| Bishop's CornerCongregational Transformation
By Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker
 The 2002
Florida Annual Conference established an Office of Congregational
Transformation. The Rev. Kendall Taylor has been appointed as the first
director. The Rev. Rick Neal is the chair of a committee that will work
with the director in developing this new office.
The Office of Congregational Transformation will
provide leadership to the Florida Conference, and it will provide
direction and support to particular congregations. Its purpose is to
help guide the church through an experience of transformation so that
the church will become a missionary church.
The culture that existed when many congregations
were established no longer exists or is fading away. Congregations
have to learn how to reach out to persons who are not Christians,
welcome them, and enable them to know what Christians believe and how
Christians behave. Congregations have to be transformed from bodies
that maintain themselves to those that exist for mission to others.
The only way The United Methodist Church in Florida can become a
missionary church is by transforming the congregations from
maintenance to mission.
The need for transformation is so urgent that it
cannot be the concern of only one office of the conference. All of the
clergy and laity of the conference have to become committed to the
transformation of the church for the sake of being in mission to
people in Florida in the 21st century. As a church we need a
theological understanding of the church as the body on earth created
by God as the instrument of God’s mission, and we also need to
experience anew the call of God’s spirit to embrace God’s mission.
Transformation is not easy, but it is possible because it is God’s
will.
What the apostle Paul wrote to the Romans
expresses the divine appeal to us today. “Do not be conformed to
this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that
you may discern what is the will of God: What is good and acceptable
and perfect.”
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