LAKELAND — "Every great movement of people has to have two things," said the Rev. Dr. Roger Swanson, "visionary leaders and followers. I see myself as a worker in the field."

As the Florida Conference’s new director of Operation Evangelization and Distinguished Evangelist, a cabinet-level position created last February by Bishop Cornelius L. Henderson, Swanson said his mission is to help churches learn about the many strategies for evangelism already in place in the Florida Conference and others being used to share Jesus.

Swanson says the conference’s evangelistic vision was provided by Henderson, who challenged Florida Conference United Methodist churches to increase the number of Florida United Methodists to 400,000 by May 2000.

"The vision is there," he said. "My goal is to work it so it starts to become a realization."

One of the first things that has to happen, according to Swanson, is shifting the focus of churches from making members to making disciples; from planning activities for members to planning missions among the unchurched.

"America is no longer a churched society," he said. "Seven of every 10 people in Florida are unchurched. We have to learn to do church in different cultural settings than most leaders learned in seminary 20 years ago."

Swanson says another important step is to turn the responsibility for ministry over to laity and remove the emphasis on professional ministry.

"United Methodists have the worst history of personal evangelism right now," he said. "Any kind of sharing of faith that’s to have results must be shared person to person, laity to laity."

To accomplish those two things, Swanson said he will help churches analyze and change their individual discipleship systems.

He says many churches don’t have well-thought methods for reaching new people in their communities, but instead have slowly created an environment in which the congregational life-style reflects the low expectations members have of themselves. Those systems, he said, are responsible for producing the poor attendance and membership numbers churches are seeing now.

"If we want to change the results, we need to change the system," he said.

Swanson’s first step in helping churches is providing workshops titled "New Wineskins for New Wine" in each of the conference’s 14 districts between this September and May 2000. The training will be an interactive program targeted to pastors and laity. "The invitation is for pastors to come with a team of laity so they can learn together," Swanson said.

Swanson said he plans to emphasize creativity in the evangelism process and key strategies from throughout the church that are successful in making disciples today.

In addition to the workshops, Swanson said he’ll use the department’s new "Dare to Share Jesus" newsletter to "tell the stories of disciple-making across the Florida conference…and promote where it’s happening."

While he plans to do everything he can to promote Operation Evangelization throughout the conference, Swanson said his focus will not be on events, but on people and systems.