How the Book of Discipline Comes to Be

It’s said that the two items no one wants to see being made are laws and sausages. Per­haps the Unit­ed Methodist Book of Dis­ci­pline should be added to that list.

It takes almost six months — and a process defined by the rules of the Gen­er­al Con­fer­ence — before the denom­i­na­tion knows exact­ly what hap­pened after its big leg­isla­tive assembly.

The Book of Dis­ci­pline of The Unit­ed Methodist Church out­lines denom­i­na­tion­al law, doc­trine, admin­is­tra­tion, orga­ni­za­tion­al work and pro­ce­dures. The Book of Res­o­lu­tions con­tains pro­nounce­ments on social issues. Every four years, del­e­gates to Gen­er­al Con­fer­ence vote on changes to both books.

Mar­vin W. Cropsey, edi­tor of qua­dren­ni­al resources at the Unit­ed Methodist Pub­lish­ing House, which is charged with pub­lish­ing both texts, explained the process. More