2014 UM Polity Series – Appointments

     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!