DALLAS, Texas –– Bishop Will Willimon says the work he completed for his God and Country Award was instrumental in his call to the ministry.

“I give thanks to God that scouting found me just when I needed it,” he said during a May 27 keynote address to a national Duty to God Breakfast in Dallas.

Raised by a single mom, the Eagle Scout told over 1,200 attendees, “I am who I am today by God’s grace, and by the gift of grownups in my life who were called to work with kids.”

The bishop of the Birmingham Area is a former assistant scoutmaster and is currently a district committee member. As a Scout, he attended the 1960 National Scout Jamboree in Colorado Springs; that event marked the 50th anniversary of scouting. His son, William, is an Eagle Scout who has earned a God and Country Award.