Florida United Methodist Review Online

Church has history, vision for future in Angola

     The United Methodist Church has played an important role in the history of the Central African nation of Angola. Bishop José Quipungo of the Eastern Angola Annual Conference is working hard to make sure the United Methodist Church also plays a vital role in his country's future. The Florida Conference has committed to be a part of that effort.
     The Council of Bishops has asked the Florida Conference to shift its attention to the Eastern Angola Conference now that Florida has completed fund-raising for the Bishop Cornelius L. and Dorothye Henderson Secondary School in Mozambique.
     A three-person team from the Florida Conference traveled to Angola Jan. 28-Feb. 11 on a fact-finding and relationship-building visit sponsored by the Florida Conference's task force on the Council of Bishop's Initiative on Children and Poverty (BICAP) and Hope for the Children of Africa.
     The team visited churches, schools, hospitals and villages in the Malange District and spent time talking with church leaders to discover the needs and priorities of the conference. Their findings will help direct the Florida Conference's future work in Angola. Full Story

Conference Table discusses church health

     Participants at the latest gathering of the Conference Table Feb. 15 at First United Methodist Church, Sarasota, discussed giving the Florida Conference a slogan similar to "Catching God's Transforming Wave" and offered feedback on key issues surrounding the conference's efforts in congregational transformation.
     The Rev. Kendall Taylor, director of the Florida Conference's Office of Congregational Transformation (OCT), and the Rev. Rick Neal, pastor of St. Luke's United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg and chairman of the Committee for Congregational Transformation, were the key presenters.
     The two shared what has been accomplished by OCT to date and opened the floor for discussion on ways to categorize congregations and describe their situations. The gathering also focused on the options OCT can provide churches and the cost of those services.   Full Story

Friday night youth program reaches neighborhood kids

     One Friday night at Edgewater United Methodist Church, the buzz was reminiscent of the "Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon" routine, a kind of game to connect nearly any movie star with almost any film featuring Bacon.
     Rex Hoffman, one of the church's youth pastors, asked the teens to stand one at a time and tell the group which other youth first invited them to the "Lost and Found" Friday night outreach event. Each youth pointed to the person who had invited him or her. Those youth, in turn, identified the people who first invited them. Eventually, the core 15 or so kids of the original youth group were recognized as the ones who had set this conspiracy of invitation and hospitality in motion.
"I believe we had 121 kids that night," Hoffman said. "It was awesome. Everybody was clapping."
     Lost and Found began about a year and a half ago after the church's youth leaders sat down with the core group of youth and prayerfully ironed out a call for doing things differently.
Today, each Friday night program averages about 85 to 90 neighborhood teens, many of whom were previously unchurched, but who now call the church their own. Full Story

Thursday night ministry provides alternative

      Thursday nights are "happening" at Howe Memorial United Methodist Church, with a new program that has seen strong participation by the previously unchurched.
     In mid-January the church launched its Thursday night "Faith, Fire and Fellowship" event, a dinner/worship service that had 75 people in attendance the first evening, including 24 children. Those numbers have remained fairly steady since the program's inception, according to the Rev. Bryan Simpson, pastor of the church.
     Simpson says individuals who have not been in church for 10 to 15 years are attending regularly on Thursday nights and have pointed out their long-standing desire for an alternative to Sunday worship.
     "Everybody I see that has told me they don't come because their weekend is so packed-I tell them, 'We have something that will fit your schedule. Come and see,' " says Simpson.   Full Story

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Notices

Registration for health screenings begins

Commission recognizes ministers’ anniversaries

Methodists worldwide celebrate Wesley’s birth

Opportunities

One Great Hour of Sharing bolsters UMCOR ministries

Center offers look at Wesleys’ life

Members can tithe electronically, automatically

Army, Reserve seek chaplains

University offers youth experience in urban setting

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