Fresh Expressions: Series starts August 20!
All across the conference, I hear echoes of the same question. It’s not a new question, but it does seem to be getting louder: How do we reach the people outside of our church walls? The implied questions underneath speak to our institutional fears: How do we bring young people into the church? How do we grow our membership? How do we stop this trajectory of decline? Why aren’t the old ways of doing things working anymore?
What if we can’t get back to “the good ol’ days?” What if God is instead inviting us to do a new thing? If the things we’ve always done aren’t working, where can we stretch our holy imaginations to dream up new ways to be the church?
That’s where Fresh Expressions can meet us. This movement of the Spirit is inviting us to look at our communities with fresh eyes, to see the places and spaces where God is already moving – and maybe inviting us to join in. Where are we as individuals already connecting with others? What are our interests and passions, and how do we start to build Christ-centered community around those? What people are we encountering that have been overlooked or dismissed by the church?
This movement isn’t speaking primarily to clergy, who are already overloaded. Really, it’s about empowering lay folk to imagine what kind of “church” they’d like to stir up in the wild. There are as many ways to be the church as there are people in the body of Christ. It can be as simple as starting a hiking group or asking a local pub to reserve a table for a group to meet and bring questions about faith. It can happen in tattoo parlors, local parks, a game of Dungeons & Dragons, or at an animal rescue. It can be a ministry of food or art or woodworking or dance.
If you feel stirred to try something different, or if someone in your congregation is asking what they can do to embody the love of God in your community, we’d love for you to join us for our monthly Fresh Expressions meet-ups on Zoom. We’re providing a virtual space for dreaming, experimenting, and asking new questions together. Clergy and laity are all welcome, and multiple members of a congregation are encouraged to join. We want to help you shift the conversation at your churches toward a new way of thinking about growth and expanding beyond the walls of your building. If the old ways aren’t cutting it anymore, let’s make some new wineskins together!
Fresh Expressions in the Dakotas will take place on the 3rd Thursday of each month at 7 pm CT / 6 pm MT, beginning on August 20, 2026. The first conversation will feature Matt Rawle and Rachel Billups, authors of the book “Dream, Dare, Disrupt: How Experiments, Risk, and Embracing Failure Can Build Life-Giving Ministry.”
