Structure
The biennial General Council is the highest governing body of the C&MA. It elects officers, transacts business, enacts policies, and evaluates the progress of denominational ministries. Delegates include licensed workers (i.e. clergy), members of the board of directors, three representatives from each C&MA postsecondary educational institution, two lay delegates from each accredited church (with additional delegates for every 100 church members), national officers of Men and Women’s ministries, lay members of district executive committees, and retired and disabled missionaries and official workers.
A 28 member board of directors elected by General Council provides general oversight and management of the denomination and acts as the executive committee of the General Council when the council is not in session. National officers (president, vice president, secretary, treasurer) are ex officio members.
Churches are organized into either geographical or cultural districts. A district is led by a conference, a legislative body meeting once a year. The conference elects the district executive committee and a superintendent, the chief officer of the district. The ordination and licensing for clergy is the responsibility of districts.
Local churches elect their own officers and elders. Pastors are called by the elders but must be appointed by the district superintendent. Local church property is owned by the denomination.
Read more about this topic: Christian And Missionary Alliance
Famous quotes containing the word structure:
“Vashtar: So it’s finished. A structure to house one man and the greatest treasure of all time.
Senta: And a structure that will last for all time.
Vashtar: Only history will tell that.
Senta: Sire, will he not be remembered?
Vashtar: Yes, he’ll be remembered. The pyramid’ll keep his memory alive. In that he built better than he knew.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“One theme links together these new proposals for family policy—the idea that the family is exceedingly durable. Changes in structure and function and individual roles are not to be confused with the collapse of the family. Families remain more important in the lives of children than other institutions. Family ties are stronger and more vital than many of us imagine in the perennial atmosphere of crisis surrounding the subject.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)
“A committee is organic rather than mechanical in its nature: it is not a structure but a plant. It takes root and grows, it flowers, wilts, and dies, scattering the seed from which other committees will bloom in their turn.”
—C. Northcote Parkinson (1909–1993)