523. Administration--1. To schedule and preside, or authorize an elder to preside, in each annual charge conference or Church conference within the district (247, 249).
2. To administer the district office including supervision of support staff (711.1a; 759.4a).
3. To develop adequate compensation for all clergy, including provision for housing, utilities, travel, and continuing education.
4. To cooperate with the district board of Church location and building and local Church boards of trustees or building committees in arranging acquisitions, sales, transfers, and mortgages of property; and to ensure that all charters, deeds, and other legal documents conform to the Discipline and to the laws, usages, and forms of the county, state, territory, or country within which such property is situated, and to keep copies thereof.
5. Prior to consenting to the proposed action to sell or transfer any United Methodist Church property to ensure that an investigation be made and a plan of action be developed for the future missional needs of the community by The United Methodist Church.
6. To keep accurate and complete records for one's successor including:
a) All abandoned Church properties and cemeteries within the bounds of the district;
b) All Church properties being permissively used by other religious organizations, with the names of the local trustees thereof;
c) All known endowments, annuities, trust funds, investments, and unpaid legacies belonging to any pastoral charge or organization connected therewith in the district and an accounting of their management;
d) Membership of persons from Churches which have been closed.
7. To promote current and deferred financial support in local Churches for district, conference, and denominational causes.
8. To develop with appropriate district committees strategies that give careful attention to the needs of Churches of small membership and to the formation of cooperative ministries.
9. To transfer members of a discontinued Church to another United Methodist church of their choice or to such other Churches as members may elect.
10. To recommend to the bishop for approval, after consultation with the Churches involved, any realignment of pastoral charge lines and report them to the annual conference.
11. To serve within the district as acting administrator of any pastoral charge in which a pastoral vacancy may develop or where no pastor has been appointed.13
12. To see that the provisions of the Discipline are observed and to interpret and decide all questions of Church law and discipline raised by the churches in the district, subject to an appeal to the president of the annual conference.
13. Secure an annual audit report of any and all district funds and send a copy to the district conference or annual conference council on finance and administration.
13See Judicial Council Decision 581.
General Conference Webmaster: Susan Brumbaugh
PETS Creator: John Brawn
1992 Book of Discipline: ¶ 523
1996 United Methodist General Conference