| By
Michael Wacht
LAKELAND — Calling on the Florida Conference
to move “from maintenance to mission,” the Rev. Rick Neal
presented a proposal for the development of a new Office of
Congregational Transformation to delegates attending the 2002 Florida
Annual Conference Event May 28-31 here. By a nearly unanimous vote,
they approved the plan to combine church redevelopment and Operation
Evangelization into one new office.
Neal is pastor of St. Petersburg’s St. Luke’s
United Methodist Church and a member of the conference’s Committee
on New Church Development and Church Redevelopment, which is giving
the redevelopment part of its responsibilities to the new office.
“The office of Congregational Transformation…grew
out of New Church Development and Church Redevelopment…two
enormously demanding tasks,” he said. “It’s one thing to build a
new house. It’s another thing to remodel an existing house.”
The conference is planning to start as many as
18 new churches and ministries in the next year and a half, but as
many as 300 existing churches are stagnant or declining in membership
and worship attendance.
Neal said approval of the new office would free
his committee to focus more energy and attention on planting new
churches. “The Florida Conference has set the bar for new church
development in United Methodism, and we need to set the bar higher,”
he said.
Carol Conner, chairwoman of the Committee on New
Church Development and Church Redevelopment, told delegates nearly 800
people move into Florida every day. The Florida Conference would have
to plant 30 new churches, reaching 500 new people each year, to reach
5 percent of the state’s new residents.
In addition to church redevelopment, the office
of Congregational Transformation will take over the responsibilities
of Operation Evangelization, a three-year-old ministry focusing on
reaching new people.
The Rev. David Brazelton, pastor of First United
Methodist Church, Orlando, and chairman of the Operation
Evangelization Advisory Council, said the time is right to create the
new office. “We are convinced it’s God’s will and God’s timing
to transition to the office of Congregational Transformation,”
Brazelton said.
The Rev. David Rawls, chairman of the Commission
on Equitable Compensation, said the new office would give direction
and purpose to the money the commission was spending on churches.
“In order to help churches in need of salary
support, we needed to help them find what it means to be vital
congregations,” Rawls said. “It’s one thing to put a vision and
mission for ministries on paper, but it’s another thing to take it
off the paper and give it application. Will we, this day, make a
decision that will have eternal consequences on the souls of the
people we serve?”
The Rev. Jim Rosenberg, pastor of George Young
Memorial United Methodist Church in Palm Harbor, expressed his concern
over the lack of a team to work with and support the director of the
new office.
“This person should not be alone,” Rosenberg
said, adding a group of people excited about the work should already
be in place when the director arrives.
Neal said a proposed change in the conference’s
standing rules provides for such a team.
Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker is expected to
appoint a director by September, according to the proposal. He is also
expected to appoint members to the committee, including one
representative from each district and six at-large representatives.
Beginning in 2003, the committee members will be elected by the annual
conference. |
