Leaders to lead the evangelistic and other lay activities of the Church. Lay Leaders may become sources of great power in the work of the Church.

Chairman of the Evangelistic Committee.—It is the duty of the first Quarterly Conference of each Conference year to elect an Evangelistic Committee, and the chairman of that Committee becomes a member of the Quarterly Conference.

Chairman of the Social Service Committee.-The Social Service Committee is chosen in the same manner as the Evanglistic Committee, and its chairman also has membership in the Quarterly Conference.

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER IV

1. Mention some offices in the Methodist Church that are held by preachers.

2. How are bishops chosen? How long do they hold office?

3. Name some duties of bishops.

4. What is an itinerant preacher?

5. How are presiding elders chosen? What are some of their duties?

6. What is a preacher in charge? How is he appointed? Name some of his duties?

7. Name some other offices to which itinerants may be appointed.

8. What is a local preacher? How may a member become a local preacher?

9. What general offices in the Church may be held by a layman?

10. What Annual Conference offices may a layman hold? 11. What offices are usually filled by laymen in the local Church?

12. What are the duties of a steward? A trustee? A Sunday school superintendent?

13. What are the duties of an exhorter?

14. The duties of the President of an Epworth League? 15. Of a lay leader?

16. Who constitute the official Board of a Church?

ᏟᎻᎪᏢᎢᎬᎡ Ꮩ .

THE METHODIST MINISTRY

66

IN these lessons words are used in their most usual sense. This is no place for drawing fine distinctions. There has been not a little discussion, for instance, as to whether the episcopacy as we have it is an "order" or an "office." That discussion has turned on whether the New Testament gives three orders in the ministry, or only two; whether there were deacons, elders, and bishops, or whether the office of bishop was simply one to which an elder was assigned or elected. In the sense of ordination there are three orders in the Methodist Church: deacons, elders, and bishops for a man is inducted into either order by the laying on of hands. But there is this difference: We "ordain" deacons and elders and consecrate" bishops. This is done, not because there is any specific command in the New Testament on the subject, but to safeguard our ministry against the ignorant and those who are unsound in doctrine or life, and to give the Church a fair chance to vouch for the character and ability of those whom it sends to the people as pastors, or shepherds. But the practice of ordination has ample warrant in both the letters and the example of the first apostles, and it is a custom that is almost universal among Christian denominations. According to their ministerial standing, there are in the Methodist Church four classes, grades, or ranks of preachers:licentiates, deacons, elders, and bishops.

1. Licentiates

A licentiate is a man who has been granted authority by a District Conference to preach. His license carries no authority to administer the sacraments or perform the marriage service, but a licentiate who is a pastor may perform marriage and administer baptism in his own

pastoral charge. Before a man can be granted a license to preach he must be recommended to the Quarterly Conference of the charge where he holds Church membership, must pass an approved examination on a course of study prescribed by the bishops, and must satisfy the District Conference that he is in other respects a proper person to trust with such authority. Each District Conference also elects a Licensing Committee of six or four, which may act in emergencies between the session of the District Conference and the next Annual Conference. For example: If a young man wished to enter an Annual Conference, but had not been licensed by the District Conference, the presiding elder could call together the Licensing Committee and it could grant him a license to preach and recommend him for admission on trial. In the case of a local preacher, a license holds good only until the next District Conference. A license must be renewed from year to year until its holder is ordained deacon, when his orders confer permanent authority to preach and administer baptism and perform the marriage service, whether he is a local or traveling preacher.

2. Deacons

In order to become a deacon, a preacher must preach two years, if an itinerant, or four years as a local preacher. A traveling preacher must pass an approved examination on the prescribed course of study, be recommended by the Examining Committee, and be elected to the office by the Annual Conference, after which he is ordained by a bishop. There are some exceptions to this rule in favor of chaplains in the army and foreign missionaries.

Before a local preacher can become a deacon, he must preach not less than four years, pass an approved examination by a District Conference Committee on the prescribed course of study, and be recommended by the District Conference. After that his case takes the same course as that of a traveling preacher. A preacher holding or entitled to deacon's orders, and having been on trial for two years,

may be admitted into full connection in the Annual Conference, and when so admitted he is entitled to take part in all its proceedings.

A deacon may perform all the offices of the ministry, except administering the Lord's Supper, and assist in the ordination of other preachers. He may assist with the Lord's Supper.

3. Elders

Before a preacher is eligible for elder's orders, he must have been a deacon not less than two years if a traveling preacher, and not less than four years if a local preacher. In either case, a deacon obtains elder's orders by substantially the same process that was followed for deacon's orders.

An elder is eligible to appointment as presiding elder, and to do all the work of the ministry except the ordination of other preachers, and he may assist a bishop in the ordination of elders.

4. Bishops

A bishop is elected by ballot by the General Conference and consecrated to the office "by the laying on of the hands of three bishops, or at least of one bishop and two elders." The number of bishops to be chosen is determined by each General Conference. Bishops hold office for life, or during good behavior; and let it be said to the credit of the bishops that not one of them has ever been expelled from office.

The Itinerancy

"A marked peculiarity of Methodism is the itinerancy of her ministry. It is a simple and easy plan of shifting the ministers from one field of labor to another. It requires three things:

"1. That the congregations give up their right to choose their pastors.

"2. That the ministers surrender their right to select their own field of labor.

"3. That the appointment be referred to a competent, impartial, untrammeled, but responsible authority arranged by the law of the Church.

"Both the people and ministers, however, are at liberty to make known their peculiar condition, wishes, and circumstances to the appointing power. And thus, under this elastic system, all parties have their own choice, when it is clear that the good of the work will be served. While the bishops have the sole authority of making the appointments, yet they always do so under the advice of the presiding elders.

"The peculiar advantages of the system are that it keeps all the Churches constantly supplied with pastors. The weak and poor Churches are as regularly supplied as rich ones. Though such Churches be out of the way, and able to pay but little, yet they always have a pastor. Consequently, we never have what is so frequently found in otherdenominations—viz., vacant churches. No effective preacher in this system is ever found without a pastoral charge." (H. T. Hudson, in "Methodist Armor.")

The Work of a Bishop

A bishop has charge of a certain number of Annual Conferences. The bishops meet in the spring of the year and divide the Conferences among themselves. The law of the Church lays down no plan for doing this, but the custom is to have a committee of three, in rotation, who fix the assignments of all the bishops except those who on account of age of infirmity are no longer on the effective list. It is the duty of a bishop to travel through the Conference that he has in charge and to exercise the closest possible oversight of all the interests of the Church in those Conferences. He must preside at the Annual Conference, select the presiding elders, fix the number of districts and their boundaries, decide how the pastoral charges shall be formed, appoint the preachers to their work, ordain the deacons and elders, decide questions of law, and attend to numerous other general and special duties pertaining to the