It's a big job, United Methodist Church bishop. And the man just selected as bishop for the Dallas area admits to some nervousness.

"I feel like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs," said the Rev. Earl Bledsoe, who has been a UMC district superintendent in the Bryan area and will now oversee the 20-county North Texas Conference, which includes 325 congregations or about 160,000 church members.

The Rev. Mike Lowry, a UMC official in San Antonio, was the pick as bishop for the Fort Worth-based Central Texas Conference.

And the Rev. Jim Dorff of McKinney, who has been area provost of the North Texas Conference, will be the new bishop for the Southwest Texas Conference, based in San Antonio.

Delegates to the UMC's South Central Jurisdictional Conference, which met in Dallas, elected the three veteran pastors as bishops in balloting that began Thursday and went on until late Friday. Bishop Dorff was the last selected, in the 23rd round of voting.

Rev. Earl Bledsoe

Rev. Mike Lowry

Rev. Jim Dorff

A clergy and laity committee then met to decide where the bishops would be assigned. The assignments weren't announced until the wee hours Saturday.

The three bishops are scheduled to begin work Sept. 1.

The Rev. Kathleen Baskin-Ball of Suncreek UMC in Allen was among the voting delegates, and she pronounced Bishop Bledsoe a "great fit" for the North Texas Conference.

Bishop Bledsoe, 57, is a graduate of West Texas State University and the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, where he was a Benjamin E. Mays Scholar in Greek and Hebrew. He earned a doctor of ministry degree at Drew University in New Jersey.

He will be the third consecutive black leader for the North Texas Conference, following Bishop Rhymes Moncure, who died in office in 2006, and Bishop Alfred Norris, who came out of retirement to finish Bishop Moncure's term.

Bishop Bledsoe and his wife, Leslie, a licensed social worker who is blind, have six children.

He said his father, the Rev. Wilbart Bledsoe, is in a nursing home with failing short-term memory and always asks him, "Are you a bishop yet?" When he called with the news of his election, he said his father shouted out in joy.

Bishop Bledsoe served churches in Houston and Cypress before becoming a district superintendent for the Texas Conference in 2002.

Bishop Lowry, 58, is a graduate of the Perkins School of Theology. He has most recently been executive director for new church development in the Southwest Texas Conference of the UMC.

He was an associate pastor at Plymouth Park UMC in Irving and was pastor of churches in Kerrville, Harlingen, Corpus Christi, Austin and San Antonio.

His wife, Jolynn, has taught psychiatric nursing at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio.

Bishop Dorff, 61, was an associate pastor at Highland Park UMC from 1972 to 1989. He later was pastor of First UMC Gainesville and First UMC McKinney.

He was a district superintendent for the North Texas Conference before becoming its area provost in 2005.

His wife, Barbara, is a former Texas Secondary Teacher of the Year.

•The bishops serve as general superintendent for the church in specific geographical areas.

•Responsibilities include assigning clergy to area UMC churches.

•U.S. bishops are elected for life but normally serve in a geographic area for as many as two four-year terms. They can serve a third term with special approval of the jurisdictional conference.

•The salary for U.S. bishops in 2008 is $120,942. Each also is provided a residence.

•The Council of Bishops consists of active and retired bishops. It meets twice a year and is expected to "speak to the church and from the church to the world."

SOURCE: UMC Council of Bishops Web site