About Us

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.

Bob Clark is an ordained elder in the Rio Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. Bob received a Bachelor of Christian Ministry from Wayland Baptist University, completed the basic five-year course of study at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, Texas, and did his advanced work at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. 

 

He has served communities in the Rio Grande Valley, the southside of San Antonio and is currently serving as lead pastor at Trinity United Methodist Church. Early in his career, Bob’s service on the Texas/Mexico border awakened a passion for working with communities to build communities. That passion led to his work as CEO of the Pharr Community Outreach Project and to eventual certification, in 2010, as a regional trainer for Communities of Shalom.

 

Bob also served the former Southwest Texas Conference as coordinator for Communities of Shalom and as a coach/consultant for the Healthy Church Initiative. He has specialized training in community organizing, group facilitation, church planting and revitalization, and Asset Based Community Development.  

Amy is a Social Change Consultant who specializes in organizational development and community engagement with over 25 years of professional experience.  Consulting led her to found and lead two faith-inspired nonprofit organizations: Uptown Alliance Community Economic Development Corporation (2001-2004) and Center for Transforming Communities (2008-2018). At Center for Transforming Communities (CTC), Amy was both practitioner and coach in authentic community engagement that leads to healthy and more vibrant neighborhoods.  She trained and coached eight neighborhood coalitions in Memphis, TN and over 40 congregations.

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Alongside training and coaching at the grassroots level, she has shared the practices that lead to deep, sustainable change with institutions such as Memphis Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt Divinity School/Turner Center, Tennessee Episcopacy of the UMC, and Texas Rio Conference of the UMC through Transformational Communities of Praxis.

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Amy has an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MAR from Memphis Theological Seminary.  She has been certified as a national training for Communities of Shalom and a trainer/coach for Communities First Association.

Rev. Cynthia Engstrom is an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church and has served in rural, suburban, and urban settings. She currently serves at Travis Park United Methodist Church in downtown San Antonio, an inclusive and affirming congregation deeply involved in outreach ministry with their unhoused neighbors.

“Each time I arrive in a new location, I meet people who want to be part of something meaningful. Each time, I’ve witnessed remarkable community impact when people put differences aside in order to do together, what they cannot do on their own. Each time, the singular predictor of positive outcome is the willingness of people to say to God and one another, “Here I Am. When this happens, prepare to be amazed.”

Pastor Cynthia is a second career clergy person. Her M Div. was completed at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary (APTS) in Austin. She followed immediately with a Master of
Art in Religion - concentration in Theological Ethics at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest. She is now in the final stages of a Doctor of Ministry Degree at APTS with a
concentration in Christian Spirituality. Her ongoing work and research center on reconciling community mobilization for the sake of transformation and systemic change.

​Pastor Cynthia has served on the Conference Transforming Community Vision Team (TCVT) since its inception in 2015 and has served as chair of the Vision Team for the past four years.
She has been an active part of the Transforming Communities Network (TCN) Design and Development Team and serves on the Methodist Healthcare Ministry (MHM) Board, whose
mission it is to honor God, through service to humanity.

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Effective June 2024, Pastor Cynthia plans to focus her attention on the newly formed Academy of Congregational and Community Transformation, a project of the Rio Texas Conference, and Synago @ Travis Park, A Center for Public Theology and Leadership Development. Both projects align closely and augment her work as Pastor at Travis Park UMC.

“I can hardly wait to see what each new cohort training will bring to life! It is a joy to watch the world transform and heal a bit more every time God’s Shalom breaks into the world through ordinary people who say, ‘Here I Am!”