Emphasis Preaching Journal

A district superintendent in the United Methodist church, along with a dozen other district superintendents and the bishop, is responsible for the appointment of pastors to churches in his district. A superintendent reported that the process becomes an excruciating exercise when appointing pastors to mid-size congregations. These congregations, which compose the vast percentage of churches in a conference, are average in size. And a pastor often will not accept an appointment to one of these average-size congregations because no pastor considers himself or herself to be average.