ORGANISATION OF THE METHODIST CHURCH: PART 5

Structure of the Methodist Church locally

The governing body of any local Methodist church is the Church Council. This consists of a number of members of the local church. As the church is a charity, each member of the Church Council has to be a trustee and their names are provided to the UK Charity Commission. They are responsible (individually and as group) for ensuring that nothing is done to contravene the rules for a UK charity. If something improper did occur, then the trustees could be prosecuted. However, insurance is taken out to try to ensure that, provided the trustees have acted in good faith, any financial penalties are paid by the insurers.

Normally, in any Methodist church, the minister acts as the chair of the Church Council. All other members are unpaid volunteers. At Solihull Methodist Church, the Council has about 40 members and there are usually three meetings each year. These are normally on a Monday evening and are held in the church. Anybody can attend these meetings. However, on the few occasions when a vote is required, only the members of the Council can do so.

While Church Council meetings are necessary (if only to satisfy the rules for charities), they can be fairly mundane. They can involve receiving reports from church committees and groups, approving membership of those committees, looking at the church finances, approving ideas for how the church grounds should be managed. Sometimes things can be a little more exciting, perhaps when a decision needs to be discussed about: how to manage the car park, which charity to support for the church project, whether to employ another lay worker.