Are you interested in being appointed to serve in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church?
In order to be approved for an on loan appointment from another Annual Conference of the UMC, another Methodist denomination or another Christian denomination, we have an application process called FEAT. (Florida Entrance Assessment Team comprised of a few Board of Ordained Ministry and Cabinet members.)
The FEAT application deadline is November 15 of each year with an interview in early January for a July 1 appointment in the following conference year.
Approval by FEAT does not guarantee an appointment in The Florida Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church, but would place an approved applicant in a pool of other approved candidates to be considered for an appointment for the next conference year beginning July 1, should their gifts and graces match a particular appointment in The Florida Conference.
We do not typically approve provisional UMC members for on loan appointments but under special circumstances this may be possible. If a provisional member was approved and placed in an on loan appointment, we could work with the sending conference to have their Residents in Ministry (RIM) requirements completed here in Florida. Florida has a two year RIM process which may or may not be comparable to the sending conference’s requirements.
In order to be placed on the FEAT application for an on loan appointment from another annual conference, the applicant must receive the recommendation of a Florida District Superintendent (DS). The contact information for the eight District Superintendents can be found: https://www.flumc.org/districts.
When the applicant contacts one of our DSs they should explain that they are interested in an on loan appointment for this next appointment year and that the deadline for the FEAT application is November 15. It is not a very extensive application but there are several things the applicant will have to get to the Office of Clergy Excellence by this deadline.
If the applicant is a member of another UMC conference, they will need request that their file, including their psychological assessment, is transferred from the sending conference to the Florida Conference so the applicant can be placed on the FEAT application. Approval from one of our Florida DSs will be required before they may be placed on the application track. If the applicant’s psychological assessment is older than 5 years or not comparable to Florida’s psychological assessment, the applicant will have to retake their psychological assessment here in Florida. This could be done at a later date prior to the start of their appointment and does not have to be completed by the November 15 deadline.
If, after serving two full conference years on loan the clergy person would like to TRANSFER here’s how that works:
If after serving two full conference years under appointment the clergy person wishes to apply to TRANSFER to the Florida Conference they would need the recommendation of the Appointive Cabinet, which would be requested by their DS, to be placed on the Transfer application track and then they would interview with the Executive Committee of the Board of Ordained Ministry if the clergy person is on loan from another UMC Conference for a recommendation to the clergy session of annual conference for a transfer.
Applicants from other Methodist or other Christian denominations would have to have their education and ordination assessed to determine to what clergy status it is equivalent to in the UMC. They may be considered for transfer as a licensed local pastor, a provisional member or in full connection depending on their educational assessment.
If you have any questions about this process please view the video below and or contact:
Rev. Sara McKinley, Director, Office of Clergy Excellence