Rationale: (¶ 32) The proposed amendment removes the connotation that leadership training is only about preaching in order to develop skills and enhance the spiritual gifts of the laity.

On May 3, 2012, at a session of the General Conference of The United Methodist Church held in Tampa, Florida, the following Constitutional Amendment was adopted by a recorded vote of 618 Yes, 306 No (Calendar Item 54, DCA pp. 2672-73).  It is now presented to the Annual Conferences for vote.

In the 2008 Book of Discipline, Division Two, Section VI, ¶ 32,  Article I, (2012  Book of Discipline, Division Two, Section VI, ¶ 32, Article I) amend by deletion and addition as follows:

After “director of Lay” delete “Speaking” and add “Servant”.

If voted and so declared by the Council of Bishops, ¶ 32 (¶ 32) would read:

The annual conference shall be composed of clergy and lay members. The clergy membership shall consist of deacons and elders in full connection, provisional members, associate members, and local pastors under appointment. The lay membership shall consist of professing lay members elected by each charge, the diaconal ministers, the active deaconesses, and home missioners under episcopal appointment within the bounds of the annual conference, the conference president of United Methodist Women, the conference president of United Methodist Men, the conference lay leader, district lay leaders, the conference director of Lay Servant Ministries, conference secretary of Global Ministries (if lay), the president or equivalent officer of the conference young adult organization, the president of the conference youth organization, the chair of the annual conference college student organization, and one young person between the ages of twelve (12) and seventeen (17) and one young person between the ages of eighteen (18) and thirty (30) from each district to be selected in such a manner as may be determined by the annual conference. In the annual conferences of the central conferences, the four-year participation and the two-year membership requirements may be waived by the annual conference for young persons under thirty (30) years of age. Such persons must be professing members of The United Methodist Church and active participants at the time of election. Each charge served by more than one clergy shall be entitled to as many lay members as there are clergy members. The lay members shall have been for the two years next preceding their election members of The United Methodist Church and shall have been active participants in The United Methodist Church for at least four years next preceding their election. If the lay membership should number less than the clergy members of the annual conference, the annual conference shall, by its own formula, provide for the election of additional lay members to equalize lay and clergy membership of the annual conference.