ORGANISATION OF THE METHODIST CHURCH: PART 6

Stewards

In any Methodist church, the stewards are members of the church who are responsible for the day-to-day running of the church. In particular, it is they who need to ensure that any decisions made by the Church Council are acted upon. They also need to ensure that things run smoothly for all church services throughout the year. They therefore need to work closely with the minister.

At Solihull Methodist Church, the aim is to have a team of six stewards at any one time. Each steward is normally appointed for a three year period. The aim is also to have two stewards in their first year of serving, two in their second year, and two in their third and final year. The last two are the senior stewards and they perhaps carry most of the responsibility of the team. The idea is that in the summer of each year, the two senior stewards retire and two new stewards are appointed; the four remaining steward then “move up one place”. So effectively a new steward has two years to learn about what is going on within the church before he or she becomes a senior steward.

Perhaps the most visible roles for stewards are what happens on a Sunday morning. At Solihull, there are usually two stewards on duty: one “looks after” the preacher, particularly if he or she is a visitor; the other has tasks such as opening the church, making sure the heating is on or opening the windows as appropriate, putting the hymn numbers on the board, providing a glass of water for the preacher, and clearing up and locking the building after the service.

However stewards do other things as well. There needs to be a steward as a member of every church committee: this ensures that collectively the stewards team knows what is going on. The stewards need to think about things in advance, for example: ordering a Christmas tree and ensuring it is decorated and then removed after Christmas; making arrangements for any special services or activities such as those in Advent and Lent; and sorting out quickly any issues which arise unexpectedly. At Solihull, there is also normally a formal meeting of the stewards, together with the minister, once a month.