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Front Page
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Lay News
Youth News
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Lay FYI's
The Lay Organizaton will meet on Tuesday, November 14 at 6:30pm. Please contact Sis. Gregory for more info.
Please vote! Let's all make a difference. Express your opinions at the polls, our community needs you.
Ask Julie
If you have doubts about certain aspects of the AME Church don't remain in the dark, step into the light and contact Sis. Julie Catledge, our Lay Representive here at Praise. Ask Julie, she'll be more than happy to school you on all aspects of the AME Discipline.
NOTE: If you have an interesting tidbit that you beleive Praise might be interested in, please submit info to our editor via email or contact Bro. Mike Catledge after worship services.
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Lay News |
Know Your Church: The Itinerant Minister
by Sis. Julie Catledge
This month we shall attempt to enlighten the church's laypersons on the duties and responsibilities of our presiding itinerant minister, i.e.. the pastor. At Flipper Chapel our Itinerant Minister is Rev. Melvin Bell. Picking up the 1996 edition of the Doctrine and Discipline of the AME Church (the 2000 edition has yet to be published), you will find (26) listed specific duties of the itinerant minister in Part V (The Ministry); Section VI-B(The Itinerant Ministry-Responsibilities). Here, I shall highlight just some of those listed and they are paraphrased as follows:
- He/She must be diligent; never unemployed; never triflingly employed.
- He/She must attend the presiding elder
- He/She shall take charge of all local elders, deacons, preachers, and shorters, etc.
- He/She shall search out from among the membership and their families young people for the ministry and shall help them...
- He/She shall convene the Official Board of the Church at the beginning of the conference year for the purpose of lying before this board plans for the administration of the Church. They shall explain the plan for financing..outline a calendar of events for the year...suggest overall budgets...state plans for the raising of funds to meet general budget and annual conference obligations.
- He/She shall call and preside over boards of Stewards, trustees and all meetings for transaction of spiritual and temporal business of the charge, excepting those called to inquire into complaints or charges against the pastor.
- He/She shall host Watch Night meetings. love feasts and Quarterly Conferences in the absence or at the request of the Presiding Elder.
- He/She shall travel and labor in the charge, conduct divine service, visit the sick, recommend decency and cleanliness, and enforce vigorously but calmly all the rules of the society and every part of the AME Discipline.
- He/She shall assign all persons received on probation to a separate and special class, keep them in at least 90 days...
These and many other responsibilities are contained therein and I encourage you to thumb through the Discipline and make yourself more familiar with the pastor's duties and responsibilities. Now, most of those items listed above we should all be somewhat familiar with as they have been done routinely by most of the pastors of our faith. However, there are other activities charged to the pastor that, hopefully, will never have to be enforced at Flipper. Such as :
- He/She shall receive, try, and expel members according to the Discipline of the AME Church and at every Quarterly Conference read the names of these persons.
- He/She shall suspend a Steward from the office for sufficient cause and appoint a Steward in his/her stead, the course and action to be reviewed and finally disposed of by the Quarterly Conference.
In addition to these responsibilities, the Discipline offers several suggestions regarding the disbursement of God's Word (i.e., preaching). Likewise, there are (9) rules governing the behavior of the itinerant minister as well as a section outlining the how he/she should conduct his/her personal life. The African Methodist Episcopal Church has provided for the Itinerant Ministry these guidelines, which serves to aid the pastor as well as the local society. Interwoven throughout the text of the AME Disciple you will find biblical verses, for without the power of the Word The Doctrine and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church has no substance.
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The Eleventh Episcopal District will be holing it's annual planning meeting for the 2000-2001 Conference year on November 16-18 in Jacksonville--Bishop John Hurst Adams officiating. The gathering will b held at the Radisson Riverwalk Hotel. For more information concerning travel and reservations, please contact Sis. Beulah Gregory or Sis. Julie Catledge, the lay representative at Praise.