The Staff/Pastor Parish Relations Committee (S/PPRC) is an administrative body formulated by the Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church (259.2). A percentage of Committee members are elected annually by charge conference in the local church for a 3-year term. The committee members are nominated from attentive and engaged members of the church and also include the Senior Pastor, Lay Leader, and a Lay Delegate as leaders from the church. At Muir’s Chapel, our Administrative Council chairperson also sits on the S/PPRC.

In the United Methodist Church definition, this committee’s responsibility is to theologically and biblically consider the roles of our pastor(s), staff and congregational leaders as they carry out the ministry of the church and to communicate to lay leadership and/or the church council recommendations for the best use of staff gifts as they relate to staff and ministry priorities. The S/PPRC also works with our District Superintendent of the Greensboro District of the Western North Carolina Conference and the Board of Ordained Ministry to provide insight into the ministerial and the leadership profiles of Muir’s Chapel.

The S/PPRC works very similar to a secular Human Resources department in a private business. At MCUMC, the committee empowers a sub-committee for just that purpose… the S/PPRC Human Resources Subcommittee addresses day to day personnel issues that the S/PPRC may consider not in keeping with good stewardship of staff resources to address.

Staff and congregational members alike are encouraged to contact the S/PPRC with praises, words of encouragement, or concerns regarding church staff or ministries dependent on Muir’s Chapel staff interaction. Each staff member has a personal liaison, assigned yearly from the S/PPRC. That liaison works with the staff member to accomplish the ministry objectives of the church in their area and to provide encouragement from and communication with church leadership. .