12-Plans of Organization

CHAPTER XII PLANS OF ORGANIZATION THE General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church has prescribed a plan of organization for the local church. The governing body is called the “Quarterly Conference 5 ’ 1 and is composed of all ministers, local preachers, exhorters, stewards, trustees, class leaders, and deaconesses on the charge, together with the chief executive officers of the several major organizations within the church (superintendent of the Sunday school, president of the Epworth League, presidents of the several women’s organizations, and the directors of religious education and social activities, etc.)- This Conference usually meets from two to four times a year under the presidency of the district superintendent. It operates through numerous committees, and to it the several officers, organizations, and committees report at least once a year. The long interval between meetings of the Quarterly Conference makes it an impractical instrument for handling business which must receive regular and frequent attention. To meet this defect, the Board of Stewards and the Board of Trustees were separately organized. This gave rise to a species of dual control in the church, for the division of labor agreed upon was that the stewards should have charge of “spiritual matters,” while the trustees should give themselves to “temporal affairs.” The lack of coordination between the two bodies proved embarrassing, and eventually, in many churches, one of them came to feel itself superior to the other. To make possible a return to a more democratic and unified control the Quarterly Conference now *An amendment is now pending proposing to change this name to “Local Conference.”

133 i 3 4 THE PASTORAL OFFICE may authorize the organization of an “official board,” whose personnel is that of the Quarterly Conference, and which largely does the work both of the stewards and trustees.

Some states require that the trustees must be separately organized to hold and transfer property. But for this fact, in most churches neither stewards nor trustees would be independently organized. The official board meets regularly once each month, and special meetings are held on call of the pastor. The pastor is presiding officer, exofficio.

Additional officials are usually a vice-president, secretary, treasurer for local budget, treasurer of benevolences, and financial secretary, who generally fill corresponding offices in the Quarterly Conference. The board performs its work through the Quarterly Conference committees and such others as it may decide to elect. Its minutes are approved annually by the Quarterly Conference, and thus its action becomes Quarterly-Conference action. The principal defect in this plan of organization lies in the large number of standing committees through which the official board functions. The following are elected in every church or charge, either by the Quarterly Conference or the official board by order of the General Conference, 1. Apportioned Benevolences.

2. Christian Stewardship.

3. Foreign Missions.

4. Home Missions and Church Extension.

5. Religious Instruction.

6. Tracts.

7. Temperance.

8. Education.

9. Education for Negroes.

10. Hospitals.

11. Church Records.

12. Auditing Accounts.

13. Parsonage and Furniture.

14. Church Music.

15. Estimating Ministerial Support PLANS OF ORGANIZATION 135 1 6. Examination Local Preachers.

17. Church Property.

1 8. Finance. In addition, authority is conferred to create “such other committees as may be thought necessary/’ so that frequently the list is materially longer.

It is clear that many of these committees are supposed to represent the General Boards of the denomination in the local church, presumably informing the congregation concerning their work and soliciting funds. Inasmuch, however, as this is an important part of the pastor’s task, assisted by the Finance Committee, these committees almost never function. Other committees are designed to serve some actual need in the local church, but many of them function so imperfectly that duplication, friction, waste, confusion, misunderstanding, general inefficiency, and even carelessness are written large everywhere. These considerations have caused some thoughtful leaders to seek a way of coordinating the activities of the many committees and organizations without contravening the discipline. The suggestion has been made repeatedly that the pastor should appoint a “council” or “cabinet” composed of one or more representatives from the chief organizations in the church, whose business should be the unification of the work of the several societies. 1 “This cabinet will meet and receive the program of activities of each of the several organizations, and from these compile one general program of activities for the whole church (which it is well to publish for the general information of the church membership), or it would be better still if this cabinet should suggest to all the organizations represented a comprehensive program in which all would have a part.” 2 The cabinet, of course, a So Fisher in The Way to Win; Cook, in A Working Program for the Local Church, and Tippy and Kern in A Methodist Church and Its Work.

“Warren F. Cook, A Working Program for the Local Church, p. 25.

136 THE PASTORAL OFFICE would be an unofficial body. It could do nothing more than advise. But it would be a powerful agent in creating public opinion in the church which the official board would surely respect. If any complain that such a cabinet is unauthorized by the Discipline, reply may be made, “Neither is the bishop’s cabinet at the Annual Conference.”

Yet another method of unification might be to create several standing committees, in addition to the cabinet, to supervise the great essential tasks of the church. These are: (i) Worship, (2) Evangelism, (3) Religious Education, (4) Service, (5) Finance. The work of these committees would be to correlate and supervise the activities of all agencies at work in their respective fields. Each committee would report directly to the official board, or to the cabinet, which, in turn, would unify the programs of the several standing committees before reporting to the board.

These committees could be ordered under existing authority to create “such other committees as may be thought necessary.”* They might be composed, in part at least, of the membership of committees and organizations which they respectively supervise. For example, the “Committee on Worship” would absorb the committees on “Music” and “Pulpit Supply,” and might include representatives from the Epworth League and Sunday school. The pastor should be a member exofficio of all such standing committees, possibly the chairman of each.

BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY Fred B. Fisher, The Way to Win.

Albert R McGarrah, Modern Church Management.

Warren F. Cook, A Working Program for the Local Church* Tippy and Kern, A Methodist Church and Its Work.

Discipline, Methodist Episcopal Church, 1920.

*See Discipline (1920), 112:2.