Florida Conference of Sda 2018 Offeratory Readings

Florida Conference

A. Lee Bennett Jr., B.A. in media applied science/media communication. Later on graduating from Andrews University, born-and-raised Floridian Lee began an internship in the Florida Conference Communication Department that became a permanent position lasting 25 years until September 2017. He now serves as Print Shop manager in the Service Center and retains a strong interest in factual accuracy of Florida Conference's history.

The Florida Conference is an authoritative unit of the Seventh-twenty-four hour period Adventist Church in the Southern Union Briefing.

Territory: Florida (except Bay, Calhoun, Escambia, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Walton, and Washington Counties).
Statistics (June 30, 2019): Churches, 212; membership, 63,904; poplulation, nineteen,875,448^one

Origins

In the July 1874 issue of the True Missionary, Stephen North. Haskell reported that an un-named blackness human who converted to Adventism at an unspecified location in 1873 "then went to his people in Florida." He found many of them eager for his books and tracts and some willing to adopt the Sabbath. This may exist the outset record of a Seventh-day Adventist presence in Florida, though it is not known whether this man won whatever permanent converts.

As early every bit 1876, news items from Florida began appearing in Review and Herald. The October 5, 1876, issue includes a letter from Jacksonville referring to "a picayune company [of believers] who have accepted the seventh twenty-four hour period."² The next year, there is mention of six Seventh-twenty-four hour period Adventists in St. Augustine and approximately the aforementioned number in Jacksonville.

About the beginning of 1883, John O. Corliss visited families of believers who were scattered throughout the state, but the only evangelism reported to have taken place was conducted by laypersons. Among these was Charles P. Whitford from Vermont. He lived in Moultrie (present-day St. Augustine Shores), a new settlement south of St. Augustine, where he reported a few Seventh-day Adventist families residing and some new converts in the county of St. Johns.

In 1885, Thou. G. Rupert, a minister sent past the Full general Conference, held the first series of evangelistic meetings on record in Florida. He preached near Terra Ceia Bay on the Gulf coast, xl miles south of Tampa, where approximately xx Seventh-24-hour interval Adventists from Michigan had settled. 10 converts came into Adventism as a result of Rupert's work, and he organized a church of twenty-two members. This church building, the precursor of nowadays-mean solar day Palmetto church, remained the largest congregation in Florida as tardily every bit 1895.

Soon after leaving the Terra Ceia church, Rupert baptized half dozen people and organized a church in Sorrento. This central Florida community was the abode of L. H. Crisler who had heard Seventh-day Adventist preaching in Iowa, just did not accepted the religion until moving to Florida. Within a few years, he would become the first Florida Conference president in 1893.

In 1886, Rupert organized two churches in Orlando and Jacksonville. These churches later disbanded when the members relocated, simply were reorganized in 1890 and 1898, respectively. These churches exemplify one of several difficulties of the early work in Florida—a fluctuating population. Evangelists, preaching to winter residents, frequently found their best members leaving for their northern homes in the spring. Recent settlers to Florida who comprised the membership of pocket-sized, new churches could disappear almost overnight. They often arrived with much enthusiasm just trivial adaptability to the new climate or the unfamiliar requirements of the soil and season. Ultimately, many soon moved away to seek a improve location or other employment. Because of the population instability in those early days, Southward. H. Lane, who was sent to Georgia and Florida in 1888, recommended to the Full general Conference that the intended organization of a conference in Florida exist delayed.

However, the population's migratory habits did take one advantage. After returning from Florida, Samuel Fulton reported to the 1887 General Conference in Oakland, California, that nigh new Floridians in the cities and towns had broken their ties with the past to some caste and were ready to cover new ideas. Fulton reported a liberal spirit and a lack of prejudice. Other workers, who followed Fulton, found this report to exist true, although active opposition sometimes developed in the more bourgeois localities. For example, L. H. Crisler encountered an irate citizen in a dorsum-wood mail office who assaulted him viciously until bystanders restrained the person.

2 other challenges to the work in Florida were occasional yellow fever scares and winter freezes. The threat of xanthous fever epidemics discouraged people from attending public gatherings such as tent meetings scheduled in 1887 for Tampa and the following twelvemonth in Lake Metropolis. In spite of the fear, xanthous fever did non actually enter peninsular Florida.

Remembered for more than half a century as "the big freeze," common cold temperatures wiped out the 1894-1895 citrus crop and outright killed many groves. Consequently, the 1895 camp meeting was cancelled because of the resulting economic depression. For several years, church building budgets and colporteur book sales suffered from the effects.³

Organizational History

In spite of the setbacks, a decade of organization and progress lay ahead in the 1890s. At the showtime of the decade, groups of believers (both organized and unorganized) were reported in the areas of Apopka, Earlton, Fernandina, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Lake City, Moultrie, Orange Heights, Orlando, Palmetto, Pine Hills, St. Andrews Bay, St. Augustine, Sorrento, Tampa, and Waldo, although non all of these groups were permanent.

Six churches were represented when the Florida Briefing organized in September 1893 at a meeting held in Barberville, northward of Orlando. The conference began life with iii ordained ministers, 2 licentiates, and 139 members, its territory comprising the unabridged state of Florida. At the same meeting, members organized a tract society and a Sabbath Schoolhouse clan.

A number of other firsts were reported in this decade. In 1892, literature evangelist S. T. Page supervised the commencement "company of canvassers," and the members of Barberville (organized in February) and DeLeon Springs erected the kickoff Seventh-day Adventist church building building. In November 1894, the Florida Conference conducted its start camp coming together and commencement regular constituency session, held in Tampa. Information technology was said to be the beginning camp coming together of any denomination in that surface area. The campers, including 100 people from Terra Ceia and elsewhere in Manatee Canton, who traveled upward the bay in two schooners and were housed in fifty tents and apartments. Alonzo T. Jones spoke twice daily. Other speakers were George Ide Butler, sometime General Conference president who had retired to Florida in 1888, and R. M. Kilgore, superintendent of the Southern District (General Conference District No. 2), who stayed after the cease of the meeting to organize the Tampa church building.

The decade also saw efforts to evangelize diverse populations within the land. This included house-to-business firm work amid both blackness and white residents reported at Lawtey (1891) and Milton (1897). M. T. Ivory, a black licentiate (subsequently ordained), began working in Orlando in Apr 1897. In September 1899, Ivory reported preaching to white people for iii weeks in Punta Gorda and working in diverse black communities throughout the year. A church building was organized in Orlando that same yr as a result of Ivory's labors.

Hopes of offset mission work among Seminole Native Americans were raised in 1896 as a result of contacts that Due west. Fifty. Bird made at Chokoloskee in the course of a trip to the visit a small Seventh-day Adventist group on the southern Gulf Coast. By 1897, the briefing president felt the opportunity was opening, but zippo permanent resulted. Fifty years after, in that location were reports of one Adventist–a half-Seminole woman whose tribal membership gave her access–trying to achieve these Native Americans.

Immediately preceding the Spanish-American War in 1898, solicitations were fabricated for relief contributions to help Cuban refugees in Tampa, and plans were made to distribute Spanish-language publications at local cigar factories where people were hired to read to the employees as they rolled cigars. Once over again, little seems to have resulted from the initiative. Non until the mid-twentieth century would the work among Spanish-speaking communities begin to develop in a substantial way, ultimately leading to organization of the Spanish ministries department in 1979 (see Departmental Organization Highlights below).

On May 1, 1901, the former General Conference District No. 2 was re-organized into the Southern Matrimony Conference, with the Florida Briefing as i of the its constituents. In Nov of that yr, the Florida Conference elected its second president, George Ide Butler, who had twice before served equally Full general Conference president. The post-obit January, at the showtime session of the new Southern Union Conference, Butler was elected union president, only continued as president of the Florida Conference as well. Thus, until 1904, Florida Conference'due south president lived in Nashville, Tennessee.

Changes in Territory

In 1908, 7 of Florida's northwestern counties were transferred to the Alabama Conference, as were 2 others in 1922. A tenth was transferred in 1932 to the new Alabama-Mississippi Conference. Today, the Apalachicola River in Florida's panhandle is the dividing landmark betwixt the Florida Conference'south territory and these ten counties that belong to what is at present known as Gulf States Conference.

Membership Patterns

In its first ten-year period, the Florida Conference doubled its membership, reaching 286 members in twelve churches past 1903. By the finish of the next decade, 1913, there were 744 members in twenty-seven churches that included Saint petersburg (1905), Daytona (1909), and Miami (1910).

In the Florida Conference's history, annual membership figures take only twice shown a reduction. The first fourth dimension, yet, was not an bodily subtract of members. In 1945, the conference'south black churches were transferred to the newly organized Due south Atlantic Conference. This reduced the Florida Conference totals from sixty-eight to forty-vii churches and from six,038 to 4,579 members.^four

The second reduction was realized across several recent years during a process of reviewing and reconciling records of missing or inactive members. Total membership was reduced from 65,156 at twelvemonth-end 2016 to 63,123 as of Feb 2019.

Institutions and Ministries

Greater Miami Adventist Academy began operation in 1912 as an independent school nether the name Greater Miami Elementary School. It became a four-year academy in 1961 and a Florida Conference-sponsored institution on Jan 1, 2000.

Forest Lake Academy was founded as Lake Winyah University in 1918 in the vicinity of the Florida Sanitarium. The school to the Forest City customs near Apopka (northward of Orlando) and renamed as Forest Lake Academy in 1926. Its campus provided a permanent army camp meeting site for many decades.

Campsite Kulaqua began in 1953 when a group of members purchased land in High Springs, north of Gainesville, to exist used as a youth camp. Today, it serves equally a twelvemonth-round retreat and conference center in improver to its annual summer army camp plan.

Pine Lake Retreat, an additional facility operated by Camp Kulaqua, originated in the 1950s as Groveland Academy. The property was donated to the Florida Conference in 1994 and was transformed into Pino Lake Retreat. The buildings were after remodeled and updated while additional retreat amenities were installed on the property. Equally of belatedly 2018, the facility was listed for sale, though Camp Kulaqua was still accepting reservations for employ on a limited basis.

Florida Living Retirement Customs opened in 1965 a brusque distance from Forest Lake Academy. The adjacent nursing heart was opened on June 8, 1970.

Due north Tampa Christian Academy opened its doors on Baronial twenty, 2018, equally the Florida Conference's newest sponsored four-year academy, housed in a new state-of-the-art facility located in the Wesley Chapel community. Along with the secondary schoolhouse, an elementary schoolhouse and an early childhood facility are function of the institution. The school'due south history extends to the 1890s when it began as a church-based primary school. In 1917, the school was moved to its own small facility. During sixty years at its prior location, the school was known as Tampa Junior Academy and later on Tampa Adventist Academy.

Headquarters Changes

Based on available information, the Florida Conference operated out of a variety of temporary offices during its earliest decades, mayhap in connection with Orlando churches. The congregation known today as Orlando Primal Church built a facility in 1917 on the corner of Rosalind and Robinson Avenues that was designed to also permanently house the Florida Conference offices.

During the 1920s, the Florida Conference congenital its own separate office facility at 311 Northward Rosalind Avenue, neighboring the church building. Internal briefing reports indicating that the movement to the new building took place in 1923 conflict with Orange County property records, which state that the facility was congenital in 1928. Though the old Orlando Central Church building no longer exists, the former conference headquarters building was notwithstanding standing at its downtown Orlando location as of 2018, when it was existence prepped for office space leases.

In 1960, conference headquarters moved to a new facility at 616 Due east Rollins Street in Orlando. Sale of the Rosalind Avenue building had been finalized 1958, and so the conference operated from a large old house on Hillcrest Artery until construction of the new Rollins Avenue location was consummate. Initially, the new building housed administration on the upper floor, the Adventist Volume Centre (ABC) on the lower floor, and ministry departments on a split level.^v The ABC afterward moved into an addition made on the building's w side, and ministry departments expanded into the ABC's quondam location on the lesser floor.

Afterward the conference vacated the edifice in 1992, information technology was used for several years by Florida Hospital for the man resources role and other departments. It was demolished in 2005 to brand room for the new Florida Hospital Ginsburg Tower. Interestingly, the Ginsburg Tower Emergency Room entrance is at present in almost the verbal spot where the main entrance to the Florida Conference office was located.

The Florida Conference purchased the Wymore building at 655 North. Wymore Road in Wintertime Park for its new headquarters. After interior renovations to arrange both the conference offices and the Adventist Volume Heart, the grand opening took place in the summer of 1992.^half-dozen

Just under xx years later, on Jan 27, 2012, the Florida Department of Transportation (DOT) purchased the unabridged Wymore belongings to make room for the expansion of highway Interstate four. The building was demolished in October 2015. Nevertheless, for more two years following the DOT purchase, the Florida Conference continued to employ the facility hire-free until it relocated to its present location at 351 S. Land Road 434 in Altamonte Springs in Apr of 2014.

Departmental Organization Highlights

The Florida Conference has consistently expanded the breadth and reach of it departmental ministries. In 1892, the germination of the get-go visitor of canvassers, supervised by agent S. T. Page, pre-dated the organization of Florida Conference that took identify the following year. Originally known as the Sabbath School Association, the section began in the days post-obit conference organization in 1893. Known past various names, including Estate Services and Trust Services, the department of Planned Giving was instituted in 1861 as function of the Florida Conference Association, working with legal documents. The first coordinator of Spanish Ministries, Rolando de los Ríos, was appointed the conference'southward vice president for Hispanic Ministries in 1991, although outreach in the Castilian linguistic communication began in 1979. As of 2018, Florida's Hispanic membership was 17,878 with fifty-ix churches, xx-five companies, and eleven mission groups. The start leader, Hazel Gordon (the married woman of and then-president Malcolm D. Gordon), encouraged the placement of Women'due south Ministries directors in each church starting time in 1989 and helped plan the first Florida Conference Women's Retreat in 1990.

Meaning Evangelistic and Outreach Programs

The Florida conference is also active in evangelism and community outreach. The MagaBook program, begun Jan 4, 1990, provides scholarship coin for students every bit well as contacts with communities through Adventist literature. With the help of the former Adventist Advice Network, and after from both Promise Idiot box and Three Angels Broadcasting Network, Florida was among the commencement conferences to broadcast camp meeting via satellite across North America, outset in 1996 and continuing through 2008. Every bit of 2018, Florida's camp meeting is broadcast through online streaming. 3 Net evangelism series broadcasts took place in the 2010s: One Hope in 2012, A New Song in 2013, and Following Jesus in 2014.

The Florida Briefing's disaster response team has consistently provided aid subsequently hurricanes, tornadoes, and other crises throughout the state too equally other conferences. The team is federally recognized and has been requested on diverse occasions to oversee operation of emergency supply distribution warehouses following natural disasters.

Through the diverse language groups represented in the conference, including English, Castilian, French, Portuguese, Korean, Vietnamese, Burmese, Filipino, and Hebrew, the Florida Conference makes resources and personnel available to farther the task of going into all the world and preaching the gospel to every creature.

Contempo High and Low Points

In 2003, fifty positions in the conference were eliminated as a outcome of budget shortfalls–particularly the high price of insurance and significantly reduced tithe receipts. However, recovery was rapid and positions were refilled as finances permitted.

With the intent of fostering collaboration and reducing operational redundancies, Integrated Youth Ministries was established in 2010, merging all departments that focused on young people. After only a few years, it became evident that the departments operated more than efficiently when carve up and the concept was abased.

North Tampa Christian University opened in 2018 featuring a modernistic, 21st-century curriculum (see the Institutions and Ministries section higher up).

Outlook

With regard to the mission lying ahead for the conference, Allan Machado, the newly-elected president, stated in 2018: "Florida Conference ministers inside a detail context. There is but one manner to be the church, and that is incarnational, inside a specific concrete setting. The gospel is always translated into a culture, and God'due south people are called to government minister in that specific context the same way Jesus was relevant in the culture of the starting time century in Palestine. This is the Church that we strive to be at Florida Conference."^vii

Presidents

Ii presidents in Florida Briefing's history accept served two carve up (nonconsecutive) terms: 50. H. Crisler, first president, 1893-1901, and quaternary president, 1906-1907; Claiborne Bell Stephenson, third president, 1904-1906, and eighth president, 1919-1921.

Rufus Wells Parmele, who served as fifth president from 1907-1912, championed the endeavour to establish the Florida Sanitarium in 1908, later renamed Florida Hospital and most recently, AdventHealth.

Michael F. Cauley, xx-third president, 2003–2018, was Florida Conference's longest-serving president at 15 years.

List of Presidents: L. H. Crisler (1893-1901); George Ide Butler (1900-1904); Claiborne Bell Stephenson (1904-1906); L. H. Crisler (1906-1907); Rufus Wells Parmele, (1907-1912); William Henry Heckman (1913-1917); A. R. Sandborn (1917-1919); Claiborne Bell Stephenson (1919-1921); John Lewis Shuler (1921-1926); Arthur Samuel Berth (1926-1933); Louis Klaer Dickson (1933-1936); Lewis Ellis Lenheim (1936-1941); Leonard Clark Evans (1941-1947); Reuben H. Nightingale (1947-1954); Donald R. Rees (1954-1957); Harold H. Schmidt (1957-1965); Wallace O. Coe (1965-1973); Henry J. Carubba (1973-1984); Malcolm D. Gordon (1985-1990); Obed O. Graham (1990-1997); Gordon L. Retzer (1997-2000); H. Lewis Hendershot (2000-2003); Michael F. Cauley (2003-2018); C. Allan Machado (2018-present).

Headquarters Accost: 351 S. State Road 434; Altamonte Springs, Florida 32714-3824

Sources

Beeler, Charles L. "New Office Edifice Opened." Southern Tidings, March 2, 1960.

"Florida Conference Opens New Winter Park Headquarters." ARH, Baronial 27, 1992.

Seventh-solar day Adventist Encyclopedia, two^nd revised edition. Hagerstown, Doctor: Review and Herald, 1996.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Nampa, ID: Pacific Printing, 2019.

Untitled paragraph, "Progress of the Cause" department. ARH, Oct 5, 1876.

Notes

Seventh-day Adventist Online Yearbook, "Florida Conference," accessed May 28, 2020, https://world wide web.adventistyearbook.org/entity?EntityID=12801].↩
Untitled paragraph, "Progress of the Cause" department, ARH, Oct v, 1876, 111.↩
"Origins" section adapted from "Florida Conference," 7th-day Adventist Encyclopedia, 2^nd rev. edition, 1996.↩
"Organizational History," from the beginning of the section to this indicate adapted and updated from Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, 2^nd. rev. edition, 1996.↩
Charles 50. Beeler, "New Office Building Opened," Southern Tidings, March 2, 1960, iv. The comprehend of this consequence featured a photo of the "new mod Florida Conference Headquarters building" (caption, folio two).↩
"Florida Conference Opens New Winter Park Headquarters," ARH, August 27, 1992, seven.↩
Statement provided to author, February 7, 2019.↩

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Source: https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=69AP

Florida Conference of Sda 2018 Offeratory Readings