Dr Watson is an Elder in the Tennessee Conference of The United Methodist Church (UMC), having served the Church in a multitude of roles for more than 40 years.
He has pastored congregations in the Illinois Great Rivers and North Carolina Conferences of the UMC, and was also Professor of Evangelism at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and a Professor of Theology and Congregational Life and Mission at Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D. C.
He concluded his active ministry as Director of the Office of Pastoral Formation for the Nashville Episcopal Area of the UMC. In 2005, he retired, but nonetheless continued serving God for another three years as Interim Senior Minister at West End United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee.
Dr Watson has written extensively on Methodist history and theology, evangelism and congregational life and mission. His books include Covenant Discipleship: Christian Formation through Mutual Accountability; Class Leaders: Recovering a Tradition; and God Does Not Foreclose: The Universal Promise of Salvation.
He was also the founding editor of the Covenant Discipleship Quarterly and the Journal of the Academy for Evangelism in Theological Education, of which he is a past President.