In
the United Methodist Church pastors are appointed to the communities and
churches which they serve. This is in
contrast to the practice of many churches in which the local churches call
their own pastors with varying degrees of involvement by the denomination. The process of appointments vary from Annual
Conference to Annual Conference; I will be discussing the process followed in
the Iowa Annual Conference.
Pastors
are appointed, or re-appointed, on an annual basis. Each year every pastor is asked to reflect on
their professional, personal, and family needs and desires and every local
Pastor-Parish Relations Committee (PPRC) is asked to reflect on the needs and
desires of their charge and community. (A
Charge, sometimes called a Parish, is one or more churches to which a pastor or
pastors may be appointed. Some charges
are only one church, others consist of more than one church.) The pastor and the PPRC will communicate with
the District Superintendent (DS) about this reflection in writing, in person,
or both. The pastor or the PPRC may
request that the pastor be re-appointed to the current charge or that another
appointment be made. This process
usually takes place in the fall.
The
DS will take the wishes of the pastor and the PPRC under advisement and share
them with the bishop and the Cabinet (All of the DS’s in the Conference.) The bishop, with the advice of the Cabinet,
decides whether or not a change in appointment will be made for each charge or
pastor. The bishop and the Cabinet will
then begin a process of prayerful discernment about the gifts, graces, needs,
and preferences (in that order) of the available pastors and the needs and
preferences of the available churches.
All appointments are made final and official by the bishop with the
advice of the Cabinet.
The
DS of each receiving church will call the potential new pastor and make
arrangements for them to meet the new PPRC in an Appointment Introductory
Meeting (AIM.) This is an opportunity
for the PPRC to meet the new pastor, for the new pastor to see the church and
the parsonage, and for the pastor and the PPRC to ask questions of one
another. At the end of this meeting the
DS will ask both the pastor and the PPRC if they have any “compelling reasons”
why this appointment should not be made.
(Pastors, especially if they are elders, are required to accept
appointment by the bishop and serve where they are sent; charges are required
to receive pastors appointed by the bishop.)
If
there are no reasons given, the DS sets a Sunday on which the appointment may
be announced in both affected churches, the receiving church and the sending
church. All who are involved in the
meeting are bound by confidentiality until the official announcement date.
The
pastor is given a move date, usually in late June, and selects one of the
moving companies that has a contract with the Conference and makes arrangements
to move.
I
am told that in the old days pastors would not find out they were moving until
the last day of Annual Conference. They
would come home and tell their family and the church they were moving, pack up
and move to the new church and parsonage sight unseen!
