This is the principle at the heart of our polity: we share apportionments for the good of the whole mission. We share clergy gifts and deploy them for the good of the whole mission. We share the gifts of the baptized for the good of the whole mission. Luke 10:9 would have us know that it is the locus of the mission’s sharing where Jesus says, “God’s kingdom has come upon you.” That said, many of us see the whole as we see within a marathon—we see the people running alongside us. We see the workings of where we are in the race.  

I feel compelled remind us that one essential task of the leader is to tell the truth about group context. More pointedly, I write to interpret where we are in the race by pointing out some facts about this current appointment season.

Some clergy have been upset with the appointments being offered to them. Some have have candidly said they feel disrespected. We have heard requests for reconsideration of the appointment by clergy who do not wish to be sent to the places we have discerned. All of us are in this work of discernment together.

When making appointments we consider vocation, gifts of clergy, and needs in the context, all while in prayer. It can take many hours. Often, we consider someone’s need to be proximate to a family member or sensitivities related to isolation for cross-racially appointed families.

One reality we all must work with is that our conference lost almost a dozen full-time appointments in the first six weeks of this year. That means these churches left charge conference season reporting to us that they were full-time appointments. By the time we worked with them to care for openings due to retirement or requested moves, they were no longer full time. Still others that had been paying larger salaries but now could only pay near minimum. And still others were faithfully engaging in a merger process.

Step back and look from the span of a decade. How often did clergypeople leave your church when it could no longer maintain the compensation package it had been providing? Clergy, how often have you left an appointment and expected a raise in the next one, but left the church able to manage only a far lower salary for the next clergyperson?  

I don’t mean to chastise. However, I want to explain that compensation packages have been dropping for years. This is a reality of post-Christendom. The new norm is not single-point charges. The new norm will be many sorts of experiments—co-ops, two- and three-point charges, mergers, new faith efforts, Fresh Expressions, and digital ministry. The new norm is experimentation and innovation.

Many clergy, myself included, grew up with an emotional contract of sorts with the connection: if I serve in one place for a few years, I will go to another place near where I want to live and will enjoy a raise. This year, when we could not meet that expectation, clergy were angry and felt disrespected.

Friends, these dynamics have been in motion for a long time. The annual conference exists to equip your disciple-making mission as well as credential clergy, equip laity, expand health and welfare ministry, start new churches, offer advocacy, support camps, and equip disciples for the mission.  

The following resources, offered by Rev. Christian Coon, our director of congregational development, may be helpful to you. 

• Tuesday Teachings: Regular one-hour webinars featuring a diversity of presenters speaking about a range of topics related to strengthening church ministries. View the upcoming webinars or watch previous webinars here.
• Initial consultation with the director of congregational development: In this beginning conversation, Rev. Coon will listen to the issues that the pastor and/or congregation are having before recommending a particular path to follow and/or resources to use (e.g., the Good Futures Accelerator).  
• Cohort development: An opportunity for clergy to participate in regular cohorts/groups. A current example is the Academy for Pastoral Excellence. Some future cohorts may gather larger-church pastors (estimated start date: May 15), churches going through mergers (date to be determined), and “purple churches” (date to be determined). 
• Grants for churches: Find a list of many available grants here. 
• Consult with Foundry Commercial: Churches with particular building challenges can schedule an initial conversation/consultation with Foundry Commercial, a full-service real estate services and investment company that intentionally intertwines faith and business while maximizing efficiency. Foundry, a ministry partner of the United Methodist Council on Finance and Administration, can help your church leaders think through next steps. 
• MissionInsite: Churches have free access to a breadth of demographic and cultural data that can help them plan for outreach and mission ministries. 
• Resources available soon 
  • Portico: An online learning management system where individuals can take courses (free of charge) through modules about a variety of topics. Estimated availability: May 15. 
  • Development online library: Online folders with administrative documents that churches can use and download. Examples include staff handbooks and rental agreements. Estimated availability: June 1. 
  • Revitalization process: This offers an initial assessment process with a survey to identify where a church falls on a Church Vitality Matrix and provides guided or self-guided discernment tools to help a church spend time in thoughtful prayer about possible next steps: 
    • Explore different revitalization approaches. 
    • Choose an approach. Churches with more needs will have a Revitalization Guide (coach) to work with them. 
    • Examples include mergers, adoptions, cooperative parishes. 
    • Some tools are available now (surveys and discernment tools) but Revitalization Guides need to be identified and trained. My hope is that we will have some church test cases go through the whole process starting Sept. 1. 
  • Church planting cycle (to begin this spring): 
    • Co-creator event and planter cohort (May through September): This church planting intensive gives planters the nuts and bolts they need. 
    • New locations identified for potential new plants (August): Conference/district strategy teams will explore possible areas for new churches. 
    • Discernment Academy (October): A six-week exploration class for those interested in planting. An assessment takes place at the end of the academy. 
    • Assessments (November/December): Academy graduates are assessed. 
    • Appointments (January-March, 2026): Those assessed as potential planters are appointed beginning July 2026. 
  • Fresh Expressions 
    • A course this fall on innovation and creativity to help leaders begin thinking about the creative process. In addition, we can offer support to those who went through the Discernment Academy but whom we did not identify as planters and encourage them to try a Fresh Expression instead. 
    • We have immediate funds for churches that have gone through some training. 
  • Digital revitalization: Trainings and funding for churches to revamp their digital ministries, web sites, and social media presence. 
  • Co-op development 
    • Learn from and partner with co-ops, which are changing the landscape of ministry. 
    • We are initiating conversations with the Conference Board of Pensions,  Council on Finance and Administration, our property and casualty insurance board, and looking at our health insurance dynamics to create sustaining financial systems that will help us be as faithful as possible to making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. 

How you can help:

• Please pray for the annual conference and our mission.
• Please grow in your own faith and love in ways that make it larger in your life.
• Please make new relationships and partnerships that bear witness to the love of Christ.
• Please do all you can to experiment with new ways of fulfilling the mission. Help us learn.
• Lead your church to pay its fair share of the apportionments.

Friends, the gospel will continue to transform. The Holy Spirit continues to open doors. Everyone hitting the blocking sled will help us push through this moment as faithfully as we can. 

Thank you for your ministry.