LAKELAND — The Rev. Charles Courtoy became the Florida Conference’s first full-time executive director of New Church Development and Church Redevelopment in 1995. He’ll leave that legacy behind this June with his retirement at the Dare to Share Jesus 2001 Florida Annual Conference Event in June.

Courtoy developed a model of innovation and change in how the Florida Conference starts new churches, but he is also handing a number of challenges to his successor, the Rev. Mont Duncan, superintendent of the DeLand District.

"We’ve done the so-called easy work," Courtoy said. "Mont is going to have to deal with many new innovations. One challenge is to find the leadership needed to continue to start new churches. He will also have to make the City Ministry Plan work, and prove we can be successful in the inner city, reaching people."

Courtoy was appointed full-time executive director of the church growth ministry by Bishop H. Hasbrouck Hughes after the annual conference approved making the position part of the bishop’s extended cabinet and creating a new apportionment to pay the salaries of new church pastors.

Courtoy said his greatest accomplishment in nearly six years of leadership was gaining almost unanimous support for new church development from the annual conference. He said one of the keys to that success was working closely with the conference’s leadership.

"I don’t have to stand at the door to the cabinet and knock," he said. "New church development is not going to happen without the support of the bishop and the cabinet."

Courtoy said working with the 14 district boards of Mission and Church Extension also helped develop a wide base of support for the ministry. "What’s unique about Florida is…that we have 10 to 20 people in each district — that’s more than 200 people — thinking about and working on church development," he said.

That support resulted in 27 full-time fast-track churches planted in the conference in six years. A fast-track church is a new church start that is appointed a full-time pastor who receives salary support from the conference for three years. Two of those new churches are African-American congregations, two are Hispanic and the rest are either multi-cultural or Anglo.

The conference has also launched 15 missions since 1995, including Korean, Vietnamese, Haitian and Hispanic congregations. Courtoy said missions are launched in areas where the population can’t afford to support a self-sustaining church. "Using a bi-vocational pastor, missions are allowed to organize and rise to their own level of self-sufficiency," he said.

While the conference has successfully geared money and staff resources toward developing new churches, Courtoy said redeveloping existing congregations requires a different focus.

"Redevelopment is a major concern because we have more than 700 established churches," Courtoy said. "Church redevelopment is an attitudinal issue, rather than a financial one."

He said a new church has no pastor, building or congregation, and needs money to get those things. An existing congregation has all of those things and sometimes no debt.

"People want to put money into redevelopment like in a new church saying the money will help revitalize the church," he said. "That’s a myth. I’ve seen churches receive large gifts of money, then use that money to maintain that status quo, rather than create new life. Churches that redevelop are those that create new life…new worship, new small groups, new outreach."

Courtoy, whose first appointment was as a new church pastor, said he is very pleased with the way he has ended his career. He is also optimistic about the future of church development in the Florida Conference.