ABOUT THE CONFERENCE:
Exponential 2023: Lost Cause: Reviving Evangelism (March 6-9, 2023)
Join thousands of leaders for inspiration, encouragement and equipping at Exponential 2023 in Orlando, FL. The conference features over 200 speakers, 150 workshops, 20 pre-conference intensives, and 75+ networks and denominations.
The Conference will be held at First Baptist Orlando, 3000 S John Young Pkwy, Orlando, FL 32805.
COST:
Ticket to Pre-Conference Workshop – FLUMC Fresh Expressions ($59)
Ticket to Exponential 2023 ($99)
Lunch (March 8 @ Noon) with Path1 (FREE) Limited to 80 participants.
PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP:
Join us at a Pre-Conference Workshop entitled: “Fresh Expressions: Spirit-led Evangelism, Discipleship, and Church Planting for the 21st Century” hosted by FLUMC on Monday, March 6, 2023, 1:00pm – 5:00pm and Tuesday, March 7, 2023, 8:00am – 11:30am.
This pre-conference workshop will include the following:
-
Post-Christendom has brought new challenges. The Church’s wellbeing is inextricably linked to how it seeks the wellbeing of the world around it. Attractional-only forms of church are not connecting with most people. We now need a blended ecology of inherited and fresh expressions of church (i.e., attractional and missional, gathered and sent, analog and digital) to thrive on a new missional frontier. Jesus said, “Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” (Matthew 9:17, italics ours). The blended ecology is a and/both way of being church.
-
A Fresh Expression is a form of church for our changing culture, established primarily for the benefit of people who are not yet members of any church. It will come into being through principles of listening, service, incarnational mission and making disciples. It will have the potential to become a mature expression of church shaped by the gospel and the enduring marks of the church and for its cultural context. These compassion-centered communities can be analog, digital, or hybrid. This movement equips the whole people of God, the “priesthood of all believers” to be unleashed in new ways to join the Spirit’s work of evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. During this pre-conference you will learn practical skills and competencies to become a movement that reaches new people.
PRE-CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
Lexi Hernandez
Founder of Growth Co.
Lexi is 26 years old and lives in North Carolina with her husband, Tony, and their dog, Bear.
Lexi planted and leads “Growth Co.” - an intentional spiritual formation community for people in their 20s and 30s that operates both online and in person. She became a local pastor in the United Methodist Church in the summer of 2021 and looks forward to what the Holy Spirit has in store for the future!
Rai Jackson
Founder of The Well and The One Love Life Center
Rai is a Spiritual Entrepreneur with a passion for Jesus and people.
Currently, Rai is the founder of The Well, a creative arts and conscious awareness faith community, and The One Love Life Center, a nonprofit agency providing mentoring, training and spiritual guidance for distressed youth and young adults in Prince George’s County Maryland.
Kris Sledge
Founding/Lead Pastor of The Journey Church
Kris is the lead/founding pastor of The Journey Church, an almost four-year-old church plant in urban Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The Journey celebrates both its ability to connect with young adults and its diversity. They believe that through the empowerment and love of the Holy Spirit and make a space where all are welcome.
Candace Lewis
President-Dean of Gammon Theological Seminary
Rev. Dr. Candace M. Lewis is the President and Dean of Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia.
She is an Ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church and previously served as a District Superintendent of the Gulf Central area of the Florida Annual Conference. She also serves as a consultant, coach, and resource person to Bishops, Conference Developers, and Church Planters
![bkc+headshot[30630].jpeg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/02d0f7_bf889f55509940c2ad577501b1eb3ac1~mv2.jpeg/v1/crop/x_216,y_0,w_1667,h_2100/fill/w_79,h_100,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/bkc%2Bheadshot%5B30630%5D.jpeg)
Ken Carter
United Methodist Bishop
Kenneth H. Carter, Jr. is the resident bishop of the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Along with the Cabinet, he gives pastoral and administrative leadership to over 1000 congregations, fresh expressions of church, campus ministries, and outreach initiatives in an episcopal area that stretches across the 44 western counties of the state.
Michael Beck
Director of Fresh Expressions Florida, Fresh Expressions UM Strategist
Michael Beck is a pastor, professor, and author. He is a spiritual guide who helps people heal, love, and unleash imagination to create better lives, organizations, and communities.
Michael and wife Jill are co-pastors of Wildwood/St Marks UMCs, and a network of thirteen fresh expressions led by laity that gather in tattoo parlors, dog parks, burrito joints, and digital spaces.
UMC PATH1 LUNCH PRESENTERS:
Dustin McEwen
Pastor of Community UMC
Rev. Dustin McEwen has been starting new things in churches for twenty years. He is a former church planter from Texas who is now serving in a traditional congregation in Ruidoso, New Mexico. Over the last five years at Community UMC Dustin has helped launch several fresh expressions of worship. The latest launch is Community Table, a dinner church, that has consistently grown since its launch in August of 2022.
Amie Martin
Author, Co-Founder of The Grace Period
Amie is a church planter and ordained elder in the United Methodist Missouri Annual Conference. She hopes to lead the church to more closely resemble Jesus. Amie has been actively involved in social and economic justice organizations and is the co-founder of transitional housing organization The Grace Period. Other works include a personal memoir entitled Hold Your Head up High: Surviving Marriage to an Alcoholic or Addict and scholarly publication called, "The Origin of the Divine Punishment Limit to the Third and Fourth Generation (Exod. 34:6-7)."
Jessica Taylor
Cultivator of Fresh Expressions FL, Co-Founder of RV Church
Jessica Taylor is a practitioner of Fresh Expressions who has served at a variety of levels from early Children’s ministry to adult discipleship in innovative ministry. Jessica served as a children’s ministry and youth director until she felt called to serve fully alongside her husband in ministry as a team. Taylor family lives full-time in an RV currently planting Fresh Expression churches in their RV park and online within the RV community in addition to their local church appointment.
Piper Ramsey-Sumner
Cultivator of Fresh Expressions Florida, Founder of Tallahassee Brew Theology
Piper received her Master of Divinity degree from Iliff School of Theology, and she currently serves as Cultivator of Fresh Expressions for the Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church, where she explores new ways of reaching new people outside of traditional churches. In the Tallahassee area, Piper facilitates Tally Brew Theology, a community that meets in local breweries and pubs to engage in meaningful dialogue on subjects related to religion and philosophy.