Become a Jurisdictional Conference Delegate

If you are eligible and interested in being considered for the TAC delegation, complete the Election Profile form.  Please upload your profile picture before you submit the form. All completed forms will be sent to your pastor for confirmation. The deadline to submit Election Profiles is no later than noon on March 10, 2024.

At our Annual Conference Session, June 9-12, 2024, at First United Methodist Church Houston West and the Marriott Westchase in Houston, we will elect 9 Lay Delegates to the 2024 Jurisdictional Conference.

You may remember that in May 2019 the TAC elected delegates to serve at the 2020 General and Jurisdictional Conferences. The 2020 General Conference was postponed twice and is now set for 2024. The TAC has a full slate of clergy and lay delegates for General Conference, with no reserves. We are able to have a full slate for General Conference because if you will recall, the laity elected their two additional delegates at Annual Conference 2023. 

The December 2022, Judicial Council Decision Number 1472, ruled that annual conferences are permitted to fill vacancies in their General and Jurisdictional Delegations however it prohibits the election of reserve delegates.

Therefore, the TAC will not hold General Conference elections for neither clergy or laity. However due to status change (from lay to clergy) and resignations, we have nine lay delegate vacancies to 2024 Jurisdictional Conference. The clergy slate is complete for Jurisdictional Conference.

The 2024 General Conference will be held April 23-May 3, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The 2024 Jurisdictional Conference will be held July 10-12, 2024 in Rogers, Arkansas.

Function and Role of Jurisdictional Conferences

Paragraph 27. Article V.—The jurisdictional conferences shall have the following powers and duties and such others as may be conferred by the General Conferences:

  1. To promote the evangelistic, educational, missionary, and benevolent interests of the Church and to provide for interests and institutions within their boundaries.
  2. To elect bishops and to cooperate in carrying out such plans for their support as may be determined by the General Conference.
  3. To establish and constitute jurisdictional conference boards as auxiliary to the general boards of the Church as the need may appear and to choose their representatives on the general boards in such manner as the General Conference may determine.
  4. To determine the boundaries of their annual conferences, provided that there shall be no annual conference with a membership of fewer than fifty clergy in full connection, except by the consent of the General Conference.
  5. To make rules and regulations for the administration of the work of the Church within the jurisdiction, subject to such powers as have been or shall be vested in the General Conference.
  6. To appoint a committee on appeals to hear and determine the appeal of a traveling preacher of that jurisdiction from the decision of a trial committee.

United Methodist Book of Discipline 2016 | Section IV.
Jurisdictional Conferences, 23-27. Article I-V. 

Candidate Eligibility

According to Paragraph 36. Article V., of The United Methodist Book of Discipline, lay candidates for General or Jurisdictional Conference must be a professing member of The United Methodist Church for at least 2 years prior to election, an active participant in The United Methodist Church for at least 4 years prior to election, and members within the bounds of the annual conference being elected to serve.

Commitment and Expectations of Delegates

Lay persons who meet the Disciplinary requirements (listed above) are eligible to submit an online profile to be voted on at AC 2024. Candidates must be willing to meet the following criteria, if elected:

  • Able to attend 2024 Jurisdictional Conference held July 10-12, 2024 in Rogers, Arkansas.
  • Devote time to read materials appropriate to the work of a delegate for JC 2024.
  • Ability to attend Zoom and in-person delegation meetings (meeting schedule and frequency TBD). 
Judicial Council Decisions Regarding New Elections