263. Program Support Personnel--1. The charge conference may elect a superintendent of the church school or Sunday school who shall be responsible, under the guidance of the education work area chairperson or commission and the pastor or representative of the employed staff, for the supervision of the total program of education in the church. Responsibilities may include: (a) serving as the administrator of the church school; (b) working with the Christian education or nurture work area in the selection of church school teachers and leaders for approval by the council on ministries or administrative council; (c) identifying the needs for various kinds of study opportunities and recommending plans for a study program in accordance with those needs; (d) serving as an educational consultant to persons responsible for the Christian education of children, the Christian education of youth, the Christian education of adults, and Christian education for marriage and family life; (e) developing and implementing programs to promote Church school attendance and participation; and (f) evaluating the effectiveness of the study program of the Church. When desirable, in Churches with small membership, the charge conference may combine responsibilities of the superintendent of the Church school and the chairperson of the work area on education.
2. The health and welfare ministries representative, if elected, shall assist the local Church and its people to be involved in direct service to persons in need, especially in the areas of child care, aging, health care, and handicapping conditions, and shall help coordinate these ministries. The representative shall serve as the chairperson of the committee on health and welfare ministries, if it is organized, or may serve as a member of the work areas on missions and church and society.
The responsibilities of this representative shall be: (a) to act as liaison between the local Church and district and annual conference health and welfare ministries units; to act as liaison between the local church and the Health and Welfare Ministries Department of the General Board of Global Ministries; and to make use of guidance materials and leadership training from these units; (b) to help the local church to know about, to support and to make use of services through health and welfare institutions and programs within the annual conference that are related to a connectional unit of The United Methodist Church; (c) to promote within the local Church the observance of the Golden Cross offering and other means of giving for health and welfare ministries; (d) to work through the council on ministries or administrative council and with other groups in the Church and community to locate human need in the Church and community, to support existing programs or to initiate new programs, including local Church direct service ministries, and to advocate needed social change; (e) to encourage the local Church to be aware of the gifts and needs of persons with handicapping conditions, as well as the need for the local Church to be structurally and programmatically accessible; (f) and shall, in cooperation with the Board of Trustees, conduct or cause to be conducted an annual accessibility audit of their buildings, grounds, and facilities to discover and identify what physical, architectural, and communication barriers exist that impede the full participation of persons with handicapping conditions; and shall make plans and determine priorities for the elimination of all such barriers. The Accessibility Audit for Churches shall be used in filling out the annual Church/charge conference reports.
3. The coordinator of communications, if elected, shall assist Church members with communication tasks, which are a responsibility of all Christians, making available ideas, resources, and skills. The coordinator shall advise and assist work areas, committees and organizations of the local church with their communications. She/he shall help to accomplish effective communications throughout the congregation and make resources available, utilizing district, conference, and general Church agencies. Major areas of responsibility are: (a) external communications, to the community; (b) internal communications, within the congregation, including devices and interpreters to aid communications for persons with vision and hearing handicapping conditions; (c) promotion of local, district, conference, and churchwide program and benevolences; and (d) production of video resources for the ministry and outreach of the congregation.
General Conference Webmaster: Susan Brumbaugh
PETS Creator: John Brawn
1992 Book of Discipline: ¶ 263
1996 United Methodist General Conference