Study of Ministry Commission

Commission Members Outline Final Study of Ministry Report

The Rev. Jay Williams, a 30-year-old provisional elder, outlines how the changes in the candidacy processed proposed by the Ministry Study Commission will make ordained ministry a more viable option for young adults. Photo by Donnie Reed.

Doing away with security of appointment, further streamlining the candidacy process, and allowing ordination when educational requirements are completed are among the major changes proposed by the Study of Ministry Commission.

Members of the Commission, who have prepared legislation for General Conference 2012, outlined their proposals to the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry’s Board of Directors during their August meeting in Nashville, Tenn.

The commission members said the aim of legislation is more grace and freedom and fewer rules, more accountability to the gospel and less conformity to an outdated, bureaucratic system, with more participation from young people and less rhetoric about our good intentions to include and engage younger people. Read more >

The 2008 General Conference charged the 2009-2012 Study of Ministry Commission to "report to the 2012 General Conference with legislation addressing the issues before the commission including the ordering of ministry, the separation of ordination and conference membership, and the streamlining of the process leading toward ordained ministry" (calendar item 183).

We offer this report with hope and confidence, and as a record of our discernment of how to revise our leadership structures in order to equip The United Methodist Church in its mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Proposed legislation accompanying these recommendations appears at the end of the report, beginning on page 16.