Joan Lowry called to leadership in Southern Plains.

Joan Lowry has been called as executive minister of Southern Plains District, effective immediately. The position is part time. She will maintain the district office in her home in Norman, Okla.

Lowry had served in the position of district administrative secretary for the past year while the Southern Plains board evaluated district staff options. She has served pastorates in Southern Plains at Thomas (Okla.) Church of the Brethren for eight years and Waka (Texas) Church of the Brethren for a year and a half. She is a graduate of the district's three-year reading course for ministry education and a member of Big Creek Church of the Brethren near Cushing, Okla., the congregation through which she and her husband first entered the denomination in 1991.