Many NC Conference church leaders recently attended the first Fresh Expressions United Methodist National Gathering in Charlotte, NC. Fresh Expressions is an ecumenical movement that helps churches reach new disciples for Christ.
“Fresh expressions are about getting creative in your church’s reach. A group starts when a Christian sees those already in his or her circles with a spiritual lens. It’s asking the simple question, ‘How can I help my friends connect with God?’ Fresh expressions form where mutual interests meet hearts open to opportunities to connect on faith matters.”
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Fresh Expressions Books
The NC Conference Media Center has several books on the Fresh Expressions movement that are available to borrow. These are all published by United Methodist publishers. Additional titles can be purchased directly from the Fresh Expressions online store.
Fresh Expressions: A New Kind of Methodist Church for People Not in Church by Kenneth H. Carter, Jr. and Audrey Warren. This book is a group study for church leaders and congregations who are in the grip of Holy Spirit motivation to renew their tradition by reaching people who are dechurched or not yet in a discipleship relationship with Jesus. Each chapter includes two Bible study experiences for group conversation.
Fresh Expressions United Methodist: A Distinctly Wesleyan Spirt-Led Movement of New Christian Communities that Serve the Present Age. John Wesley famously exclaimed, “The world is my parish.” But have we, the people called Methodists, made the parish our world? This book is a practical guide to help United Methodists put the “go” back in our mission statement through cultivating Fresh Expressions of Church.
A Field Guide to Methodist Fresh Expressions by Michael Adam Beck with Jorge Acevedo. The authors awaken congregational leaders and ministry teams to a distinctive Wesleyan approach to the Fresh Expressions movement. They show congregations how to cultivate and customize fresh expressions that fit their local context. They motivate ministry teams to take risks, experiment, and, when necessary, fail well.
Fresh Expressions of People Over Property by Audrey Warren and Kenneth H. Carter, Jr. Can we, as faith-based organizations, begin to think collaboratively about how we might further our missions by creatively and intentionally rethinking how we utilize the space we inhabit? The authors reflect on strategies, scriptures, and stories that help leaders faithfully reimagine their community spaces so that they reflect that God and God’s people value people over property.
Fresh Expressions in a Digital Age: How the Church Can Prepare for a Post-Pandemic World by Michael Adam Beck and Rosario Picardo. A fundamental premise of the movement is that Church can become accessible again by emerging in every nook and cranny where life already happens. The digital space is its own kind of third place, a new missional frontier.
Fresh Expressions of the Rural Church by Michael Adam Beck and Tyler Kleeberger. This book collects stories from the diversity of rural contexts across the US. It lays out a fresh theology for rural life and offers principles for harnessing the potential of what some consider the forgotten spaces. Each chapter includes a helpful Field Exercise-questions for discussion and suggested actions for leadership teams to work through together.
Doing Justice Together: Fresh Expressions Pathways for Healing in Your Church by Michael Adam Beck and Stephanie Moore Hand. Introduces a process for pastors and church people to move through together, to re-envision and reorient themselves away from old, often harmful habits. Shows pastors how they can, over time, lead the congregation to become a place where racial equity, justice, and liberation are intrinsic to the structure and life of the church.
Additional Books for Fresh Expressions Churches
Need some ideas about how to begin a Fresh Expression in your context? Here are additional books you can borrow from the NC Conference Media Center.
The Dinner Church Handbook: A Step-by-Step Recipe for Reaching Neighborhoods by Verlon Fosner. Fosner begins by evaluating the rich scriptural history of the Dinner Church, and gradually works his way into the practical questions a leader might have. It’s when the heart of the church swells in compassion for its neighbors who may never darken the doorway of a traditional church building that dinner churches are born.
Eating Together Faithfully: A Framework for Conversation by Life Around the Table. This program is an ecumenical, community-based resource for congregations and communities to explore food and food systems from a Christian perspective. The Eating Together Faithfully (ETF) Framework takes participants through eight guided conversations, exploring the theological and practical implications of each of these topics for their lives, their communities, and our world.
Messy Church: Fresh Ideas for Building a Christ-Centered Community by Lucy Moore and Jane Leadbetter. This complete church resource brings together people of all ages and stages of faith, allowing them to experience a creative and fun-filled Christian community. Using creativity, celebration, and hospitality, this fifteen-session tool helps you create a unique, come-as-you-are church experience.
Christian Social Innovation: Renewing Wesleyan Witness by L. Gregory Jones. Jones looks at how our need to develop “fresh expressions” for gatherings of community and our desire to cultivate a renewed sense of mission are the basis for the growing interest in starting new churches and establishing church plants.
Missional, Monastic, Mainline: A Guide to Starting Missional Micro-Communities in Historically Mainline Traditions by Elaine A. Heath and Larry Duggins. This book contains the wisdom and perspectives of people who live and serve in missional, new monastic communities in United Methodist and other mainline traditions, and it describes new forms of theological education that are emerging to resource a new generation of Christian leaders. Heath and Duggins challenge Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and other Christians to reach into their own robust, mainline heritage for resources to develop small, intentional communities that practice a rigorous life of prayer, hospitality, and justice.
Longing for Spring : A New Vision for Wesleyan Community by Elaine A. Heath & Scott T. Kisker. Delving into the widespread, contemporary longing for a more serious and communal experience of Christianity, this book provides important theoretical underpinnings and casts a vision for a new monasticism within the Wesleyan tradition. It helps Wesleyans of all stripes understand the theory and praxis necessary for planting neo-monastic communities as a new model of the church that is particularly important in the postmodern context.
More Resources from the Media Center
This list of resources is available in our online catalog on the Fresh Expressions pathfinder. The pathfinder on Healthy Congregations has additional titles for church growth and renewal.
Fresh Expressions Online
Amplify Media has a new channel dedicated to Fresh Expressions videos with Michael Adam Beck. These videos are free to watch. You don’t need an Amplify subscription.
Amplify also hosted a webinar with authors Michael Adam Beck and Stephanie Moore Hand, Coming to the Table: Healing Racialization through Building Justice-Based Communities. The webinar is based on the newest Fresh Expressions book, Doing Justice Together. The recording of the webinar is freely available to watch now.