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Octobe 26, 2001

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Churches asked to lead training
Photo by Michael Wacht

The Florida Conference Council on Ministries (CCOM) is asking churches with unique or successful ministries to share them with other churches at regional training events. Conference-wide events, however, will remain an important part of the council's training strategy. The CCOM will also continue to sponsor nationally-recognized speakers, like the Rev. Janet Lynn Wolf (right), former pastor of Hobson United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tenn., who was the keynote speaker at this year's conference-wide Discipleship Weekend.

By Michael Wacht

LAKELAND — After more than a year of conversations with and surveys of local church leaders, the Florida Conference Council on Ministries (CCOM) has decided to ask churches to play a lead role in providing leadership and spiritual formation training.

This new direction by the CCOM encourages church leaders to share their knowledge and skills with other clergy and laity, according to the Rev. Carol Sue Hutchinson, director of the CCOM’s Discipleship Ministry office. It’s goal is to foster stronger relationships between leaders within local churches and the conference.

Hutchinson said feedback from churches has been key in shaping this new direction.

Church members expressed the need for more firsthand training, according to Hutchinson. “Others want to go to a church that’s making it happen and see how it works,” she said. “We’re trying to encourage churches that have something unique to set up training. We’ll offer support, but they’ll do the event.”

An example of that kind of training is The Exchange Leadership Seminars coordinated by Suntree United Methodist Church in Melbourne. Several Florida Conference churches that have experienced success in ministry are sharing what they have learned through a series of seminars scheduled this year and into 2002. Grace United Methodist Church in Cape Coral is teaching transformational children’s ministry; Trinity United Methodist Church in Gainesville is offering training on the Alpha Program, a small-group Bible study ministry; and Christ Church United Methodist in Ft. Lauderdale is teaching local church transformation.

“No one way of doing things works for everybody or every size church,” Hutchinson said. “Different people learn in different ways and different styles, and we need to be open to that concept of variety.”

People surveyed expressed a preference for regional training, but they do not want to abandon large, conference-wide events, according to Hutchinson.

“We can reach more people if we go regionally, rather than holding training in one central location,” she said. “We’re hearing that more people from a church will go to a regional event…because people are not available to travel to get the training they need.”

Survey feedback has also shown that authorities or consultants from outside the conference sometimes offer a greater training value. “There’s so much out there that’s good, it doesn’t make sense to reinvent the wheel,” Hutchinson said.

The CCOM is exploring partnerships with other church organizations as another option.

The new focus is part of the CCOM’s goal to help conference churches be more vital in their ministries, according to Bill Walker, the conference’s director of connectional ministries.

“We want to create an environment and expectation in which leaders can be authentic and their authenticity is welcomed and encouraged,” Walker said. “We want to avoid behavior that discourages leaders from taking risks.”

An important aspect of that environment is encouraging integrity among and relationship between church leaders, both lay members who are leaders in the church and community and pastors appointed to a church by the bishop.

The overall goal is to create a new environment in the Florida Conference, according to Walker. “We want to create an environment in which you, as a participant, are likely to find health, affirmation, guidance and insight,” he said, “an environment where the Holy Spirit is more likely to speak to your soul.”   


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© 2001 Florida United Methodist Review Online