Equipping the Called: Cultivating a Culture of Call in the Florida Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church Open Access

Abstract

A call to ministry can be experienced at any age. However, to hear a call to ministry, a person must first be in a relationship with God. And to respond to a call to ministry by pursuing a ministry vocation, a person requires support and discernment. Churches, ministries, and denominations that encourage people to have a personal relationship with Christ and help them to respond to a call to ministry create a “culture of call,” where people can consistently hear and respond to a call to ministry. This paper explores how the Florida Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church (UMC) has cultivated a culture of call by investing in ministries with young people, creating spaces where young people could serve and hear a call to ministry, and removing barriers to entry for those responding to a call to ministry. These intentional choices have resulted in the Florida Annual Conference becoming one of the top ten United Methodist Annual Conferences by percentage of clergy under age 35 today, with 7.1% of elders under age 35, and a significant number of clergy in leadership in the Conference coming from the millennial generation. By learning from the experience of the Florida Annual Conference and cultivating their own cultures of call, local churches, Annual Conferences, and denominations can increase the number of clergy serving the church, which is in decline. They will also experience vitality and growth through the gifts of young leaders which might have otherwise been lost without the support of a culture of call.

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School	Candler School of Theology
Department	Ministry
Degree	DMin
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Theology Spirituality
Keyword	United Methodist church young clergy clergy vocation umc calling
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Roger Nam, Emory University
Committee Members	Brett Opalinski, Emory University

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