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I’m hot off the heels of the “Futuring Forward: The Reawakening of the People called Methodist” conference. This hybrid event hosted hundreds of practitioners of the Fresh Expressions United Methodist (FXUM) movement–which has greatly expanded within the denomination over the past few decades.
What is a Fresh Expression? The term itself has a few different takes depending on who you’re asking. The FXUM website’s official statement states that “a fresh expression of church is a new form of church which is trying to connect with people who don’t normally go to church.” Often, they are birthed from within the established church but are distinctly outside of the bounds of anything that looks like a church.
In my call as a planter of an all-digital church– an expression of the church–I’ve always considered myself related to the movement. Hence, I was elated to discover the first national gathering would be in my neck of the woods in Charlotte, NC.
This Conference would see many keynote speakers and amazing workshops led by exciting practitioners of innovative ministries within the United Methodist Church. We broke bread together and talked about the hard realities of ministry, from financing to reaching the next generation. I was able to hang out with some good friends from within my own Western NC conference while also building a marshmallow tower with some delightful folks from conferences spanning the nation. In this article, I’d like to share three major takeaways from the good conversations and myriad notes in this article.
Wesley Left the Building
Out of the myriad of keynotes, workshops, resources, and webinars, there were more than a few quotes that were quite poignant for the United Methodist denomination. Among those many quotes, one has stuck itself firmly in my heart:
“John Wesley said that the world is my parish, but we’ve made the parish our world.”
These words shared by author and pastor Rev. Michael Beck rang throughout the hall of Providence United Methodist Church. Those gathered knew exactly what those words meant–Fresh Expressions is not new at all, but a historical echo of the field preaching of the father of the Methodist movement, John Wesley. The movement was built upon a call to go out into the world and preach the gospel, not cycle the stories within our brick buildings.
This is a call to see beyond our reclusive reality and begin to work on “doing church” out in the places where people don’t call themselves Christians. While I would argue there is also nothing fresh about this sentiment, I’ll celebrate the reframing of our focus on doing the work of sharing Jesus in all places and spaces..
A Growing Diversity
When I first posted an image of myself at the event on social media, one of my friends asked about the diversity of the keynote speakers and workshop leaders. While this might often burden one with excuses over the whiteness of promoted scholasticism, I was delighted to share with them that I found the leadership undeniably diverse. Over three days, I attended more workshops hosted by BIPOC and AAPI leaders than white leaders. While the keynote speakers were slightly less varied, powerful BIPOC voices led the charge and stirred up the Spirit in the room.
The diversity was apparent amongst the United Methodist Bishops gathered (of which there were SEVEN!), with at least two of the seven being POC. Present were Bishops Berlin (FL), Shelton (NC), Hagiya (retired), Plambeck (SD/MN), Carter (WNC), Wallace-Padgett (Holston), and Neeley (Bahamas).
While I’m delighted by this apparent diversity, we can always do better with racial equity and inclusion. I’m thankful that the intentionality is immediately apparent at the first gathering. Anti-racist work is an ever-growing field, and this event’s leadership is a hopeful sign pointing towards an even more diverse United Methodist Church going forward.
Thy Beer Mug Runneth Over
The first instance of Fresh Expressions I can recall is the Beer & Hymns movement. As someone who didn’t see his Methodist Elder father drink a beer until his late teens, I can recall being delighted and surprised by Beer and Hymns’ “real” nature. Being able to drop the guilty pretense of being physically present in a bar felt much more authentic than other church get-togethers. Being in a ‘third space’ out in the real and not relegated to another cakewalk in the fellowship felt like I was able to lose the mask of Mr. Perfect Pastor and instead be vulnerable with those around me.
After attending this conference, I can affirm that we’ve come a long way since then, and it was obvious by the conference programming. Three days was nowhere near enough time to begin highlighting the plethora of expressions in the room. I couldn’t even hope to list the various types that I heard from those gathered around my tables during conversations. There was so much that nearly every keynote and workshop ran overtime, and discussion between sessions kept attendees from entire portions of the itinerary.
An example of this growing edge could be that, even in a jam-packed schedule, I was personally hard-pressed to find any digital Fresh Expressions offerings, save for one that was hosted by the Baltimore-Washington Conferences’ Rev. Raimon Jackson and Taeron Flemming-Moore. Even in conversation with these leaders, they also saw a need for further leadership in the realm of digital ministry within the Fresh Expressions movement.
I call this out not to critique the gathering but to highlight the desperate need for more events like this one. Evidenced by a jam-packed schedule that still didn’t capture the field, the work of the Fresh Expressions United Methodist experience is only just beginning and is already quite expansive. God is clearly at work in a more diverse, more creative, more inclusive expression of the church of tomorrow.
Nathan Webb is a major nerd in just about every way. He loves video games, anime, cartoons, comic books, tech, and his fellow nerds. Hoping to provide a spiritual community for people with similar interests, he founded Checkpoint Church--"the church for nerds, geeks and gamers." Nathan can be found lurking on some visual novel subreddit, reading the latest shōnen entry, or playing the newest Farm Sim. Nathan is an ordained provisional elder in the United Methodist Church in the Western North Carolina Conference. He hosts a weekly newsletter podcast: To The Point.
