Annual Charge Conference
Our annual Charge Conference will be held on Tuesday, October 25th at 7:00 pm. Rev. Craig Nelson of FUMC Boca Raton will serve as our presiding Elder. I encourage any and all members and constituents of Trinity UMC to attend. It will be a time of information, fellowship, and celebration for Cason United Methodist Church as we review 2022 and look forward to 2023.
Attendance is important because it is an indicator of lay involvement in the local church. Districts and annual conferences have resources to share with local churches, but, like all of us, they are called to be good stewards of those resources. Lay involvement is one of the factors that is used to determine which congregations receive those resources.
But what exactly is a Charge Conference? Like a lot of United Methodist terms, it has more than one meaning. A charge is the basic unit of the connectional church under the appointment of a senior pastor. In most cases, like Cason, only one congregation is included in each charge. But in other cases there may be two or more congregations per senior pastor.
The first meaning of the term Charge Conference refers to the members of the church councils or equivalent bodies of each congregation of a particular charge. In our case the Church Council is the equivalent body.
The second meaning of Charge Conference refers to the required yearly meeting. It is, in essence, the annual meeting of our non-profit corporation. Charge Conferences are always presided over by the District Superintendent, unless the DS has authorized an ordained elder to be the presider.
According to The Discipline (the United Methodist rule book), “the primary responsibility of the Charge Conference in the annual meeting shall be to review and evaluate the total mission and ministry of the church, receive reports, and adopt objectives and goals recommended by the church council that are in keeping with the objectives of The United Methodist Church (par. 247.3).”
This meeting includes the election of leaders of the local congregation, lay ministers, lay servants and speakers; the setting of the compensation of all clergy appointed to the charge; receiving a membership report from the senior pastor; and any other responsibilities designated by the General, jurisdictional, or annual conferences.
In addition to the normal tasks, this year at our Charge Conference we will vote on beginning the process of amending our leadership plan from multi committees to the One Committee format, handle some business related to the funds from the sale of the West Lawn, as well as vote on changes and improvements to the interior and exterior of our church facility.
I know it’s only August, but I wanted to make sure that you had plenty of time to get this important meeting on your calendar. You will get many reminders over the course of the next two and a half months, but remember: decisions are made by those who show up. I pray that you will add this date to your calendar and make every effort to come out and let your voice be heard and your vote be counted.
Attendance is important because it is an indicator of lay involvement in the local church. Districts and annual conferences have resources to share with local churches, but, like all of us, they are called to be good stewards of those resources. Lay involvement is one of the factors that is used to determine which congregations receive those resources.
But what exactly is a Charge Conference? Like a lot of United Methodist terms, it has more than one meaning. A charge is the basic unit of the connectional church under the appointment of a senior pastor. In most cases, like Cason, only one congregation is included in each charge. But in other cases there may be two or more congregations per senior pastor.
The first meaning of the term Charge Conference refers to the members of the church councils or equivalent bodies of each congregation of a particular charge. In our case the Church Council is the equivalent body.
The second meaning of Charge Conference refers to the required yearly meeting. It is, in essence, the annual meeting of our non-profit corporation. Charge Conferences are always presided over by the District Superintendent, unless the DS has authorized an ordained elder to be the presider.
According to The Discipline (the United Methodist rule book), “the primary responsibility of the Charge Conference in the annual meeting shall be to review and evaluate the total mission and ministry of the church, receive reports, and adopt objectives and goals recommended by the church council that are in keeping with the objectives of The United Methodist Church (par. 247.3).”
This meeting includes the election of leaders of the local congregation, lay ministers, lay servants and speakers; the setting of the compensation of all clergy appointed to the charge; receiving a membership report from the senior pastor; and any other responsibilities designated by the General, jurisdictional, or annual conferences.
In addition to the normal tasks, this year at our Charge Conference we will vote on beginning the process of amending our leadership plan from multi committees to the One Committee format, handle some business related to the funds from the sale of the West Lawn, as well as vote on changes and improvements to the interior and exterior of our church facility.
I know it’s only August, but I wanted to make sure that you had plenty of time to get this important meeting on your calendar. You will get many reminders over the course of the next two and a half months, but remember: decisions are made by those who show up. I pray that you will add this date to your calendar and make every effort to come out and let your voice be heard and your vote be counted.
Posted in A note from the Pastor
Archive
2023
2022
August
October
Categories
Follow us on Social Media:
No Comments