Bishop Mike Watson was born into an active United Methodist family in Dothan, Alabama. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in finance and real estate from the University of Alabama, received a master of divinity degree from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology and a doctor of ministry degree from Vanderbilt University.
 

In 1972 he was ordained deacon by Bishop W. Kenneth Goodson, and in 1976 he was ordained elder by Bishop Carl J. Sanders in the Alabama-West Florida Annual Conference.
 

Bishop Watson served as pastor of churches in Molino and Milton, Florida, as well as founding pastor of Covenant United Methodist Church in Dothan, where he received the Alabama-West Florida Denman Evangelism Award.  From 1990-2000 he served as the pastor of Dauphin Way United Methodist Church in Mobile, Alabama, where he was also the chairman of the Mobile County School Board (the largest school system in the State of Alabama with 67,000 students, 8,000 employees, 100 schools and a $450,000,000 annual budget). He also served as chairman of the Annual Conference Board of Ordained Ministry. Bishop Watson was elected to the episcopacy by the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference in 2000 and served as Bishop of the South Georgia Area from 2000-2008.
 

Bishop Watson currently serves as the chairperson of the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of The United Methodist Church, the largest denominational pension fund in the world, with over $17 billion in assets and 74,000 participants. He is the chairman of the Committee on Evangelism of the World Methodist Council, Presdide of World Methodist Evangelism and is on the Board of Trustees of approximately 20 boards, agencies and colleges, including Emory University. 

 

He has served as the President of the Southeastern Jurisdiction College of Bishops, and is currently serving as the Episcopal leader of the North Georgia Area of The United Methodist Church with more than 359,000 members, 900 congregations and 1,400 clergy. He is married to the former Margaret Lee and has two children, Ben Watson and Elizabeth Watson Riddle. He is also the proud grandfather of Alex and Andrew Watson, and Camilla and Watson Riddle.