LAKELAND — Bishop Timothy W. and Melba Whitaker say they have a better connection with the people of the Florida Conference after spending last fall visiting clergy and laity.

The freshman bishop visited each of the Florida Conference’s 14 districts for a series of teaching and learning sessions while Melba met with each district’s clergy spouses (see “New team commits to caring for clergy families,” CS1). The bishop also attended the seven Common Table listening sessions and other meetings with clergy and leadership on the district level.

“I have come out of this fall with a much better understanding of the whole state, the different regions of the state and the needs of the United Methodist churches in the different regions of the state,” Whitaker said. “I have a much better understanding of the people of the Florida Conference. It helps prepare me for appointment- making because I have a much better knowledge of the state than I did before.”

Whitaker said the visits had three purposes: to teach, listen and experience fellowship with the conference’s clergy and laity.

The teaching sessions were part of the “teaching ministry of a bishop” and gave him an opportunity to be a teacher of faith and theology, Whitaker said. “Based on what a lot of clergy have told me, they have lost the habit of doing a lot of theological reading. They are reading more about…church administration and church growth. To be truly effective, one must do ministry theologically.”

Whitaker hopes to model theological study by spending time reflecting on the life of the church and theology and sharing his insights with the conference. His focus last fall was on moral formation and the church’s need to provide people with a moral basis for their lives.

“We’re living in a culture where there’s a lot of moral permissiveness…and the church needs to provide a moral format for its members because nobody else is going to do it,” he said. “We need to teach what it means to live their daily lives as disciples of Jesus Christ.”

There is a lot of emphasis on spiritual formation, but not much on moral formation, according to Whitaker. “It’s important for us to take more seriously forming people how to live morally responsible lives according to scripture and the traditions of the church,” he said. “It’s a whole different way of life than the way of the culture…we’re living in a community for mutual support and accountability.”

Clergy need to model that life of community, support and accountability, Whitaker said. “The era of the lone ranger minister is over.”

Whitaker believes moral failures of clergy are a result of isolation, which leads to a loss of perspective. “If clergy are not isolated, they’re less likely to violate their vows of baptism and ordination,” he said.

Whitaker compared today’s culture to that of the early church—a pluralistic culture offering many different religions and philosophies. Early church leaders helped people learn to live moral lives through a process of initiation.

“They had an initiation process to detoxify people from the poisons of the culture in order to prepare them to live as disciples of Jesus Christ,” he said, adding he would like to see Florida Conference churches using a similar process prior to accepting people as members.

“On this subject the clergy didn’t entirely agree with me,” Whitaker said. “Some think that kind of formation should come after someone becomes a member. They’re both very important, the initiation and the opportunities to grow in the Christian life after becoming members. I want us to pray about that and talk with each other.”

Whitaker is also lobbying the denomination’s general agencies to create a new resource for churches that follows the Disciple Bible Study and Christian Believer series and teaches what it means to “live a life of Christian character through God’s grace.” He said Disciple teaches the Bible and Christian Believer teaches basic Christian doctrine, but there is no long-term study that teaches how to live as a disciple.

“There is a lot of interest in this, and people are encouraging me to see if the Florida Conference can develop such a resource,” he said.