Our Denominational Structure
The United Methodist Church is a global denomination. It is formed by several layers of administration, often called conferences. The General Conference is a representative body of the entire denomination that meets once every four years to make decisions. To learn more about The United Methodist Church as a whole, check out: http://www.umc.org.
Within the United States, The United Methodist Church is broken down regionally. We are located in the North Central Jurisdiction comprising the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. A Jurisdictional Conference meets every four years to elect and appoint Bishops to all of the Annual Conference that exist within the jurisdiction. To learn more about our jurisdiction, check out: http://www.ncjumc.org/.
An Annual Conference is overseen by a bishop and is sometimes also called an episcopal area. We are part of the Wisconsin Annual Conference. Some annual conferences are composed of multiple states, while some large states like Texas have four annual conferences in them! To learn more about the Wisconsin Annual Conference, check out: http://www.wisconsinumc.org/.
Within our Annual Conference, we have five districts. Each of these districts is overseen by a District Superintendent. A District Superintendent is appointed by a Bishop. The District Superintendent is the supervisor for all pastors within the district. We are a part of the South West District. Our District Superintendent is Scott Carlson. To learn more about our district, check out: http://www.wisconsinumc.org/about-us/districts/south-west-district.
Within a district, we have set aside churches in
Dodgeville United Methodist Church is one church that is part of The United Methodist Church. Dodgeville United Methodist Church is paired together with Grace United Methodist Church in Ridgeway, WI and we form what is called a charge. These two churches are served by one pastor.
Our two churches are grouped geographically with churches in Mineral Point, Linden, Fayette, Darlington, Lamont, and Blanchardville forming a circuit. Our churches are a part of circuit SW11.
The United Methodist Church Webpage