It’s time for another edition of “Methodist Speak” from Rev. Ron! You may have seen the notice that we are holding a “charge conference” in just a few weeks. Well, what is that? And what does it mean?
“Members of the charge conference shall be persons of genuine Christian character who love the Church, are morally disciplined, are committed to the mandate of inclusiveness in the life of the Church, are loyal to the ethical standards of The United Methodist Church set forth in the Social Principles, and are competent to administer its affairs…”
Preface to Paragraph (¶) 246, The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, 2016
First, unpacking Methodists’ use of the word “Conference”
As it is used in our heritage, the word “conference” is multivalent and includes multiple levels of meaning simultaneously. We have different levels of conferences as the subsequent layers of the church’s organization, from international to local.
In Methodist-speak, “Conference” refers both to (1) an organizational unit of individuals, and (2) the gathering or meeting of those individuals. John Wesley used the term “conference” to refer to the act of Christians coming together in conversation, and his use of the term influenced how we continue to call our annual meetings “conferences.” So when we use the term, we are potentially referring both to an annual gathering or to the group that would gather.
Here’s a quick summary of the levels of our conferences in The United Methodist Church:
- The General Conference is the largest organized unit of United Methodists, gathers once every four years, and is the chief legislative and organizational body of the denomination. Only General Conference can “speak” for the denomination as a whole, and does so through updates to The Book of Discipline (and especially the Social Principles therein) or through official Resolutions (combined in The Book of Resolutions). The membership of General Conference is drawn from clergy and laity elected by their respective Annual Conferences worldwide.
- Jurisdictional Conferences are a smaller subset of the General Conference for American United Methodists, each made up of a number of annual conferences. (Annual conferences outside the United States are organized into what are called “Central” Conferences.) There are five geographic areas comprising these Jurisdictions in The United States: Northeastern, Southeastern, North Central, South Central, and Western. (We are part of the Western Jurisdictional Conference.) Jurisdictional Conferences also meet every four years, generally after General Conference, and a principle part of their role is to elect new bishops.
- Annual (Regional) Conferences are an even smaller subset of United Methodists, comprised of clergy and laity from each local church in a specified region. In the United States there are 54 annual conferences (organized under the leadership of less than 46 bishops), which may cover geographic regions consisting of multiple states down to just part of a state. Our Annual Conference includes representation from all the churches in Arizona, those in south-eastern Nevada, as well as a few in California. These are sometimes referred to as “Regional” Conferences because they are organized by geographic region, but more often than not are named as “Annual” Conferences rooted in the requirement that all clergy and elected laity must meet annually together, a process dating back to John Wesley!
- The Charge Conference is the smallest subset of United Methodist conference polity, comprised of the pastor(s) and elected leaders of a local charge (while usually only one local church, a “charge” may consist of more than one church that have chosen to join together, or been yoked together, in ministry to their local area).
Now, about the “charge” conference
Every local church or “charge” of The United Methodist Church is structured to have an organized “charge conference.” This group generally consists of the same elected members as the local church’s Church Council, though it’s membership may include additional individuals and can also be extended to all active church members during its annual meeting if called as a “Church Conference.” The charge conference is described in Paragraphs (¶s) 246–251 of The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, 2016, the guiding legal document that organizes our denominational structure and processes (or “polity”).
The charge conference must be called in to session at least once every year, with the acknowledgement and/or guidance of a district superintendent (a pastor assigned to oversee the clergy in a specified region). In many ways, it is like the “annual meeting” of a non-profit organization; like a non-profits annual meeting, attention is given at this time to the election of new leaders and to an evaluation of the previous year’s ministries. An elder of The United Methodist Church, usually the superintendent but sometimes an elder from a different church, is called to provide oversight to the meeting, though in rare cases a local church’s pastor may preside (e.g. if the church is voting on a building plan).
A local church’s Church Council should work throughout the year to evaluate and ensure that the church’s ministries and stewardship of resources are aligned with the mission and visions of the local congregation and The United Methodist Church. As described in Powers and Duties (¶247), the intent of the charge conference is to provide overarching oversight to the Council in this role, so that the ministries and efforts of the local church are connected to The United Methodist Church:
“The charge conference shall be the connecting link between the local church and the general Church and shall have general oversight of the church council(s).”
¶ 247.1, The United Methodist Book of Discipline, 2016
Generally, a charge conference is held toward the end of a calendar year, and the primary responsibilities of the group at that meeting are to
“review and evaluate the total mission and ministry of the church (¶¶ 120-124), receive reports, and adopt objectives and goals recommended by the church council that are in keeping with the objectives of The United Methodist Church.”
¶247.3, The United Methodist Book of Discipline, 2016
Additionally, charge conferences are tasked with other responsibilities, including:
- providing oversight to church history,
- making recommendations supporting members called to ministry,
- responding to recommendations regarding membership records, and
- promoting awareness of our Doctrinal Standards, General Rules, and Social Principles.
If you have attended United Methodist Churches for a while, you have probably seen charge conference booklets that include printed reports, rosters of leadership for the new year, and a pastoral salary package (because while the full budget of the church need not be approved at a charge conference, the salary of the pastor must be per Discipline). These will be a part of our meeting later this month.
The charge conference also often presents and ratifies the hopes, dreams, goals, and objectives of the church’s leaders for the new year. In this not-quite-normal year, where we are still wrestling with the uncertain impacts of pandemic, I have chosen to lead our Church Council and ministry leaders to focus upon how we can connect with, communicate with, and share our care for, church members and our local community. I have intentionally chosen not to work on leading strategic planning at this time, so we are not planning on presenting new goals or objectives for the new year beyond continuing our efforts to help connect people with “a generous community following Jesus for the good of the world.” We do hope to start to engage in some meaningful, fruitful conversation in the new year about how to best align our work with God’s Holy Spirit to pursue this vision.
If you’d like to know more about any of these structures, the polity, or anything else about The United Methodist Church, you can visit the UMC website and use the search bar to find our more about what you’d like to know.