Because there is a persistent shortage of clergy to serve all the pastoral charges, the Discipline provides for a way in which a person may be appointed to serve as pastor of a charge. A person may do this by qualifying as a local pastor; this involves securing a license and being recommended annually by a vote of the district committee on ordained ministry, the board of ordained ministry and finally being approved as a local pastor by the clergy members in full connection. This approval does not guarantee an appointment; it only makes the person eligible to be appointed a pastor of a charge. Local pastors are placed in three categories by the board of ordained ministry; full-time, part-time, and student. Persons in each category are required to make regular progress in their studies in order to remain local pastors.
A local pastor may perform all ministerial functions within the pastoral charge to which he or she is appointed (the laws of the state permitting), including administration of the sacraments for the duration of the appointment, subject to annual review. However, some other persons listed as local pastors do have permanent authority to administer the sacraments, but this is because they have been ordained under rules and regulations of the former Evangelical United Brethren Church or the former Methodist Church, and these rights were specifically protected for them in the formation of The United Methodist Church.
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