LAKELAND — The Florida Conference Council on Ministries (CCOM) elected the Rev. Jim Harnish, pastor of Hyde Park United Methodist Church, its new chairman, replacing the Rev. Thom Shafer, who left the position last June after being named superintendent of the Jacksonville District.

In a message announcing Harnish’s election, CCOM Director Bill Walker said he was excited about the overwhelming support Harnish received from the CCOM and the leadership he brings to the position.

"Jim has long been a responsible voice of concern for the implementation of the mission of the church," Walker said. "Jim is a leader of great energy and focus."

Harnish said he believes his election is "a call from God as much as a call from the council itself" and is excited to be helping plan the future of the Florida Conference.

"The bishop has challenged us to be passionately engaged in reaching people for Christ," he said. "I think that’s the right vision, and I’m excited to be a part of it. I feel called to do whatever I can to align the resources of the conference with our bishop’s vision for evangelism."

The conference’s current financial crisis has helped spur what Harnish says is an important effort to refocus resources, including money, people, energy and talent.

"There’s nothing like a financial crisis to force you to decide what’s important," he said. "It causes us to make an intentional effort to focus…energy and resources into the most important part of our mission."

His first task is to "listen very carefully" to the congregations and leaders of the Florida Conference and be sensitive to what’s going on in the local churches. He said the measure of the conference’s effectiveness is how what is done affects the local churches in their mission to "make disciples and transform people’s lives."

Harnish also said he supports the vision for a "common table" style of leadership within the conference, which will bring people from many different committees and backgrounds together to look at the entire mission of the conference.

"There is no body in the conference that looks at the whole," he said. Committees and councils are too small and have a narrow focus and the annual conference is too large "to do reflective decision making about how all our ministries and resources work together."

"It’s important enough that I’m willing to see how we can flesh it out," he said.

Harnish has served the United Methodist Church for 30 years at appointments in DeLand, Crescent City, Orlando and Tampa. He has been a part of the Florida Conference’s delegation to General and Jurisdictional conferences six times and has served on the Board of Ordained Ministry at both the conference and district levels, the Ethnic Local Church Concerns task force, and the CCOM. He is currently a member of the General Board of Discipleship and has published six books, with a seventh due out in September.