Part 2. CHARACTERISTICS

3. Government

HE government of a church, like the government of a state, may run to extremes. There may be a centralization of power in an individual or individuals who hold their offices for life and with small restraint make and enforce laws for the organization. The Roman Catholic Church is an example of this. Here there is little division of ultimate responsibility. While there are some advantages in any form of dictatorship, such rule is hardly fit for intelligent and morally accountable beings who, in the last analysis, have no right to and cannot delegate personal responsibility.

     At the extreme opposite is a congregational form which allows each individual church and pastor to do pretty much as they like so long as the local people are satisfied, giving no answer to a larger governing body. The weakness of such a system is that it may allow a local church to become the prey of a gifted bad leader who may or may not be sincere; it leaves the property where it may at any time be lost by the general church, also it is quite impossible for a general church to deal with local cases of heresy or wrong, and it is a great cause of weakness in the general work of a church.

     The men who founded the Free Methodist Church had been Methodists. They realized that one of the great causes for the growth of Methodism in America was the strong organization under the leadership of able and holy men. It was therefore natural that they should choose the Methodist form of government. But inasmuch as these men felt that they had suffered persecution and were denied a final hearing in the mother church, partly by bishops who were elected for life, who had great power and who misused that power, it was natural that they should limit the authority of such officers and elect them for definite periods.

     Also among the general modifications of government were the following:

     1. From the first laymen were given practically equal representation and full power of expression with ministers in all the conferences and General Conferences. This right to laymen came in the Methodist Church many years after the organization of Free Methodism.

     2. Women were not from the first but in time were allowed temporary voting power, full conference membership, and finally ordination.

     3. The rights of laymen to retain church membership and the rights of ministers to trial and appeal were granted to a degree unknown in the Methodist Church in the 1860’s.

     In general the government of the Free Methodist Church may be described as a modified episcopacy, with the authority very decidedly coming from the rank and file of the ministry and the people.

     So let us trace the power from its source up, for this is the true order in the Free Methodist Church.

     At any general meeting of the local membership new members may be received into the Free Methodist Church according to the general rules of the church, but only upon the vote of the local society. Also the local church or circuit elect their Sunday-school superintendents, class leaders, trustees, stewards, and other local church officers who, with others, make up the official board. And it is here that talent and call to the ministry are first officially recognized. And the local church or churches elect one of their number to represent them in the annual conference.

     The next governing body above the local and circuit organization is the district conference. This body is composed of all of the ministers holding membership within the district and all the laymen of all the official boards of the district. Here, of course, the laymen are in an overwhelming majority. Here reports are heard and plans made for the advancement of the work on the district.

     The annual conference is composed of all the ministers holding their membership in this conference and the lay delegates elected by the various churches or circuits of the conference. While the representation of the two classes is theoretically equal, it is modified to some extent by the fact that ministers holding membership in the conference are members of any annual session even if not appointed to circuits or charges. There being no laymen to match the preachers who are not serving churches, the number of ministers sitting in a conference is usually slightly larger than laymen. The annual conference elects its own district or conference elders or superintendents, hears the reports of preachers, appoints the preachers to their fields of labor, and in general plans for the work within the territory of the conference field.

     Besides this, the ministers of the annual conference elect ministers to represent them at the General Conference, and the laymen elect laymen to represent them at that meeting. Each conference is allowed members of the General Conference in proportion to the number of members in the churches of the conference, but each conference is represented by at least one minister and one layman.

     The General Conference is composed of all the ministerial and lay delegates elected by the annual conferences, also the bishops of the church are ex-officio members. The membership of these chief shepherds is the only modification of the rule of equal representation.

     The General Conference, which meets in June once in four years, is a law-making body and the only lawmaking body of the church. However, the power of this body is limited by “restrictive rules.” Certain things cannot be done even by the General Conference until there is a consent by three-fourths of the voting members of the annual conferences.

     The General Conference makes plans for the welfare of the whole church, considers evangelism, schools, Sunday schools, missions, benevolences, reforms, publishing interests, young people, church property, etc., etc.

     Also this conference elects the general officers of the church—bishops, editors and general secretaries. These are elected for four years only, and may be re-elected indefinitely. Besides this, the conference elects its “Board of Administration,” which consists ordinarily of about thirty-one persons. Of this board the bishops are ex-officio members.

     The Board of Administration divides itself into four commissions: 1. Executive; 2. Missions; 3. Christian Education (including Sunday schools); and 4. Evangelism, Charities and Benevolences, and Church Extension. This board, working through its commissions and in its final control of all matters, governs the church during the interim of the General Conference, but according to the limitations placed upon it by the General Conference, to which it is subject.

     Theoretically all of the churches and parsonages of the denomination are deeded to the Free Methodist Church of North America. Most of the titles are so held. The churches are required to receive the pastors sent to them by the annual conferences of which they are a part. By these arrangements the general church can control the doctrinal teaching and general official behavior of pastors and people.

     It would probably be impossible to find a church that has chosen a more happy mean between extremes of government. While it may not be, and of course is not, perfect there is still here a fine combination of democracy and general church function and control which makes the government as near ideal as human institutions usually become.