Eleventh and last in a series on the Fresh Expressions Movement in the Florida Conference and in United Methodism, and particularly in relation to the “Nones," the “Dones” and “The Spiritual, but Not Religious.” In conversation with our team from Florida last summer, Bishop Graham Cray, one of the pioneers of Fresh Expressions, was in the midst of describing the existing church structures and cultural shifts in which present-day Christianity exists in England. At times th

Tenth in a series of reflections on Fresh Expressions of church, the Florida Conference and United Methodism, and our relation to the “Nones,” “Dones” and the “Spiritual but Not Religious.” Our mission as United Methodists is “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” As a United Methodist or Wesleyan expression of Christianity, we are shaped by a few distinctive marks and beliefs about God’s grace. We understand these convictions to be deeply

Ninth in a series of reflections on Fresh Expressions of church, the Florida Conference and United Methodism, and our relation to the “Nones,” “Dones” and the “Spiritual but Not Religious.” If we are listening to God’s call in the present moment, in increasingly non-churched and de-churched environments, we may discover that we are being led back to a fundamental experience—an encounter with the living Jesus. We encounter him in the gospels, even as he is anticipated in th

Eighth in a series of reflections on Fresh Expressions of church, the Florida Conference and United Methodism, and our relation to the “Nones,” “Dones” and the “Spiritual but Not Religious.” The Wesleyan movement began as a “method” of making disciples. Kevin Watson locates the essential shape of Wesleyan discipleship in the small group, which focused on “the free inquiry into the state of the heart” (Francis Asbury, quoted in The Class Meeting, 30). In groups small enough