Bishop's CornerCabinet Follows Guidelines For Appointment-making
By Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker
 The
Cabinet has adopted the following guidelines for making appointments of
pastors to local congregations. We intend to follow these guidelines to
the best of our ability with the guidance of the Spirit of God.
Questions about these guidelines may be addressed to your district
superintendent.
All appointments in the Florida Annual Conference will be made in
accordance to Paragraphs 430-435 in the “2000 Book of Discipline.”
The following guidelines have been developed and approved by the bishop
and the cabinet to be followed in the process of making appointments.
1. The primary objective of making appointments will be to match the
missional needs of a congregation with the gifts and skills of a pastor
on the basis of discernment and information obtained from profiles of
congregations, communities and pastors and consultations with
pastor-parish relations committees and pastors.
2. All appointments will be made annually in accordance with the
covenant made by elders in full connection to offer themselves without
reserve to be appointed and to serve, after consultation, as the
appointment authority may determine as stated in Paragraph 324 in the
2000 Book of Discipline.
3. All appointments will be reviewed annually, but a goal of
appointment making will be to establish long-term pastorates where
possible and appropriate.
4. Open itineracy will be practiced with a congregation and a pastor.
Open itineracy means appointments are to be made without regard to race,
ethnic origin, gender, disability, marital status or age, except for the
provisions of mandatory retirement.
5. Legitimate needs of a pastor and/or her/his family will be taken
into serious consideration in making appointments.
6. Missional needs of the annual conference will be given priority
over geographical preferences in making appointments.
7. Tenure of service in the Florida Annual Conference and The United
Methodist Church will be a significant factor in the making of an
appointment when all of the other qualifications of pastors under
consideration for the appointment are relatively equal.
8. The bishop and the cabinet are not obligated to appoint a pastor
to a congregation with a salary that is equal to or higher than the
salary of the pastor’s present appointment.
9. Consultation with a pastor-parish relations committee will not
involve discussion of the names of pastors who might be available for an
appointment, and consultation with a pastor will not involve discussion
of the names of congregations to which the pastor might be appointed.
10. The appointment of an associate pastor to a congregation will be
made after consultation with the senior pastor and the pastor-parish
relations committee of the congregation. The names of prospective
associate pastors will be discussed with the senior pastor and the
pastor-parish relations committee. Communication with prospective
associate pastors will be permitted only with the approval of the
district superintendent of the congregation and the district
superintendents of the prospective associate pastors. The bishop and the
cabinet will receive a request by the senior pastor and the
pastor-parish relations committee for a particular person to be an
associate pastor. The final decision will be made by the bishop and the
cabinet in the context of the missional needs of the entire annual
conference.
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