News and Views

By Lauren Jones, Vitality Specialist

Our new congregational vitality team and clergy, Brent Wiles, Angelic Williams, Corey Sharpe, and his wife, Julie, and Megan Shitama Weston, traveled to Ocala, Florida, February 26-28, for the National Fresh Expressions Gathering “Altogether Now: Seven Generations and Beyond.” We spent time learning best practices for Fresh Expressions ministries, participating in local immersions, and receiving encouragement to step outside of the box in ministry from several bishops and speakers to make an impact for the generations to come. The “Jazz Note” speakers included Bishop Ken Carter, Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson, Bishop David Wilson, and a host of pastors, directors, and lay leaders from various conferences. This year, there was also a large presence of attendees from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). A couple of ECLA bishops shared remarks and wisdom from their ministerial context. Angelic Williams served as one of the panelists and shared her experience launching and sustaining successful Fresh Expressions ministries. Rai Jackson and his band, which included a mime and a spoken-word artist, led us in an innovative worship style for the duration of the gathering. They even had a DJ when we were not in corporate worship.

On the first night of our trip, we had dinner at Michael and Jill Beck’s “Dinner Church,” where the doors of their church were opened to people in the community and those who attend recovery meetings the same night. While there, we heard soul-stirring stories of deliverance from drugs and addiction. A man shared that he was diagnosed with full-blown AIDS over 15 years ago and how God has kept him when the doctors didn’t think he would make it through that first year. I experienced a divine moment when I left the fellowship hall to make a phone call and encountered a young woman named Ashley crying in the hallway. She shared with me that she had relapsed the week before and that she was really trying for her children. I asked her what I could do in that moment to help, and she said pray for her. I prayed with her and encouraged her to keep “pressing towards the mark.” Conference participants had the option to attend a “Dinner Church” each night of the gathering and experience how God was moving in the midst of the people in Ocala. 

Each day after the “Jazz Notes,” we separated into various groups to experience several Fresh Expressions ministries in Ocala and surrounding cities. Our Congregational Vitality Coordinator, Abby Butler-Cefalo, traveled to witness “Stirrups’n Strides” in Citra, Florida, with a pastor the locals call “the horse chaplain,” who is passionate about horses, nature, and equine therapy. Abby shared that it was the first time she encountered and pet a horse. I attended “Bibles and Burritos” with Angelic and her team, in which we met in a restaurant and heard “Jesus stories” over burritos and tacos. Brent attended “Tattoo Church” and even left with some great ink. Overall, the immersions were amazing and showed us what we could replicate in our various ministry contexts if we dared to try new things and reach new people where they are in new places.

After the immersions, we spent one-on-one time in “Connectives” with various Fresh Expressions pioneers and heard their stories of how they launched ministries and how they sustain them. I spent time learning from Daniel Park, UMC pastor and Fresh Expressions mentor at United Theological Seminary, and the “Bread Breakers” ministry. My greatest takeaway from this year’s conference is to go to the unconventional places where Jesus is already present and working. Go there and participate in the active work of the Holy Spirit, and when you feel like you can’t sustain the ministry or are failing, do it again. Keep doing whatever it is God called you to do so that all of God’s people can experience the transformative power of Jesus.   

You can view the Jazz Notes and panel discussions here: FXUM NATIONAL GATHERING 2026 | Fresh Expressions FL.