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I want to encourage all of our clergy and laity to attend our District training coming in August. My hope is that each Church will have 20-30 laity come with their Pastor for this District workshop. I look forward to seeing you there. Information about the event follows.
Gary
9:00—3:00
August 18—First UMC, Port St. Lucie
August 25—Indian River City UMC, Titusville
Working Together”
Dale Locke will give us ways to Work Together
to Expand the Kingdom. Dale started Community of Hope UMC
in his garage and now has a 1900 average worship attendance.
“Being a Generous Church”
Corky Calhoun will share how to develop a
Generous Church. Corky went to Georgianna UMC
when it had an average worship attendance of 60
and now it is averaging 759.
“Fresh Expressions”
Michael Beck leads us how to begin a Fresh Expression in your
community. Michael helped to begin Fresh Expressions in the
Florida Conference.
Registration will open the week of June 4th.
Free Lunch Provided Childcare Provided
June 7th - 9th
Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL
For general information about Annual Conference click here.
Re-Vote on Constitutional Amendment
There was an error made in the language of the first constitutional amendment from General Conference 2016. As instructed by the Secretary of the General Conference, we will re-vote on this constitutional amendment at Annual Conference 2018. We have scheduled this vote for Saturday morning near the beginning of the plenary session that begins at 8:30 a.m. All lay members and clergy members in full connection may vote on constitutional amendments. To learn more about the reason for the re-vote click here. For the corrected language of the constitutional amendment click here. Ballots for this re-vote will be distributed; and after a brief explanation, members of the annual conference will be able to speak for or against the amendment. Because these amendments come from the General Conference, no amendments to this constitutional amendment are in order.
Way Forward Presentation
To allow for the greatest participation level and to ensure consistent communication about the Way Forward, the Annual Conference will take a step back from its legislative work on Friday afternoon and enter into a time of presentation and small group discussion about the Way Forward. The Way Forward presentation is scheduled for Friday at 3 p.m. in Branscomb Auditorium. Bishop Carter will lead this time and will be supported by the design team that created the POV (Point of View) experience. Rev. Jorge Acevedo and Alice Williams, members of the Commission on a Way Forward, will also be present to share. This segment of our agenda will seek to give members information about the work of the Commission on a Way Forward, give a sampling of some of the POV material for local churches and provide a place for members to talk in groups of three. There will not be enough time for general questions and answers from the plenary floor, but if you have a question about the Way Forward, please submit it here.
Remember Who We Are Conversation
As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of The United Methodist Church and our theme “Remember Who We Are,” Bishop Carter has invited the Florida Conference to consider a new way of approaching resolutions. You can find more information about this on page 34 of the Annual Conference workbook and from this video titled Annual Conference Resolutions. On Thursday during the committee on resolutions report, the Cabinet will make the motion found on page 34 of the workbook to suspend our normal resolution process.
Join us for a Special Night of Worship: A Love Feast
You are invited to join Bishop Carter and clergy and lay members from around the Annual Conference for a night of conversation around the table, scripture reading, testimony, and worship. Together we will take time to remember who we are, report on how God is at work in our present, and look forward with trust and hope to our future together. We hope you will join us Wednesday, June 6, at 7 p.m. in the Fellowship Center of First UMC Lakeland. Music will be provided by the Florida Southern College worship team. A reception sponsored by the Florida United Methodist Foundation will follow.
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Disaster Recovery Ministry invites all churches from around the conference to be a part of the Hurricane Irma mission project: Recovery TOOLS! Many of our teams come great distances to serve, making it difficult to bring the tools needed to do the jobs. Disaster Recovery has received donated tool trailers, but now we need YOUR help outfitting these trailers with the right Recovery TOOLS! Because we need specific tools for the jobs, we’re setting up a registry, so that you can purchase exactly what is needed and resources won’t be wasted. Similar to a wedding or baby shower, you can go to myregistry.com, see what is still needed and make your purchase. Purchases made online will be sent to Disaster Recovery. Dist: clergy, churches, lay leaders, missions directors, BOLM, UMW, UMM
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In lieu of our Clergy Gathering which had been tentatively scheduled October 23 - 24, 2018, we are inviting you to attend the Winter Conference at Epworth By The Sea, January 29 - February 1, 2019. This will be a combined event with the Bishops and clergy of the North Georgia, Mississippi, South Georgia and Florida Conferences. Dr. Tod Bolinger, author of Canoeing The Mountains, will be the keynote speaker.
Be sure to register soon as we expect this to be a sold out event.
Click here to register.
Click here for the flyer.
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The Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church
450 Martin L King Jr Ave
Lakeland, FL 33815
(863) 688-5563 or toll free (800) 282-8011
