The people who find life and community within rural places often feel ignored.

Has the rural church been forgotten? Has urbanization made life outside the sprawl irrelevant? How has the COVID pandemic changed these realities? Can rural congregations struggling to survive find hope and new life? If so, can healthy rural churches actually catalyze a different future for their declining communities and, possibly, the world?
Circuit riders crisscrossed what was for them a new frontier, planting churches
across the landscape of the United States. They shared the story of Jesus with whoever would listen, leaving in their wake a constellation of new Christian communities, many of those located in rural areas.

Those congregations became the centerpiece of rural life for a time. The place where people gathered not only on Sundays to hear a sermon, but to help each other work the land, break bread, and form deep relationships. The rural church was the place where they found a community that could sustain them
through the joys and struggles of life with the land. In many ways, the rural church captured a core essence of the church’s mission: to be the guiding hand to the life of a place.

Can rural congregations flourish again? And can the formation of new Christian communities be integrated in these activities? As it was centuries ago, can we reimagine our places by reimagining the church?

Michael Beck has served ageing rural congregations for over a decade and has found ways to cultivate “fresh expressions of church” with people who call rural simply… home. This workshop shares 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.

"Leveling Up: Fresh Expressions in Online & Hybrid Small Groups"
Learn how your local church can successfully use Online and Hybrid Small Groups (partly online and partly in person) to enhance your ministry with Pastor Abigail of Everyday Sanctuary. 

"Leveling Up: Fresh Expressions in Digital Ministry"
Whether you are a Church with a physical space or digital space, this workshop will focus on how to personalize your digital communication so that people feel more personally connected to your Church. Having an online presence doesn’t have to be impersonal; learn about tools like Push Notifications, Texting, #Hashtags and generational language from Everyday Sanctuary mobile app Creator and Podcaster, Pastor Abigail. Everyday Sanctuary focuses on reaching seekers through simple, accessible faith practice.

Pastor Abigail Browka is the Creator and Curator of the Everyday Sanctuary mobile app and Podcast, a satisfying spiritual practice in 5 minutes or less, everywhere you are.

 After 15 years in local church ministry, Abigail was Lead Pastor as an Elder in the United Methodist Church when she felt God calling her to plant Everyday Sanctuary, a digital sanctuary of simple and clear satisfying spiritual practice that prioritizes seekers.

“As the creator of Everyday Sanctuary, every day I write for people who are tired of religion but are deeply spiritual.”

Abigail lives in Upstate New York with her amazingly aware train loving Toddler.

The United States is experiencing an epidemic of loneliness with over half of the population identifying as lonely. Fresh Expressions and other ministries of the church have the ability to address this real need in our communities when we focus on building relationships and cultivating community. In this workshop, we will further explore our landscape of loneliness and provide practical tools for building communities of belonging.

Luke Edwards, author of Becoming Church: A Trail Guide for Starting Fresh Expressions, is a United Methodist Minister and the Associate Director of Church Development for the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church. Over the past six years he has helped launch countless micro faith communities across western North Carolina and North America. Before that he was the founding pastor of King Street Church, a network of fresh expressions in Boone, North Carolina. Since his training as a social worker, he has spent the last 15 years exploring wholistic models of church-based community engagement. Luke has learned a few things along the way, but the most important lesson he's learned is that healthy ministry begins with deep listening. He grew up in an area of western Massachusetts that was recently named the most post-Christian metropolitan area in the United States, where he joined his first micro-faith community at the age of fourteen. Luke lives in Denver, North Carolina, where he enjoys hiking, coaching his daughter's soccer team, and cheering for Charlotte FC, his local professional soccer club. You can find his newsletter and Spiritual Listening Plan at www.thelisteningchurch.com.

One of the main reasons why fresh expressions aren't multiplying and reaching new people in the United States and in the UK is our inability to make disciples.  Some of us have been in Sunday school for decades but if we were asked to guide someone down the path of discipleship, we would have no idea what to do.  How do we, as pastors and laity, develop a discipleship system that makes sense in these new expressions of faith?  Join Rachel for a worship as we talk about practical tips and skills to help you with contextual discipleship.

Rev. Rachel Gilmore is an elder in the Virginia Conference and planted The Gathering at Scott Memorial UMC in Virginia Beach, serving there from 2009-2019.

In 2019 she was appointed as the Director of Recruiting, Training
and Assessing for lay and clergy church planters in the United Methodist Church.   Rachel currently serves in the Desert Southwest Conference as the Director of New and Vital Faith.  She most recently assisted in the planning of the National UM Church Planter Gathering which was hosted by the Western Jurisdiction in April of 2023.  She is a founding member of Intersect: a Co- Planting Network, and launched two podcasts related to church revitalization, church planting and multiethnic church growth in the last 3 years.

She is the author of Expanding the Expedition Reach with Missional Communities (Marketsquare, 2021) and Voices of Christmas (Marketsquare, 2021).  Rachel is also a contributor to Launching a New Worship Community: a Practical Guide for the 2020s (Upper Room, 2021) and her story is featured in Ready, Set, Plant (Upper Room, 2021) and From Franchise to Local Dive: Multiplying your Church by Developing your Contextual Flavor (Marketsquare, 2020).

"Leveling Up: 7 Ways to Increase Engagement in Hybrid Worship”
While there were plenty of early adopters of hybrid ministry before the pandemic, the vast majority of churches went online when COVID arrived. Moving into our third year of this new hybrid reality, it is imperative that we create engagement with our online worship experience. It is entirely possible and completely necessary to move those not gathered physically from being spectators to participants.  In this session, author/hybrid ministry specialist Jason Moore covers seven ways to increase engagement for online participants, moving them from watchers to worshipers. Now is the time to level up your BOTH/AND experience.

“Leveling Up: Using A.I. Tools to Create and Brand a Worship Series”
Wondering how A.I. can help you take a worship series to the next level? From ideation, to sharpening your content; script and image generation, and even video production - A.I. can assist you in creating deep meaningful worship. In this two-hour workshop, author/coach Jason Moore will expose you to the most useful A.I. tools, show you how to use them, and will demonstrate how to create a worship series from scratch. We’ll explore the why, how and what of A.I. in this “over the shoulder” style interactive workshop.

Creativity, storytelling, and visual communication are evidenced passions of Jason Moore throughout his more than two decades of designing dynamic resources, training, coaching, and consulting for churches of all sizes, styles, and means. A childhood dream of becoming a Hollywood filmmaker shifted as Jason experienced a call to bring his gifted artistry to the church, joining the Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church staff in the 1990s.In 2020, as the global pandemic took root, Jason instinctively shifted his work, crafting a series of groundbreaking webinars on hybrid worship design. These trainings, which combine his specialties of church communications, guest readiness, and creative worship, provide practical, results-oriented application, and are being utilized across the country in The United Methodist Church, seminaries, and ecumenical groups. Jason, a graduate of The Modern College of Design, is the author of 12 books, a frequent keynote speaker, and a sought-after trainer.

Let's explore the Messy Church way. Learn the basic building blocks - the core values and key components - of Messy Church and consider how Messy Church might be adapted to your context.

Dr. Johannah Myers is the Director of Disciple Formation at Aldersgate UMC in Greenville, SC, and the Associate Director of Messy Church USA. A graduate of Duke Divinity School (M.Div) and Wesley Theological Seminary (D.Min), her area of focus is intergenerational faith formation. Johannah has led a Messy Church at Aldersgate since 2013. With Messy Church USA, Johannah leads trainings and workshops across the country (and even the world), writes Messy Church sessions, and is an active part of the global Messy Church leadership.

"Relevance" is a word that's often overused. In order to culturally connect and engage you must be aware of what is going on around you. You need to know what's going on in the world, on the TV, in the movies, in podcasts, and on the radio. This is not about keeping up to be cool, you must be able to reach people where they are. Being aware isn’t limited to what is coming out of New York or Hollywood, you have to know what's going on in your community.

Once you know what is going on and understand the needs, be innovative and meet those needs. Don’t just name problems that you see, actively work to solve those problems by being flexible and adaptable. In the church it isn't a matter of if you are going to change, it's when and how. This session will prepare you for things that come your way.

Learn how to look ahead, work fast, communicate fast, and lead change with a positive attitude.

I am a lifelong United Methodist. I served as a pastor in a small rural congregation in the Eastern Ohio Conference, as a youth pastor at both Dutilh and Chippewa UMC in the Western PA annual conference and began a church service in a local bar before becoming an associate at Christ UMC in Bethel Park in 2009.

Over the last 13 years, I served as the Minister of Contemporary Worship and Emerging Ministries, Executive Pastor, and am currently serving as the Senior Pastor (since 2017). My experience in different United Methodist churches has given me a diverse background to identify and resolve issues facing the church through a variety of lenses.

This workshop will explore how a church can effectively connect with and build a meaningful, equitable, and collaborative community ministry framework. As we seek to level up in fresh expressions, we will unpack how one church continually seeks to learn and discover more about their neighborhood, and how this continual learning impacts how they structure, communicate, and live out community ministry in their building and city. The good, bad, and ugly will be shared to inspire all leaders to consider the important work of community ministry where real lives are being improved and Jesus is experienced in beautiful ways.

Kristopher is lead pastor of The Journey Church, a four-year-old church plant in urban Harrisburg, PA. He remains humbled and grateful to be leading this diverse, inclusive, and Jesus-centered faith community that is intentional about creating space for all people to experience Jesus’ liberative spirit. The Journey celebrates both its ability to connect with young adults (approximately 65% of the church is under the age of 40) and its diversity (55% identify as white, and 45% identify as a person of color). We believe that through the empowerment and love of the Holy Spirit, we can make a space where all are welcome, address difficult topics in love, acknowledge our differences, and find deep belonging regardless of our differences.

Kristopher was born and raised in central Pennsylvania and grew up attending a local church. Even though his biological family did not have a faith orientation, this church nurtured and cared for him as a young child, forming in him a deep love of God and people, and propelled Kris to be the person he is today.

Outside of ministry, Kristopher is a proud husband to Hannah and father to Lydia. He loves to travel and explore new places in the United States and around the world. Thus far, he has visited 6 out of the 7 continents! If he's not traveling, Kristopher enjoys laughing with friends, reading at local coffee shops, kayaking, and enjoying craft beer.

As leaders, one of the greatest challenges in forming new faith communities is separating our own desires and ideas from what people actually want and need. So how do we avoid imposing our personal preferences on the folks with whom we wish to create community?

In this breakout workshop, Rev. Joe Webb will walk you through the processes he used to evolve an informal pub theology group into a thriving online community for “spiritual exiles” by decentralizing leadership and deconstructing unhelpful paradigms. Participants will learn how creating an environment of ongoing experimentation empowers members of the community to share their own gifts and passions for the good of the whole, take ownership in the life of the community, and create generative new ministries within their own contexts.

Rev. Joe Webb is an ordained Deacon in the West Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church. He is the founder of New Wineskins, a nontraditional, online faith community for people who consider themselves “Spiritual Exiles” … those who have become disconnected or disenfranchised from the church due to spiritual deconstruction, religious trauma, or any number of other reasons. He also hosts AccidentalTomatoes.com, a content-rich website featuring blog posts and podcast episodes dealing with deconstruction and reconstruction. In addition, Joe serves as the WVUMC’s coordinator for new faith communities, where he helps leaders launch new contextual communities from within legacy church structures.

According to Pew Research Center in 2021, over 85% of Americans use the Internet on a daily basis. Whenever we imagine the digital mission field, we are essentially declaring the whole world to be our intended audience for our community.

While the world may be our parish, it is essential to do the hard work of discerning where you should focus your time and energy in the digital marketplace. Should you stream on YouTube, Facebook, or Twitch? Should you post content on TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts? This workshop, hosted by the planter of Checkpoint Church Nathan Webb, will break down the 'why' behind the platforms that you should be most focused on with your community. Expect to walk away from this workshop with a tangible to-do list for digital ministry foundation building.

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 his Discord server, reading the latest shōnen entry, or playing the newest indie game. Nathan is an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church in the Western North Carolina Conference. He also curates a community for nerd ministry called Pixel & Pulpit. You can reach him on any of the socials on his Linktree.