Within Methodist ecclesiology, there are bishops that appoint ministers to serve congregations. Methodist denominations--such as the United Methodist Church, African Methodist Episcopal Church, and African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, among others--operate under some version of this ecclesiological practice. I won't bore you with all the details. Additionally, I am not Methodist and have never been a part of that way of doing church so my experiential knowledge is limited. Much of my experience has been in the churches that practice some version of congregational polity and ecclesiology in which the local church decides who their minister(s) will be. Within that system, the ministers, themselves, have greater agency--agency in the decision to apply, be interviewed and, if offered a position, say "yes" or "no." The congregations have agency as well. In most cases, ministers are at-will employees of a church, meaning there are no end dates in one's cont...
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