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Church Leadership

Local Church
A new Lewis Center for Church Leadership report compares characteristics of disaffiliating churches with those remaining in The United Methodist Church. The report draws on data from the denomination’s General Council on Finance and Administration and other sources. Among the findings is that disaffiliating churches are more likely to have a male pastor and to have a majority white membership. Info courtesy of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership, graphic by Laurens Glass, UM News.

Report sheds light on disaffiliating churches
The Lewis Center for Church Leadership finds that departing churches are overwhelmingly from the South and Southwest and are more likely to be majority white and led by a male pastor.
Church History
Bishop Woodie W. White, the first executive secretary of the General Commission on Religion and Race and the first Black person to head a United Methodist general agency, was tasked with the oversight of the merger of the Central Jurisdiction annual conferences and the geographical annual conferences. Photo courtesy of the Council of Bishops; graphic by Laurens Glass, UM News.

Ask The UMC: Pioneers in Methodism — Bishop Woodie W. White
Bishop Woodie W. White has been a pioneer in every appointment he served in The United Methodist Church.
Church Leadership
The Rev. Karen Jeffcoat gives instructions to Yves Kinangwa, pastor at Coffeyville-Edna, before lunch break during the Great Plains Conference Board of Ordained Ministry credentialing process. Photo courtesy of the Great Plains Conference.

Conference sees record 50 clergy candidates
The Great Plains Conference Board of Ordained Ministry — or BoOM for short — has seen a boom of its own this year. A record 50 candidates interviewed from Jan. 31 to Feb. 2 at Topeka First United Methodist Church as part of the credentialing process that will lead to ordination.
General Church
Worshippers attend Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. The AME Church now has a retirement plan with Wespath Benefits and Investments, The United Methodist Church’s pension and benefits agency. The program is allowing the AME Church to get a fresh start after a crisis in its pension system. Photo by R. Kennedy for VISIT PHILADELPHIA®.

Wespath expands services to Methodist kin
The United Methodist Church’s pension agency is now offering retirement benefits to both the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Global Methodist Church — building closer ties in a time of upheaval.

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