Who is allowed to hold office in a church?

Laypeople hold an important role in leading a congregation. They may be called to service as elected leaders, voluntary leaders, duties of caring for the congregation and staff, protecting the church’s property and finances, or leading worship, outreach and missional ministries.

BUT, do ALL lay leaders need to be professing members of the congregation?
Most people would quickly say “yes”, and they would be right.

According to the Book of Discipline the following:

Must be a Professing Member of the local church if

  • Involved in making decisions about personnel

  • Participates in oversight, direction, administration

  • A voting member on the church council

  • The lay leader

  • The lay member of annual conference

  • All members of the nominations committees

  • All members of leadership development teams

  • Board of Trustees Chairman and Vice Chairman


HOWEVER, there are three committees that do not require participants to be a professing member of the local church.

  1. A person who is a member at another UM church but is away for an extended period of time is able to serve on the pastor parish relations committee (the personnel committee).

  2. A HIRED or paid (rather than elected or volunteer) treasurer, financial secretary, and/or business manager are not required to be members of the church.These individuals will have a voice but not a vote in the finance committee.The treasurer, as a mandated member of the church council, will similarly have a voice but not a vote in council.

  3. The board of trustees (property and asset management) may include nonmembers up to 1/3 (one-third) of their total number.A church may find benefit to including a property expert, realtor, or financial professional on the board of trustees in order to better oversee the property and assets of the church.


The Book of Discipline does not specify membership requirements for any other committees. As such, each congregation may determine the criteria for lay leaders and committee membership.


This content is based upon “Ask The UMC” a ministry of United Methodist Communications.

Photo by Hudson Hintze on Unsplash