Ordered Ministry
- Oversee pastoral transitions, guiding pastors and churches during transitions in pastoral leadership.
- Recommend to the presbytery the establishment and dissolution of pastoral relationships.
- Approve and present terms of call for services of teaching elders.
- Examine teaching elders or candidates seeking membership in the presbytery.
- Recommend the transfer of teaching elders to other presbyteries.
- Approve contractual arrangements for temporary pastoral relationships.
- Appoint moderators of session for congregations without a called pastor.
- Nominate to the presbytery membership for administrative commissions.
- Recommend to the presbytery minimum compensation standards for installed pastoral calls, temporary pastoral service, commissioned ruling elders, and certified Christian educators; receive reports from sessions of their annual salary review.
- Recommend to the presbytery, oversee, and supervise commissioned ruling elders called to pastoral service in congregations.
- Develop written criteria for validating ministries within its bounds; to recommend to presbytery the validation of specialized ministries and maintain connections.
- Maintain a pulpit supply list, developing criteria for approval and compensation standards, update the list at least annually.
- Plan for appropriate farewells for those leaving the presbytery or retiring from parish ministry and make arrangements with the presbytery moderator for meeting docket time.
Preparation
- Guide, nurture and oversee the process of becoming a teaching elder, commissioned ruling elder or certified Christian educator, following the process and procedures as outlined in the Constitution of the PC(U.S.A.)
- To have the authority to dismiss candidates to another presbytery or denomination for examination and/or for ordination, with the provision that all such actions be reported to the next stated meeting of the presbytery.
- Prepare, maintain, and implement a training, examination, and commissioning process for ruling elders when the presbytery’s strategy for mission requires the need for commissioning to serve congregations.
- Recommend nominees for Ordination Examination Readers to the Committee on Representation for election
Conflict Management
- Provide basic conflict awareness and management training for congregational leaders and members of the Committee on Ministry.
- Counsel with sessions concerning reported difficulties within a congregation; advise sessions as to appropriate actions to be taken to resolve reported difficulties; offer the assistance of a mediator and/or coach. Book of Order
- Act to resolve difficulties if requested to do so by a session, or if the session is unable or unwilling to do so, following the procedural safeguards of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Rules of Discipline. Book of Order