The Organization of the United Methodist Church: 2009-2012 Edition

By Bishop Jack M. Tuell

An indispensable guide for all United Methodists-especially pastors, lay leaders, church council members, confirmation and new member candidates and their instructors, and seminarians-this book is presented in a practical, down-to-earth manner for easy use by both individuals and classes, clergy and lay. It highlights the functions and connectional relationships within the organization, beginning with the local church and continuing through connectional organs in districts, annual conferences and their agencies, jurisdictional conferences and their agencies, the General Conference, the general agencies of the Church, and the Judicial Council.

Bishop Tuell discusses the Church's unique polity and gives a frank assessment of its strengths and weaknesses. At the same time he paints the image of a worldwide connectional communion that is organized to spread the good news of Jesus Christ and to bear witness to its Wesleyan heritage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Release date: Oct 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781426732041

Bishop Jack M. Tuell

Jack M. Tuell is a retired bishop of The United Methodist Church. He has received honorary degrees from Pacific School of Religion, Alaska Methodist University, and University of Puget Sound. He is past president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops (1989-1990).

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THE

ORGANIZATION

OF THE

UNITED

METHODIST

CHURCH

THE

ORGANIZATION

OF THE

UNITED

METHODIST

CHURCH

Image1

2009–2012

E D I T I O N

JACK M.TUELL

ABINGDON PRESS Nashville

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

2009-2012 EDITION

Copyright © 1970, 1973, 1977, 1982, 1985, 1989, 1993, 1997, 2002, 2005, 2009 by Abingdon Press

All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to Abingdon Press, Permissions Office, 201 Eighth Avenue South, P.O. Box 801, Nashville, TN 37202, or e-mailed to [e-mail].

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tuell, Jack M., 1923-

The organization of the United Methodist Church / Jack M. Tuell.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-4267-0790-2 (binding: pbk./trade pbk., adhesive perfect : alk. paper) 1. United Methodist Church (U.S.)—Government. I. Title.

BX8388.T8 2009

262'.0673—dc22

2009029842

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 — 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

To my colleagues in ministry

throughout the Connection

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter I. FOUNDATIONS

(The Book of Discipline, Pars)

Historical Origins—Theological Affirmations—The Constitution—Doctrinal Statements, the General Rules, and Social Principles—The Discipline

Chapter II. THE MINISTRY OF ALL CHRISTIANS

(The Book of Discipline, Pars)

Chapter III. THE LOCAL CHURCH

(The Book of Discipline, Pars. 201–70)

Definitions—The Meaning of Church Membership—How New Churches Are Started—How Churches Are Governed

Chapter IV. THE MINISTRY OF THE ORDAINED

(The Book of Discipline, Pars. 301–66)

Major Changes—The Order of Deacon—The Order of Elder—Qualifications and Training—Relationship to the Annual Conference—The Pastor's Job Description— Other Tasks of Ordained Elders—Other Ministerial Relationships and Termination Procedures

Chapter V. THE SUPERINTENDENCY

(The Book of Discipline, Pars. 401–35)

The Nature of Superintendency—The District Superintendent—The Episcopacy—Accountability of Bishop and District Superintendent

Chapter VI. THE CONFERENCES

(The Book of Discipline, Pars. 501–666)

The General Conference—Organization and Affiliation Outside the United States—The Jurisdictional Conference—The Annual Conference—The Charge Conference

Chapter VII. ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER

(The Book of Discipline, Pars. 701–2405)

Structures of General Agencies—Agencies for Administration—Support Service Agencies—Program Agencies

Chapter VIII. CHURCH PROPERTY

(The Book of Discipline, Pars. 2501–52)

The Trust Clause—Compliance with Local Law— Property of General Conference, Annual Conferences, and Districts—Local Church Property and Building Procedures—Church Institutions

Chapter IX. JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION

(The Book of Discipline, Pars. 2601–2719)

The Judicial Council—Trial Procedures

Chapter X. CONCLUSION

Appendix. Incompatibility Clause

Index

PREFACE

The General Conference of The United Methodist Church meeting in Fort Worth, Texas, USA, April 23–May 2, 2008, was marked by several characteristics:

1. Holy Conferencing. Prior to General Conference, the Council of Bishops and other leaders had called for a spirit of openness and respectful listening to one another, believing that the Christian faith is as much about means as it is about ends. The delegates took this seriously, and while there was strong and vigorous debate, there was almost none of the rancor and hostile feeling that has characterized some General Conferences of the past. The delegates left Fort Worth with a call for continuing robust dialogue on issues about which we are not of one mind.

2. Becoming Worldwide. The Conference took major first steps, in the form of constitutional amendments, which if passed will lay the groundwork for a shift from a U.S. Church with foreign branches or colonies to a genuinely global Church in which all regions are of equal standing and significance.

The media, as usual, focused on issues of conflict, such as homosexuality. Little changed in this area, although a few measures for increased inclusiveness passed. On the key vote on the incompatibility clause (Par. 161g), the vote for retaining it was the lowest in the thirty-six-year history of this debate, 54.6 percent. (See the appendix.)

This is the eleventh edition of this book, first offered in 1970 at the formation of The United Methodist Church. I hope that Course of Study students, seminary students, laity in lay speaking courses, as well as laity and clergy generally will find this book helpful in understanding how a great global church goes about organizing itself in order to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Jack M. Tuell

Des Moines, Washington, USA

July 2008

Chapter I

FOUNDATIONS

In order to understand how a church or any institution is organized, it is essential to understand the foundations upon which the institution is built. For instance, a Roman Catholic or an Episcopalian may find the United Methodist practice of removing members from the rolls after two years of inactivity hard to understand, and perhaps downright offensive. He or she may feel that this is not the way a church ought to treat its constituents who have been baptized into the family of God, and who deserve better than to be put out of the family in such a seemingly unceremonious way. But a look at history soon helps the person understand why our church functions this way; for United Methodism began not as a church, but as a disciplined religious society. So when people became Methodists in the days of John Wesley, they were not joining a church—they were probably already members of the Church of England—rather, they were joining a society (what we today might call a small group) for the express purpose of bettering their spiritual condition. So the rules were strict and the discipline tight, and it is out of such societies that The United Methodist Church of today has evolved. This historical background has, for better or for worse, left its imprint upon United Methodism, and one of the places we see it is in our attitude toward the termination of church membership because of inactivity.

The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, 2008 is organized in such a way that these foundations of our organization are set forth at the outset in a Historical Statement (pages 9-20) and in Paragraphs 1–61, 101–104, and 160–66. This portion of the Discipline forms the basis for this chapter.

Historical Origins

The Uniting Conference of The United Methodist Church, held at Dallas, Texas, in April of 1968, brought together into one church two great Protestant churches—The Methodist Church and The Evangelical United Brethren Church. These two churches, similar in doctrinal outlook as well as in matters of organization, may well have come together years earlier if it had not been for a language difference—the Evangelical United Brethren did their work among the German-speaking people, while the Methodists worked among the Englishspeaking population. With these language barriers now gone, all real reasons for continuing separation ceased to exist, and the union took place. A brief look at these two streams of church life is in order.

The Evangelical United Brethren Church was itself the result of a union consummated in 1946 of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ and The Evangelical Church. The spiritual father of the United Brethren was Philip William Otterbein, an ordained minister of the German Reformed Church, who, along with Martin Boehm, began preaching to the German-speaking settlers of the middle colonies of young America in the late 1700s and early 1800s. There is a remarkable similarity between the work of Otterbein and the work of John Wesley. Both saw a society desperately in need of the gospel; both emphasized the necessity of a vital and experiential relationship to God; both began their work with the intent not to establish new churches, but to bring about a renewal of faith within established churches; both eventually saw the need of establishing a church in America; both were gifted, natural leaders of great energy and conviction.

The societies grew rapidly under Otterbein's leadership, and meetings of the ministers were held in 1789 in Baltimore, Maryland, and in 1791 in Paradise Township, York County, Pennsylvania. Starting with the meeting on September 25, 1800, in Frederick County, Maryland, these meetings were held annually. It was not until 1815, however, when the first General Conference was held near Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania, that a book of discipline appeared. In 1841, a constitution was adopted, and though it was amended in 1889, the Church of the United Brethren in Christ functioned and grew under this constitution until its merger with The Evangelical Church in 1946.

The Evangelical Church had its beginnings with the work of Jacob Albright at about the same time the United Brethren were organizing. Albright was not an ordained minister, but a tilemaker and a farmer. However, his view of religion as being primarily a vital, personal, experiential relationship to God put him in complete agreement with Otterbein and Wesley. After Albright's own conversion in 1791, he began preaching and gathering some followers, who met in their first council in 1803. In 1807 the preachers held the first of what were to become annual meetings, and in 1809 a book of discipline was adopted. At the first General Conference, the name The Evangelical Association was adopted. This was in 1816, and the association grew and thrived through the century. In 1891 a split occurred within the church, with one group of ministers and laity leaving to form The United Evangelical Church. This new church held its first General Conference in 1894, but almost from its inception there were those who felt that the two branches should be reunited, and in 1922, only thirty-one years after the original split, the two churches came back together to form a united body, The Evangelical Church.

These two churches, the Church of the United Brethren in Christ and The Evangelical Church, had worked side by side in America, both originally among German-speaking people and both very much alike in outlook and structure. So it was a natural thing that in 1933 representatives of the two groups should begin negotiations, which culminated in 1946 with the formation of one church, The Evangelical United Brethren Church. It was this church which was to join a plan of union that resulted in the formation of The United Methodist Church in Dallas in 1968.

The other party to that plan of union was The Methodist Church, which had its beginnings in England with the work of John Wesley in the 1700s. Born into a parsonage home in 1703, Wesley grew up to become the outstanding religious figure of his century. He secured his education at Oxford University and was ordained a clergyman of the Church of England. While at Oxford, he and some companions formed a small group for prayer, study, and service to people in need, and, because they set out such a rigorous and methodical schedule for their activities, they were derisively referred to by some of their more worldly fellow students as Methodists. But Wesley soon found, like the Apostle Paul and Martin Luther before him, that striving for salvation by the keeping of rules and regulations, by trying harder even to the extent of going off to America as a missionary to the Indians, was of no avail. Finally, on the evening of May 24, 1738, at a prayer meeting held in Aldersgate Street in London, Wesley had a personal experience in which, he said, "I felt my heart strangely warmed, and I felt that I did trust in Christ, in him alone for salvation, and that he had saved me from the law of sin and death." So, religion had become for John Wesley what it was later to become for Philip William Otterbein and Jacob Albright: a direct, personal, unforgettable experience of the presence and love of God, an experience so overwhelming that it had to be communicated to others.

John Wesley went out from the Aldersgate experience to begin the preaching, organizing, and administrative work that was to result, at the time of his death over fifty years later, in some half a million souls in England called Methodist and an infant church in America. Wesley remained a clergyman of the Church of England until his death, and he insisted that his societies in England should remain that—societies—and not become a church. However, after the American Revolution had taken place, he recognized that the Church of England could no longer function in America and that an ordained clergy was needed. His efforts to get the bishop of London to ordain some of his preachers failed, so finally Wesley himself ordained two men and set aside Dr. Thomas Coke as a superintendent for the work in America, giving him directions to ordain Francis Asbury a second superintendent.

On December 24, 1784, Dr. Coke met with about sixty preachers in Baltimore, Maryland, and organized The Methodist Episcopal Church. At this Christmas Conference all essential steps to organizing a church were carried out, and Francis Asbury emerged as dominant leader and bishop, a term whose use Wesley was opposed to, but which quickly became common usage among American Methodists.

Two important divisions were to occur in this rapidly growing, frontier-following young church. A group of persons concerned with lay representation in the church left it in 1828 to form The Methodist Protestant Church. In 1844 another division occurred, this time between North and South. The issue was interpreted by some to be over slavery, and by some to be over the powers of the General Conference and the episcopacy. Almost from the time of these divisions, there were forces at work to bring about a reunion, and, after years of negotiation, this took place on May 10, 1939, when The Methodist Episcopal Church, The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and The Methodist Protestant Church came back together to form The Methodist Church. It was this church which, in April of 1968, at Dallas, Texas, united with the Evangelical United Brethren to form The United Methodist Church.

Theological Affirmations

What kind of theological claims or affirmations do United Methodists make about their church? What do they believe it to be? How do they believe it fits in with the plans and the will of God? What are its relationships to other churches? Answers to these questions provide important foundation stones for an understanding of the organization of the Church.

The Preamble to the Constitution sets forth some of the answers to these questions:

The church is a community of all true believers under the Lordship of Christ. It is the redeemed and redeeming fellowship in which the Word of God is preached by persons divinely called, and the sacraments are duly administered according to Christ's own appointment. Under the discipline of the Holy Spirit the church seeks to provide for the maintenance of worship, the edification of believers, and the redemption of the world.

    The church of Jesus Christ exists in and for the world, and its very dividedness is a hindrance to its mission in that world.

(The Book of Discipline, 2008; page 21)

This statement is a skillful blending of at least three other official statements about the church. One of these is the definition of the church contained in Article XIII of the Articles of Religion of The Methodist Church (Discipline; page 62). The second is the definition of the church set forth in Article V of the Confession of Faith of The Evangelical United Brethren Church (Discipline; page 67). The third is in Paragraphs 201, 202, and 203 of the Discipline, concerning the local church. Paragraph 203 makes explicit what is only implicit in the earlier statements, that the persons have been baptized. It also makes clear that a local congregation "is also an inherent part of the church universal, which is composed of all who accept