Member-only story
A charge to keep
My new church role kicks off with a series of Zoom meetings.
In the United Methodist tradition, each church holds an annual meeting called a “charge conference.” It’s a business meeting at which the church officially turns over some forms and reports to the district hierarchy. A few things are voted on, such as the pastor’s salary. I always have to attend my home church’s charge conference, because the charge conference makes a recommendation for me to continue as a lay speaker. The conference is presided over by the district superintendent, or by another ordained elder representing the “D.S.” The D.S. receives the pastor’s report and the other reports and often asks for the church to talk about its successes and challenges from the past year.
The D.S., who is always an ordained minister, is sometimes accompanied at the charge conference by the district layleader, a position to which I paid little attention until relatively recently. Now, I am the Stones River District layleader, and charge conferences have suddenly become a big part of my fall schedule.
Why is it called a “charge” conference and not a “church” conference? In the early days of Methodism in…
