The West Virginia Conference is pleased to welcome Rev. Dr. Michael Beck on Thursday, October 20 at St. Luke’s UMC in Craigsville! He will be speaking with us about his newest book, Fresh Expressions of the Rural Church.
Michael Beck offers practical learnings about new ways to reach new people from his years of experience in local church settings and in communities. As a Conference, many of our communities are small in population and the majority of people in these communities are not active in any type of church. We believe God is calling us to try something new in order to build relationships with those individuals and families. The insights from this presentation are one way we can prepare ourselves as laity and clergy for ministry today and in the future.
You are encouraged to register now for this exciting time of learning and equipping us as leaders to reach ONE more for God’s Kingdom! But don’t come alone… prayerfully discern someone else in your ministry circle to come along with you.
The schedule for the day will be worship at 4:30, followed by a meal at 5:30, and then Michael Beck will present to the group at 6:30. There is a $10 fee for registration, and each person who registers will receive a copy of Fresh Expressions for the Rural Church.
Questions? Please email: congregationalvitality@wvumc.org
About Rev. Dr. Michael Adam Beck
Michael Beck is currently the Director of the Fresh Expressions House of Studies at United Theological Seminary, Director of Fresh Expressions UM, and Director of Fresh Expressions for the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. He serves as the co-pastor of St Marks UMC in Ocala with his wife Jill, where they direct addiction recovery programs, an interracial unity movement, and house a shelter for men experiencing homelessness. St Marks is a traditional congregation AND a network of fresh expressions that gather in tattoo parlors, dog parks, salons, running tracks, community centers, burrito joints, and digital spaces.
Michael guides missional innovators in an individual, regional, statewide, and international capacity. He coaches entrepreneurs across the theological spectrum and has consulted with hundreds of churches and denominations. As a practitioner of missional leadership, he has started and developed businesses and planted missional communities most of his life. Michael has done this for over a decade while pastoring in the local church. His coaching and consulting work are not theoretical only, but experiential. He believes in maintaining a practitioner’s ethos: “I eat my own cooking and share experimental recipes.”
Beck earned a Master of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary and a Doctorate in Semiotics and Future Studies at Portland Seminary. He’s the author/co-author of nine books, including Deep Roots, Wild Branches, Deep & Wild: Remissioning Your Church from the Outside In, A Field Guide to Methodist Fresh Expressions, Painting With Ashes, Contextual Intelligence: Unlocking the Ancient Secret to Mission on the Front Lines with Leonard Sweet, Fresh Expressions in a Digital Age: How the Church Can Prepare for a Post-Pandemic World with Rosario Picardo; The 21st Century Christian: Following Jesus Where Life Happens with Michael Moynagh; and Red Skies. His newest book, Fresh Expressions of the Rural Church is now available!