The General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) is one of four international general program boards of The United Methodist Church. The General Board has headquarters on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. and at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York City. The General Secretary of the Board since Nov.1, 2000 is Mr. James E. Winkler.
An agency of The United Methodist Church, GBOD (The General Board of Discipleship) helps local church, district, and conference leaders fulfill the shared dream of making world-changing disciples.
The agency connects leaders with needed resourcing, training, consulting, and networking that support spiritual formation, new church development, revitalization of local churches, and materials for use in Central Conferences.GBOD has embarked upon an integrated, strategic direction that serves the church with continuity, based upon basic values and mission.
The General Board of Global Ministries is the global mission agency of The United Methodist Church, its annual conferences, missionary conferences, and local congregations. The work of mission in virtually any context involves relationships-- interactions in the name of Jesus Christ between and among persons and organizations.
The General Board of Global Ministries administers three of The United Methodist Church's five ethnic/language ministry plans and the National Comprehensive Plan for Town and Country Ministries in the United States. These ministries are supported by general denominational funds.
A passion for excellence in higher education and in ministry has always been a part of our Wesleyan heritage. Since its earliest days, our church has attempted to provide training and support for those who are called into professional ministry and to provide access to church-related higher education to all who desire it. Concern for those areas of our common life led The United Methodist Church to create the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM). It operates on behalf of The United Methodist Church to prepare and assist those whose ministry in Christ is exercised through ordination or the diaconate and to provide general oversight and care for United Methodist institutions of higher education.
The General Board of Pension and Health Benefits is a not-for-profit administrative agency of The United Methodist Church.
We supervise and administer retirement plans, investment funds and health and welfare benefit plans. Our participants are active and retired clergy and lay employees of the Church.
The General Commission on Archives and History has the following programs in place to assist you, your local church or conference in its ministry of memory.
GCCUIC is the part of The United Methodist Church that engages with and talks to other Christian denominations to work toward unity and peace. GCCUIC also helps interpret The United Methodist Church’s role as it encounters “other living faith communities…, cultures and ideologies”
The General Commission on the Status and Role of Women is helping the church to be a more reliable and trustworthy agent of the liberating Gospel of Jesus Christ, so that we recognize every person as a "full an equal part of God's human family." (The Book of Discipline) Through training, advocacy, research and monitoring, GCSRW:
The 2008 United Methodist Book of Discipline charges the General Commission on United Methodist Men with the “primary oversight for the coordination and resourcing of men’s ministry with The United Methodist Church.” (paragraph 2302)
The General Council on Finance and Administration was created by the General Conference to perform defined responsibilities of review and oversight on behalf of the General Conference in relation to the other general agencies receiving general Church funds. It is amenable and accountable to the General Conference and reports to it. All monies contributed by a local church to any of the general funds of the Church and such other funds as may have been authorized by the General Conference are held in trust by the council and distributed only in support of the ministries of the respective funds. The council is accountable to The United Methodist Church through the General Conference in all matters relating to the receiving, disbursing, and reporting of such funds, and agencies receiving such funds are fiscally accountable to the council.
UMC.org is the official online ministry of The United Methodist Church. The denominational website represents The United Methodist Church in the digital world, carrying out our charge as Christians to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
The United Methodist Church Foundation is recognized as a financial steward building a financial legacy for the making of disciples of Jesus Christ.
Our goal is to empower the Church, local to global, by modeling a culture of generosity in trusted partnership with agencies and institutions to endow its mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is the not-for-profit global humanitarian aid organization of the United Methodist Church. UMCOR is working in more than 80 countries worldwide, including the United States. Our mission, grounded in the teachings of Jesus, is to alleviate human suffering—whether caused by war, conflict or natural disaster, with open hearts and minds to all people.
The General Commission on Communications (UMCOM) is charged with the task of meeting the communication, public relations, and marketing needs of the entire Church, reflecting the cultural and racial diversity within The United Methodist Church. UMCOM provides communication resources and services to local churches and annual conferences. UMCOM also has a consultative relationship with all general agencies of the Church and with any structure for communication and public relations at the jurisdictional, Episcopal area, annual conference, district, or local church level.
The United Methodist Publishing House is a publisher and distributor to Christian clergy and laity, with primary responsibilities for the publishing and distribution for The United Methodist Church. We operate under the direction and control of the thirty-eight-member Board of The United Methodist Publishing House. Thirty of the members are elected by the church’s five jurisdictional conferences, two are selected by the United Methodist Council of Bishops, and five are chosen by the Board itself.
The Publishing House is a fully self-supporting agency. We supplement the United Methodist clergy pension fund through annual contributions from net revenue. Since 1941, the clergy pension fund has received more than thirty-seven million dollars from the Publishing House and its Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren predecessors.
The responsibilities of the program area, Mission Volunteers, shall be: To provide, in cooperation with jurisdictions and conferences, guidelines and procedures for participation and training of mission volunteers - Book of Discipline ¶1312.5.e
United Methodist Women is the largest denominational faith organization for women with approximately 800,000 members whose mission is fostering spiritual growth, developing leaders and advocating for justice.
Members raise up to $20 million each year for programs and projects related to women, children and youth in the United States and in more than 100 countries around the world.
The Women's Division is the national policy-making body of this group.
Making Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World
