects for various architectural firms in Houston and San Antonio.
Vega served as a United States Peace Corps Volunteer working on building renovation projects in the Philippines. He lives in San Antonio with his wife Ann. They have two young adult daughters - Elizabeth and Annabella.
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