1202. Responsibilities--All the responsibilities assigned to the units within the board shall be considered to be the responsibilities of the board. In addition to these, the board shall have authority:
1. To provide for special publications directed toward the local Church age-level and family ministry coordinators, the work area chairpersons, the pastor, and the other local Church officers for whom the board has primary responsibility.
2. To manage and publish The Upper Room, Alive Now!, and other devotional life publications.
3. To provide resources, guidance, and training to related district and annual conference agencies and their committees; to local Church administrative officers; councils on ministries; age-level and family ministry councils; work area chairpersons for evangelism, stewardship, worship, and local Church education; and work area commissions and task groups.
4. To cooperate with the various agencies of the Church in the training and nurturing of pastors and lay persons for leadership in the areas of evangelism, stewardship, worship, local Church education and ministry of the laity, in creating new congregations; and in initiating new forms of ministry.
5. To provide programs for the training of pastors, parents, teachers, officials, and others in the work of the local Church and to promote these programs through various types of training events, correspondence work, and such other agencies as it may see fit to establish. It shall have authority also to promote and conduct conferences, consultations, assemblies, and other meetings to further the work assigned to the board.
6. To develop and provide organizational, written, and consultative resources for pastoral charges, circuits, cooperative parish ministries, and stations (205, 206) in consultation with the appropriate units of other boards, and to interpret how local Church programs of nurture, outreach, and witness ministries can be enriched and enhanced through the utilization of connectional relationships and resources.
7. To develop a unified and comprehensive program and resources for leadership training to serve all age groups in the home, Church, and community.
8. To plan and administer a comprehensive youth ministry; to enable and strengthen the ministry with and to youth at all levels of the Church, including the calling together of youth and adults.
9. To provide representation in ecumenical and interdenominational agencies as they relate to the work of the board.
10. To respond to requests and needs for ministries in other lands in consultation with the General Board of Global Ministries and other agencies.
11. To engage in research, experimentation, innovation, and the testing and evaluation of programs, resources, and methods to discover more effective ways to help persons achieve the purpose set forth in 1201. This responsibility will include authority for experimentation and research in all areas of ministry assigned to the General Board of Discipleship and will encourage cooperation with other agencies in the conduct of such research and experimentation. This research and experimentation may be assigned to appropriate units within the board.
12. To ensure that ethnic local Church concerns shall be an integral part of the total life of the board, providing guidance, resourcing and training so that these concerns are incorporated in all areas of discipleship in the local Church.
General Conference Webmaster: Susan Brumbaugh
PETS Creator: John Brawn
1992 Book of Discipline: ¶ 1202
1996 United Methodist General Conference