LAKELAND — The Rev. Dr. John Ed Mathison told nearly 70 people gathered at United Methodist Temple here that some things about Christianity need to change and some things don’t.

“Jesus never, never changes,” Mathison said. “His message never changes. He told everyone he met, ‘You can be different. You can change.’ And his mission hasn’t changed. He told us, ‘Go and make disciples.’ ”

Mathison said what needs to change is the mindset of lay people, their methodology of doing ministry and the ministries they do.

Mathison is pastor of Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church in Montgomery, Ala., and author of several books on lay ministry, including “Every Member in Ministry” and “Tried and True: Eleven Principles of Church Growth from Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church.” Frazer Memorial is one of the largest United Methodist churches in the United States with more than 7,000 members.

Mathison said lay people must change the way they think about ministry. “If your mindset is ‘If something needs to be done, I’ll make an appointment with the pastor or staff and have them go do it,’ that needs to change,” he said. “Every member is a minister.”

Mathison said people do not enter a church because of a welcome sign or “a catchy ad on TV or the radio.” Nearly 85 percent of people who go to church attend because someone invited them.

Comparing churches to airplanes Mathison said lay people need to become proactive. “No plane takes off without a flight plan,” he said. “Does your church have a flight plan for 2002? We’re taking off this month. I wish God wouldn’t let churches take off if they haven’t filed a flight plan.”

Unless a church knows where it’s going, it just wanders aimlessly until it runs out of fuel. “I don’t know what happens in Florida when a plane runs out of fuel, but in Alabama, it crashes,” he said. “The same thing with churches.”

The planning process takes “intensive prayer, planning and participation,” Mathison said.

The youth group at Frazer recently taught Mathison a lesson in changing ministries. They invited him to perform a funeral. “I asked them ‘Who died?’ ” he said. They said they realized the old ways of doing ministry weren’t working for them. They wanted to bury them and start fresh. The youth set up a coffin in the chapel with “Old Ways of Doing Things” written on it.

“Are we spending our time, money and effort on things that make a difference or are we doing what we always did?” he said. “There are so many creative ministries that lay folks can do. The church is a place where a person can lose their life in a meaningful ministry. And what did Jesus say? Whoever loses their life will gain it.”

The Rev. Ken Vickery, pastor of United Methodist Temple, said he was excited to hear Mathison speak, but was disappointed at the low attendance. For the first night of Mathison’s three-night engagement the church was set up for overflow seating and a video feed into the church’s fellowship hall.