LAKELAND — With a goal of creating a forum for discussing the complex issues now facing the Florida Conference, leaders of the Conference Council on Ministries (CCOM) are planning the first Florida Conference common table meeting Nov. 4 at Tampa’s Hyde Park United Methodist Church.

" ‘Common table’ is the name given to a strategy by the Council on Ministries to provide a forum for open and deep conversation among leaders across the conference," said Bill Walker, director of the CCOM. He says the focus will be the "strategies and organizational transformation needed to assist the connection in best achieving the vision enunciated by our bishop."

The common table arises from the fact that the existing structure of the Florida Conference is not favorable to conversation among the various boards, agencies, councils and committees, according to the Rev. Jim Harnish, pastor of the Hyde Park church and chairman of the CCOM.

"We are structured so no existing body represents all the agencies of the conference," Harnish said. "The CCOM, [Conference Council on] Finance and Administration, the Board of Ordained Ministry, for example, are all directly responsible to the Annual Conference, but there’s no where that they talk to each other."

The annual conference event, with an attendance this year of 1,945, is not a place where intentional conversation takes place, Walker said. The common table will include a smaller group of people who represent a diversity of backgrounds and groups throughout the conference.

"It will include the traditional conference organizations…and groups directly important to carrying out the mission, but not directly affiliated with the conference, like the Emmaus community," Walker said. "We’re seeking to get the voice of the local church, but that’s hard to do in that there are 750 local churches. But everyone who is going to be there is from a local church, and I expect there to be constant reminders of the importance of the local church.

"We’re hoping to create a forum where everyone represents their unit’s past agenda, but looks at us as a whole — as [United] Methodists on a journey."

The focus of the common table is not conference structure, but the mission of the conference, Harnish said, adding Florida Conference Bishop Cornelius L. Henderson has made clear the conference’s vision and mission is "making disciples and energizing local churches to make disciples for Christ."

The common table, he said, is not a new conference agency or committee, but a "place where existing leaders can be in conversation with each other…about how to align resources to most effectively accomplish that goal."

The first meeting will introduce conference leaders to the process of the common table, its history and how it has been useful in other annual conferences, according to Harnish. Harold E. Wright, former associate general secretary of the General Council on Ministries and director of Connectional Ministries for the Desert-Southwest Annual Conference, will facilitate the meeting.

"The goal is to set in motion a process that will enable us to listen to the clergy and laity of the conference and provide a common center around which we can focus on the vision and mission of the conference…what the conference out to be about, what we need to do and what we need to stop doing," Harnish said.

The Rev. Thom Shafer, superintendent of the Jacksonville District and former CCOM chairman, said the conference is moving into uncharted territory with the common table. "There are so many unknowns," he said. "That’s part of the risk, but we don’t want to go to another meeting where there’s talk and not the unity…another meeting for meeting’s sake."