The heart of the vision that drives the Office of Congregational Transformation is making and nurturing disciples.

We are articulating the vision in many ways. One is through awards to individuals and churches. At this year’s Annual Conference Event 10-year-old Brittany Cott received the Denman Award? This winsome young lady demonstrated a simple, Spirit-stirred passion to love people, effectively introducing them to Jesus. We listened to her, and many folks, I am sure, thought, “I could do that…but am I willing?” She lifted to our consciousness in a powerful way the calling to introduce people to Jesus.

The Denman Evangelization Awards are presented every year at the Annual Conference session to a United Methodist lay person and clergy person for outstanding work in Christian evangelization. The award is named for and honors the late Dr. Harry Denman, distinguished lay evangelist, and general secretary of the old Methodist Board of Evangelism. Dr. Billy Graham called him “my mentor in evangelism.” The awards are made possible by The Foundation for Evangelism, which was begun in 1949 by Dr. Denman. The Foundation invites each United Methodist Annual Conference to present this award each year.

A committee constituted for this purpose chooses the recipients from nominees submitted by Florida United Methodists. People are invited to nominate persons whom they observe being especially effective in sharing the Gospel and bringing people into relationship with Jesus. We seek to encourage people to share Jesus and to celebrate this obedience to the Holy Spirit.

A brochure explaining the Denman Award more completely and a nominating form with instructions for its use are included on the Florida Conference Web site at http://www.flumc.org.  A nomination form may also be requested from the Office of Congregational Transformation by mail, phone or fax at P. O. Box 3767, Lakeland, FL 33802; 800-282-8011, extension 146; or Fax: 863-680-1980.