First-time
Academy deepens spiritual life
The Florida Conference held its first Five-day Academy for
Spiritual Formation March 11-16, offering the 63 laity and clergy who attended the chance
to delve into their own spirituality.
An Academy for Spiritual Formation is also offered by The Upper Room, a
division of the General Board of Discipleship. It is a two-year program that provides
teaching and an environment for laity and clergy to open their lives to receive God's love
and grace. Participants in that program meet for five days each quarter.
The five-day ministry in Florida provided the same environment and
teaching, but in a short-term format. Last month's Academy was the Florida Conference's
first, although the seven members of the event's leadership team have all completed the
two-year program.
Full Story
|
Florida holds
first multi-language Lay Speaking event
Four Haitian, five Korean and eight Hispanic United Methodist lay members and clergy
spent three days last month learning how to teach the Lay Speaking Ministries' Basic
Course in their native languages. This is the first time a multi-language Lay Speaking
training event has been held within the United Methodist Church, according to Dr. Glenna
Brayton, the conference director of Lay Speaking Ministries.
The training event completes more than four years of effort by the Lay
Speaking Ministries team to reach out to Haitians, Koreans and Hispanics through the
laity-training ministry. Full Story
|
| Members put faith to
work |
 For two weeks in June, five
members of Fleming Island United Methodist Church will put their lives on hold to help
build a home for orphans in Africa. The team is working with groups from 10 other United
Methodist churches across the United States to build HUMBLE Place in Mukono, Uganda.
HUMBLE is an acronym for Helping Uganda Mwama (Children) By Loving
Example. When the orphanage is complete it will house about 150 children and teens and
include a central chapel and a medical clinic. Full Story
|
|
Youth group survives tornado
During much of March, youth at Orlando's First United Methodist
Church, Pine Hills, participated in "Survivor" lessons based on the popular
reality television program. They learned about surviving parents, drugs and the media.
They didn't realize that they would soon survive a natural disaster, too.
While stopped in heavy traffic on I-95 near Daytona Beach, a tornado
formed above the van in which five youth and their pastor and youth director were
traveling. The twister overturned a nearby truck trailer, which hit the van, smashing
windows and flattening tires.
Nobody was seriously hurt, and the impact of the incident on the youth
has been miraculous, according to Staci Biela, the youth director. Full Story
|
Youth event changes form,
focus
Florida Conference youth
attending this year's Conference Youth Event will find themselves at a three-day Christian
arts festival that is as much for unchurched young people as it is for those already
involved in church.
This year's event is called "UpRoar: a modern music
gathering" and takes place April 27-29 at the Osceola Fairgrounds in Kissimmee.
Participants can also purchase tickets to Orlando's Wet 'n Wild water park.
The musical portion of the event includes 38 Christian bands on two
stages. The event also features the Porch at UpRoar, an area where Christian artists can
display and create works of art. Full Story
|
Plans to improve diversity
spur search for volunteers
Of the 25 churches in the
West Palm Beach District holding Celebrate Jesus missions this summer, almost all have
requested culturally-diverse visiting teams to help them reach their culturally-diverse
neighbors.
Those requests present a problem for the evangelistic ministry, which
has had trouble attracting ethnic minority volunteers in the past.
A Celebrate Jesus Mission is a weeklong evangelistic effort. Local
churches involved in the mission set their own goals, design their campaigns and recruit
members to participate. A visiting team of laity and clergy coordinated by Celebrate Jesus
assists members of the local church.
This year's missions are in the Leesburg District June 23-30 and the
West Palm Beach District July 28-Aug. 4. Full Story
|
Get it in Print - send story
ideas on local church news to Tita Parham
or Michael Wacht |
|
|
