The South Texas District officially changed its name to the Texas Gulf Coast District with a district conference vote and the approval of the UPCI Executive Board on October 21, 2025.
Texas Gulf Coast District Superintendent Ken Gurley said the name change helps clarify the district’s geographic footprint.
“Traditionally, the designation ‘South Texas’ has referred to the region from the King Ranch to the Rio Grande,” Gurley explained. “Our ministers preferred a name that better reflects our district’s true area of focus, which includes the Houston metro area and the counties stretching south along the coast.”
Though somewhat uncommon, this is not the first time a district has changed its name without changing the geographic area it represents. The New Jersey Metro District formed out of the New Jersey-Delaware District in 2003 and changed its name to North/Central Jersey District in 2017.
Texas District Formations
In the last two decades, the former Texas District multiplied into four districts. The South Texas District formed out of the Texas District in 2003. Both districts had subsequent reformations with North Texas forming out of the Texas District in 2016 and South Central Texas forming out of South Texas in 2019. Now, in 2025, the South Texas District (as formed in 2019) has changed its name to the Texas Gulf Coast District.
Texas is one of the most interesting states in relation to UPCI districting. Currently, the state of Texas is split between five UPCI districts: Texas, North Texas, South Central Texas, Texico, and the newly renamed Texas Gulf Coast. But it’s not the only one: Maryland, New Jersey, California, New York and Michigan are states that contain at least parts of more than one district. Conversely, some districts also contain at least parts of multiple states or provinces.
Historical Changes to Districts
Observing a change like this might prompt one to think about other district changes and formations. The UPCI was formed by a merger in 1945, but the first directory of ministers was published in 1946 and the first directory of ministers and churches in 1947. The word “district” first appears in the 1948 directory.
Today, the UPCI has fifty-eight districts across the US and Canada. The 1960 directory was the first to include a UPCI district directory, which lists the official UPCI districts with their elected positions. The 1960 directory includes twenty-six districts, and of those, half remain today with the same name and representation. Only thirteen of the fifty-eight districts (22 percent) have not changed in some way since 1960.
The 1960 district directory did not include the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, or Yukon nor the US states of Alaska, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, or Utah, although several of these states and provinces may have had active churches and ministers. And, what about Hawaii? Adopted as a US state in 1959, Hawaii was part of the Global Missions field until becoming an official UPCI district in 1997. The Detroit Metro District, formed in 2021, is the most recently formed district.
In the last eighty years, the UPCI structure of districts has changed as the body of ministers and churches in North America has grown. Should the Lord tarry, it is likely that the UPCI districts will continue to change. Of course, though the UPCI’s structure and methods may change over time, our mission remains the same: to take the whole gospel to the whole world by the whole church.
Visit upci.org/stats for more UPCI data. Many free reports are available for download. The reports for churches and ministers by district reflect the updated name, Texas Gulf Coast District.
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