Uwharrie Charge Conference Instructions for 2023
posted on September 12
It is time to prepare for the annual charge conference meeting for your church or charge. We hope that you will find the information here helpful as you complete this important work.
In October and November, we will have cluster charge conferences by county areas to worship, celebrate what God has been doing in our churches, communities and connection and to prepare for the coming year of ministry. The dates and locations of the county cluster conferences are listed at the end of this article and can be found on the Uwharrie District Calendar.
Cluster Charge Conference Agenda
- Opening Worship, Communion and Celebration of Our Connection
- Call to Order by District Superintendent
- Presentation of Lay Leadership and names for membership audits for each church/charge for 2024 by church lay leaders
- Presentation of Clergy Compensation for approval for each church/church for 204 by SPRC chairs
- Recognition of any candidates for ministry
- Adjournment and Sending Forth with Blessing
For Each Church, the Lay Leader and Pastor Parish Chair will affirm:
- Recommendation for the 2024 Clergy Compensation
- Nominations and Leadership Development Report for 2024 including those persons serving on the Nominations Committee
- Discussion/Vote
- Approval of any Lay Servants, Lay Speakers, or Lay Ministers
- Approval of any Candidates for Ministry
- Approval of any Names to be removed from the membership roll
Important Notes
- It is mandatory that all pastors be present for their charge conference.
- Remember, a ten-day public notice must be given to the congregation for a charge conference meeting.
- The Church Council or Administrative Board MUST approve the 2024 Clergy Compensation and the 2024 Nominations and Leadership Development Report prior to the scheduled charge conference.
How to Begin
Think through how you need to schedule committee meetings to complete this work and who needs to help you complete this work. While every situation is different, the administrative council, board, or governing body must approve the pastor’s 2024 compensation and the 2024 Report from the Nominations and Lay Leadership Committee. They can approve other items that will then be presented to the charge conference such as Lay Servants and Lay Speakers, Candidates for ministry, and Names to be removed from the church membership roll. They can approve other committee reports that can be presented to the charge conference and included in the charge conference minutes.
The following items of business cannot be conducted at this charge conference: purchasing or selling property, building programs, or church council restructuring. If for some reason, a separate charge conference is necessary, please schedule a conversation with the District Superintendent.
The 2024 Apportionments have been posted on Church Dashboards. You will be notified when Health Insurance Premiums are posted.
Completing Reports
- All reports will be online.
- The due date for the completion of all reports is November 30, 2023.
- The online reports have a “signature” feature for all required signatures for each report. Checking the checkbox and entering a pastor or church leader name will be affirming that the pastor or leader has reviewed the completed online form (or a printout of it) and believes it to be correct and accurate.
Please make sure you know how to login to your Clergy and Church Dashboard on wnccadmin.org.
A link for the 2024 Charge Conference Reports, unique to your local church, will appear in the “Submittable Forms (Charge Conference, Profiles, etc.)” area of your Church Dashboard. You will still separately complete the online forms for clergy compensation and church leaders.
Reports Required Ahead of Time
Reports Required five (5) days in advance of the charge conference date:
- Clergy Compensation Report for 2024 (draft that will be proposed to the charge conference.)
- Lay Leadership for 2024
- All other online charge conference reports will be required to be significantly complete 5 days in advance.
Accessing Online Admin site
- https://wnccumc.org
- Click on Administration
- Click Clergy Dashboard
- Login
- Church Dashboard - Username is GCFA number; Password (we cannot see passwords so if you do not remember, contact the District Office)
- People/Clergy Dashboard (Username and Password for clergy is the same as the old system. If you have trouble logging in, contact the District Office)
Church Leader Information
As you work on online Church Leader Information, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you provide accurate and complete contact information. We especially need email addresses for all of your church leaders who have email. Information is shared by email at various times with different groups of leaders. We especially need email addresses for the following offices: Lay Leader, Pastor Parish Relations Chairperson (or a PPRC contact person if on a multi-point charge), Finance Chairperson, Treasurer. For these four offices, if the actual leader does not have an email, it would be helpful if they could have another person with email to agree to receive email on their behalf. It could be another committee member or church council member.
Start and End Dates - Read This Carefully
The system is very date sensitive. Here is how to handle the dates of service:
Start Date -Use the date that a leader actually began the position, and don’t change it from year to year. For example, if a leader continues from 2023 into 2024, leave the start date as 1/1/2-23 (or earlier if that applies.) If a new leader is beginning in 2024, use a start date of 1/1/2024.
End Date -If someone is serving a specific term, like a three-year term, and you know the end date, put that in. For example, a three-year term beginning 1/1/2024 would get an end date of 12/31/2026. If someone is serving an indefinite term, you can actually just leave the end date blank. This is the suggested method for indefinite terms so that you do not have to update “end dates” every year. Only put a 12/31/2024 end date if you know that is going to be the case. Be sure to totally review ALL of the church leader information, including start and end dates, on your church dashboard.
Kim Hopkins will be working with individuals who may need help with charge conference materials. You can email her to set up a time.
After the Charge Conference
A recording secretary from each church should record the attendance for your church or charge. The secretary should submit notes, minutes, any handouts, and an attendance list to the district office. Signed copies of the clergy compensation form must be submitted to the district office. It is the pastor’s responsibility to make sure this happens. The due date for the completion of all reports is November 30, 2023.
Here is the Discipline reference concerning charge conference membership (who is a voting member of the charge conference) from the 2016 Discipline:
THE CHARGE CONFERENCE Members of the charge conference shall be persons of genuine Christian character who love the Church, are morally disciplined, are committed to the mandate of inclusiveness in the life of the Church, are loyal to the ethical standards of The United Methodist Church set forth in the Social Principles, and are competent to administer its affairs. It shall include youth members chosen according to the same standards as adults. All shall be professing members of the local church, except where central conference legislation provides otherwise. ¶ 246. General Provisions— 1. Within the pastoral charge the basic unit in the connectional system of The United Methodist Church is the charge conference. The charge conference shall therefore be organized from the church or churches in every pastoral charge as set forth in the Constitution (¶ 43). It shall meet annually for the purposes set forth in ¶ 247. It may meet at other times as indicated in § 7 below. 2. The membership of the charge conference shall be all members of the church council or other appropriate body, together with retired ordained ministers and retired diaconal ministers who elect to hold their membership in said charge conference and any others as may be designated in the Discipline. If more than one church is on the pastoral charge, all members of each church council shall be members of the charge conference….
6. The members present and voting at any duly announced meeting shall constitute a quorum.
United Methodist Church. The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church 2016 (Kindle Locations 3797-3804). United Methodist Publishing House. Kindle Edition.
Thank you for your attention to the work of Charge Conference preparation. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact the district office.
DATES AND LOCATIONS OF CLUSTER CHARGE CONFERENCE FOR 2023*
- Randolph County Charge Conference: October 15th at 2:00 pm @ Jordan Memorial UMC
- Stanly County Charge Conference: October 22nd at 2:00 pm @ Central UMC Albemarle
- Rowan/S. Davidson County Charge Conference: November 5th at 2:00 pm @ Milford Hills UMC
- Union/Anson County Charge Conference: November 12th at 2:00 pm @ Peachland UMC