Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

by Allan Machado
A retreat for Florida Conference lay pastors was held at Pine Lake Retreat, Groveland, Fla., May 13-15, with the objective of aligning their congregations to the purpose, values, and strategies of Conference church growth goals. This retreat explored the role of lay pastors in creating a culture of mission and discipleship in their local congregation, as outlined in the retreat’s theme, The Church Transformational Process.
A lay pastor is a leader chosen by a sponsoring board and completes Conference certification through training and demonstrations of fitness for ministry. Statewide, 83 congregations are led by volunteer pastors. They shepherd close to 7,000 members of various cultural backgrounds and language groups such as English, Spanish, French, Romanian, and Korean.
Re-certification for lay pastor status is contingent upon attending annual re-certification training and an annual review and recommendation by the local church board, the pastor of the sponsoring church, and by the Florida Conference Ministerial Department. It is a continuing training process. Character, leadership, spirituality, loyalty to church, theology, and cooperative spirit need to be demonstrated.
“A lay pastor is a ministering servant of God and, like every Christian, is called to ministry, gifted by the Holy Spirit, and in baptism commissioned for ministry as referred to in Ephesians 4:11, 12,” says Allan Machado, lay pastor coordinator.