Chapter 16: every tradition · Christianity

The United Methodist Church

A congregation of The United Methodist Church: a service of Word and Table with hymns from the Wesleys, often a traditional service with organ and choir and a contemporary one with a band; communion at least monthly at an open table, where children are welcome; infants baptized by sprinkling, pouring, or immersion. The bishop appoints the pastor each year, and pastors move every several years. The building is held in trust for the denomination, and churches pay apportionments to their annual conference. Since 2024, each congregation and each pastor may decide whether to hold same-sex weddings.

All 80 traditions · its profile in Faiths and traditions, with how to play it; How people feel, what every factor is.

At a glance

Faith	Christianity
Its words	church, church, sanctuary; the pastor leads the service; the sermon; Sunday; the Bible
Worship	balanced focus, reserved, moderate formality (0.67 of 1); seated on pews
Music	organ expected; choir expected; chant discouraged; recorded discouraged
The room's sound	likes a ringing room (organ and choir)
Its year	western; full observance; fasts none
Leans	neutral on moral questions, liberal on economic ones
Polity	connectional; leaders come by itinerant; property trust
Leaders	one leader, full time, trained by seminary; marriage any
Belonging	moderate commitment, pastoral discipline, admitted by clergy
Giving	tithing taught; collected by pledges, plate, online; also rentals
Way of life	alcohol moderation, dress casual, sabbath relaxed

The week's services

Day	Time	Service	Led by	People look for it
Sunday	9:00 am	Praise and worship (contemporary)	the pastor	optional
Sunday	10:30 am	Preaching service (traditional)	the pastor	expected

Leader: a pastor. With none (a vacancy, or no one hired), the services are still held, but each costs everyone at it 0.10; on sabbatical a supply pastor stands in ($800 a month) for a little less. A small church shares its pastor with another, who leads only its first service of the week; each later one costs 0.03.
Communion (monthly), served at a rail: it needs an altar, communion table, rail, or communion station with clear floor in front of it, or communion can't be given that week. Everyone receives, infants too.
Baptism: needs a font, a baptistry, or an immersion font, built and installed; until there is one, those wanting baptism wait.
Lay helpers at each service: Expected: an acolyte, 2 communion servers (at communion); Optional: a liturgist.

Rites

Confirmation (yearly, +0.025 to those there): After a season of classes, young people (and adults) are confirmed: they affirm the faith they were baptized into, and the bishop or pastor lays hands on them and prays for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Love Feast (yearly, +0.03 to those there): A simple shared meal of fellowship, after the early church's agape: Methodists share bread and water; Moravian servers pass out sweet buns and coffee while the congregation sings; the Brethren join self-examination, feet washing, a meal and the bread and cup.
Healing Service (monthly, +0.02 to those there): A service of prayer for healing and wholeness: those who wish come forward for the laying on of hands and anointing with oil, and the congregation prays for the sick.
Covenant Renewal (yearly, +0.025 to those there): On the first Sunday of the year the congregation renews its covenant with God in John Wesley's service, praying together, "I am no longer my own, but thine."
Watch Night (yearly, +0.03 to those there): On New Year's Eve the church gathers to pray, sing and testify, and to see the new year in on their knees at midnight. In Black churches it also remembers Freedom's Eve, December 31, 1862.

Baptism, confirmation, and joining

Baptized elsewhere: it recognizes any baptism in the name of the Trinity. Someone so baptized is received at a service after about 1 week (a week from another of its churches).
Not baptized (or baptized where it doesn't recognize it): a candidate who is baptized and received at the same service.
Joining age: 13.
The church's children are baptized as babies, and are baptized members, without a vote until confirmed.
Confirmation: from about 13, a class of 9 months (in a classroom or an office, led by the pastor or a sunday school teacher) prepares them, and the rite makes them full members at 13 or so. It's held only when there are candidates.
Kinds of belonging: professing members (votes, may hold office); baptized members; received by the pastor.
What it means: being baptized, confirmed, or received is worth +0.1 to the person, +0.05 to family there, and +0.03 to everyone else at the service. It roots them: a rooted household drifts away only 0.6 times as often, and if it does fall away, it has a 25% chance of coming home each Christmas Eve and Easter for ten years.

Giving, and what goes up

How its people give and what else comes in, as Money explains it for every faith.

How it's given: the offering, by pledges, a plate passed at each main service, and giving online. A visiting household puts $5 to $25 in the plate. Those who give online give whether or not they come (8% more a month).
Pledges: a pledge drive each November for the year to come: a household with a member pledges with a chance of 0.9 × its engagement (a household of regulars, 0.3), about three quarters of what it could give, paid monthly from January and falling behind as it grows unhappy.
Renting space: its congregations are known for it, so tenants pay 15% more.
Fundraisers: only the modest ones (below).
Owed above: Apportionments, 12% of what it takes in, to the Annual Conference; not kept, it costs the wider body's regard.

The pastor, the staff, and who decides

How the pastor comes: sent by the District, which moves them on; you can't advertise for or dismiss one, but can ask for a move.
Paid: full time; housed by the congregation.
Who they are: trained at seminary; women among them (about a third); most married; about one married candidate in seven comes as a couple, caring for 75 more.
Tenure: reviewed by the wider body each July.
Ranks: Licensed local pastor, Provisional elder, Elder; a candidate holds one by skill, and rises with the years.
Staff it can hire or name (see Staff and volunteers):
- Bivocational pastor ($22,000–$38,000; cares for 75)
- Pastor ($55,000–$85,000 + $18,000 benefits, full time; cares for 150)
- Associate pastor ($42,000–$62,000 + $15,000 benefits, full time; cares for 100 more)
- Choir director / organist / pianist ($15,000–$35,000; leads the music (up to +0.06))
- Caretaker ($18,000–$30,000; slows the building's wear)
- Church secretary ($20,000–$35,000; runs the office (+50 to the leader's reach, once))
- Youth director ($20,000–$40,000; up to +0.08 for households with young people)
Its boards: the church council (deciding, over everything); the staff-parish relations committee (advising, over calls and the spiritual life); the trustees (deciding, over the building).
Renovations: The trustees votes.
New construction: The District votes.
Who votes: professing members, 16 and over.

Life together

What its Community screen offers it, with the dilemmas only its own faith or family meets; see The congregation in its community.

Ministries of its own: Choir.
Ministries every tradition can run that it's offered: Blood drive, Food pantry, Health clinic, Preschool, Youth group.
Fundraisers of its own: Soup supper.
Shared fundraisers it may hold (only the modest ones): Bake sale, Car wash, Rummage sale.
Tenants it can take: A Masonic lodge, A scout troop, A twelve-step group, Another congregation, Dance classes, Parties and receptions, Polling place and forums.
Auxiliaries: United Women in Faith.
Outreach: invitation Sunday (Community → Evangelism).
Places beyond the congregation: the conference camp.
Dilemmas of its own faith (besides those every congregation meets): A petition for cushions, The bells, again.
Dilemmas its code of life brings: A candidates' forum, A raffle for the roof, A recruiter asks for the hall, Champagne at the reception.

What the building needs

required AltarBelief in Christ's real presence in the Eucharist calls for an altar, the focal point of the sanctuary.
required Communion railCommunicants receive at a rail, kneeling or standing.
required Baptismal fontInfant baptism by pouring needs a baptismal font, traditionally near the entrance as a sign that baptism is entry into the church.
required PulpitWord and sacrament share the focus: a pulpit for preaching alongside the altar.
required sacristyVestments, sacred vessels, and paraments are kept and prepared in a sacristy.
expected Choir stallsA choir leads the singing and needs a place to stand or sit together.
expected CrossAn empty cross is the expected focal symbol.
expected LecternScripture readings are traditionally read from a lectern.
expected Pipe organThe congregation expects hymns led by an organ.
expected fellowship hallTables are set for the meal in the fellowship hall.
expected kitchenThe food and coffee are prepared in the kitchen.
discouraged CrucifixThis tradition uses an empty cross, proclaiming the risen Christ, rather than a crucifix.
discouraged Flaming chaliceThe flaming chalice is another tradition's symbol.
discouraged IconIcons are not part of this tradition's worship.
discouraged StatueStatues are not part of this tradition's worship space.

What people here feel

Architectural style: Colonial brick +0.028; Modern synagogue +0.046; Gurdwara +0.052; Japanese temple +0.056; Islamic +0.05; Shinto shrine +0.05; Chinese temple +0.044; Dravidian temple +0.038; Nagara temple +0.038; Thai temple +0.038; Jain marble +0.032; Gothic +0.026.
Building fit: up to ±0.15 for everyone, the average fit of the characterful items in its worship rooms (the table below).
Acoustics: it wants a ringing room, about 3.4 seconds of reverberation: stone, plaster, a high ceiling. Up to ±0.05.
Seasonal decor: it keeps the church year: paraments and the season's decor are worth up to ±0.027.
Solar panels: leaning liberal, it's glad of them (+0.02 at every service).
The sermon lands by its topic and the tradition's leaning (below); the pastor's preaching adds or costs up to 0.08 more.
Communion: each communion service runs longer; a slow one costs 0.05 for every 10 minutes the service runs over (0.2 at most).

How each sermon lands

The topics its leader can choose from (some are only for one faith or family), and what each is worth.

Social Justice Call+0.06
Care for Creation+0.04
Healing for All+0.04
Wealth & Poverty+0.04
Welcome the Stranger+0.04
Biblical Stories+0.015
Blessed Are the Peacemakers+0.015
Called by Name+0.015
Doubt & Faith+0.015
Eternal Life & Resurrection+0.015
Grace & Forgiveness+0.015
Gratitude+0.015
Hope & Comfort+0.015
Joy in All Things+0.015
Love One Another+0.015
Sabbath Rest+0.015
Saints & Witnesses+0.015
Servant Leadership+0.015
Songs of the Psalms+0.015
Stewardship & Generosity+0.015
The Church Year+0.015
The Life of Prayer+0.015
The Parables of Jesus+0.015
Faith & Family-0.02
Faith of Our Fathers-0.02
Interfaith Understanding-0.02
Obedience & Discipline-0.02
Personal Holiness-0.02
Reading Scripture in Context-0.02
Resisting Temptation-0.02
Spiritual Warfare-0.02
Swords into Ploughshares-0.02
The Authority of Scripture-0.02
The Great Commission-0.02
The Prophets' Call-0.02
Women Who Led-0.02
Marriage as God Designed-0.03
Racial Justice & Reconciliation-0.03
Radical Inclusion-0.03
Sanctity of Life-0.03
The Last Days-0.03
Fire & Brimstone-0.04

Every item, for this tradition

Fit runs from −1 (jars) to +1 (just right); the building fit is the average over the characterful items in the worship rooms. An item with no character (a table, a toilet) has no fit. A rule applies wherever the item is.

Item	Fit	Rule
Seating
Box pew	+0.333
Choir stalls	+0.667	expected A choir leads the singing and needs a place to stand or sit together.
Meeting bench	no fit
Oak pew	no fit
Row of chairs	0
Liturgical furniture
Altar	+0.333	required Belief in Christ's real presence in the Eucharist calls for an altar, the focal point of the sanctuary.
Baptismal font	+0.333	required Infant baptism by pouring needs a baptismal font, traditionally near the entrance as a sign that baptism is entry into the church.
Baptistry	no fit
Bishop's chair	+0.333
Brass eagle lectern	+0.333
Columbarium niches	+0.333
Communion rail	+0.333	required Communicants receive at a rail, kneeling or standing.
Communion station	no fit
Communion table	no fit
Communion trays	no fit
Confessional screen	no fit
Coptic cross	+1
Epitaphios	-1
Flaming chalice	-1	discouraged The flaming chalice is another tradition's symbol.
Foot-washing basins	no fit
Haikal screen	-1
Iconostasis	-1
Immersion font	+0.333
Lectern	no fit	expected Scripture readings are traditionally read from a lectern.
Litany desk	+0.333
Mercy seat	no fit
Octagonal stone font	+0.333
Paraments	no fit
Pulpit	no fit	required Word and sacrament share the focus: a pulpit for preaching alongside the altar.
Readers' desks	no fit
Rood screen	-1
Sanctuary lamp	+0.333
Tabernacle	+0.333
Three-bar cross	+1
Thurible and stand	no fit
Music
Brass band stands	0
Chanter's stand	-0.333
Drum kit	0
Electronic organ	+1
Grand piano	0
Hammond organ	0
Handbell table	0
Pipe organ	+0.667	expected The congregation expects hymns led by an organ.
Sound system	0
Upright piano	0
Decor
Advent wreath	no fit
Banner	0
Christmas Eve candles	no fit
Cross	+1	expected An empty cross is the expected focal symbol.
Crucifix	-1	discouraged This tradition uses an empty cross, proclaiming the risen Christ, rather than a crucifix.
Easter lilies	no fit
Eternal flame	no fit
Flag of the church	0
Great dome	+0.333
Icon	-1	discouraged Icons are not part of this tradition's worship.
Memorial plaque	no fit
National flag	0
Painting of Christ	0
Paschal candle	no fit
Plain spire	no fit
Small dome	no fit
Stained glass window	+0.333
Statue	-1	discouraged Statues are not part of this tradition's worship space.
Steeple and bells	+0.333
Votive candle stand	no fit
Furnishings
Alms box	no fit
Coffee pot	no fit
Commercial coffee pot	no fit
Computer	no fit
Crib	no fit
Desk	no fit
Desk chair	no fit
Folding table	no fit
Full-length mirror	no fit
Pillar	+0.333
Prie-dieu	+0.333
Projection screen	0
Vestment cabinet	+0.333
Wooden table	no fit
Utility
A/V rack	no fit
Camera	no fit
Cast-iron boiler	no fit
Central air conditioner	no fit
Commercial HVAC plant	no fit
Commercial stove	no fit
Congregation van	no fit
Ductless heat pump	no fit
Electric wall heater	no fit
Gas furnace	no fit
Hearing loop	no fit
Lift	no fit
Packaged heat pump	no fit
Plumbing stack	no fit
Ramp	no fit
Shuttle bus	no fit
Sink	no fit
Solar panels	no fit
Stairs	no fit
Toilet	no fit
Used school bus	no fit
Wall camera	no fit
Window air conditioner	no fit
Grounds
Evergreen tree	no fit
Flower bed	no fit
Fountain	no fit
Garden bench	no fit
Hedge	no fit
Lychgate	+0.333
Playground	no fit
Shade tree	no fit
Standing cross	no fit

Variants

Chosen when you found the church:

Contemporary: its own services: Praise and worship, sunday at 10:30 am; Preaching service, sunday at 8:30 am; its own formality; its own music

Sources

By Water and the Spirit: A United Methodist Understanding of Baptism (General Conference, 1996)
This Holy Mystery: A United Methodist Understanding of Holy Communion (General Conference, 2004)
An open table: How United Methodists understand communion (umc.org) (link)
United Methodist sacraments, rites and rituals (umc.org) (link)
The United Methodist Book of Worship (1992)
The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church (link)
Social Principles: The Social Community (umc.org) (link)
Apportioned Funds (umc.org) (link)
United Methodist Church (Wikipedia) (link)