What Do Bishops Do?

Perhaps you first heard the word "bishop" when you learned how to play chess. The bishop pieces, set on each side of the royal couple, can move diagonally for an unlimited number of spaces across the board. Of course the pieces on a chess board represented real-life roles in medieval Europe, but the job of a bishop is still a modern one. Not all varieties of churches call their leaders bishops, but the United Methodist Church does. This post presents a brief explanation of a bishop's role.

There is some -- but not much -- biblical evidence that the title of bishop was used by the end of the New Testament period. The Greek word episkopos shows up in a few instances, but it probably did not mean what bishop does today  -- it was almost definitely not an official title back then. Most English translations do not even translate episkopos as "bishop" in every occurrence in the New Testament. Take the NRSV:

• Acts 20:28 - Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son
• 1 Timothy 3:2-3 - Now a bishop must be above reproach, married only once, temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, an apt teacher, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, and not a lover of money.
• Philippians 1:1 - Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.

Back in Paul's day, his idea of a bishop was probably something closer to "elder" or "pastor" -- a spiritual leader within a local congregation who preached, led worship, kept the believers connected to each other, and prevented false teaching. Our current concept of a bishop as someone who supervises several pastors and multiple congregations came later, after Christianity grew and the faith spread.

Asbury is consecrated in 1784

The Methodist Church grew out of the Church of England in the 18th century, which had an episcopal system -- that is, they had a hierarchy consisting of bishops who oversaw the work of the wider church. John and Charles Wesley, two of Methodism's main founders, were priests in the Anglican church, and they (originally) had no intention of creating a new denomination outside of their own. However, when Methodism spread to the colonies, the Americans had very little desire to worship in the state church of the king they were trying kick out of their lands. So, out of expediency, John Wesley consecrated Thomas Coke and Frances Asbury as superintendents over the new churches in America. Soon after these men arrived in the colonies, the American Methodists decided to refer to Coke and Asbury as bishops. This was no small thing to Wesley, who recognized that -- not being a bishop himself -- he could not consecrate new bishops. To this day, that break in the line of succession, in which Coke and Asbury were not set apart by an official bishop, still marks a formal break between the Episcopal and United Methodist Churches.

When the American Methodists decided to have bishops, that made them an episcopal denomination, hence their initial name: The Methodist Episcopal Church. Although it has undergone many splits and mergers over the past two centuries, the MEC's heir, the United Methodist Church, remains a church with bishops. So what do these men and women do exactly?

The American Methodists built their denomination in the image of their newly-forming federal government. There are three branches of the UMC, set up in a system of checks and balances. The General Conference meets every four years and creates the laws of the church, codified in the Book of Discipline. The bishops act as executives of those rules, charged with carrying out their mandates. A judicial council serves as the third branch, interpreting the rules to ensure that they are consistent with the foundational doctrines of the denomination.

United Methodist bishops are elected and appointed to four-year terms by Jurisdictional and Central Conferences, which are regional groupings consisting of representatives from several Annual Conferences. Bishops serve four-year terms, and they are usually moved to another area after 2 consecutive terms in the same place. In many places, such as the Raleigh Episcopal Area where I work, one bishop is over one Annual Conference. However, there are some bishops who are appointed to serve over more than one Annual Conference at a time. For instance, in the Philippines a bishop might have to preside over as many as 12 Annual Conferences.

What many United Methodists understand about bishops is their ability to appoint and remove pastors from local churches. This system of itineracy has been a characteristic mark of Methodism from the beginning, all the way back to the days of circuit-riding preachers on horseback. In my opinion, this is one of the great advantages of United Methodism. Churches, as well as their pastors, are accountable to a larger body, with support systems available to those are struggling or need help.

Americans have always been wary of autocratic leaders, so there are certain things United Methodists do not allow their bishops to do. For example, even thought they preside over the meetings, bishops do not have a vote at any conferences -- Annual, Jurisdictional, or General. Also, while it is their own hands placed on the heads of new Elders and Deacons, bishops do not decide who the church ordains -- that is the job of the Board of Ordained Ministry in each Annual Conference.

There is much more to the role of bishop in the United Methodist Church. For additional information, check out this website from the denomination (click here), Chapter 6 in Laceye Warner's book The Method of our Mission, or paragraphs 46-54 in the Book of Discipline.