Indiana Conference of UMC

Re-Think Church: Becoming a Hybrid Congregation to Thrive in a New Kind of World

Tuesday, July 21st, 9:30am-12:00pm, via Zoom

Register Here

Samuel Shoemaker, the renowned Episcopal Priest once famously asked “Can your kind of church change your kind of world?” Our kind of world has changed dramatically in the last several months. How can our churches stay faithful to the gospel and be an agent of change in this new kind of world? In recent years many have recognized that the future of the local church can’t be based on attractional strategies alone, but that more missional-incarnational strategies would be essential. Our current ministry landscape bears that out. We must consider what it means

• to be the church in micro gatherings and large gatherings
• to be the church in virtual spaces and analog spaces
• to be the church inside our sanctuaries and beyond our buildings.

And we have to wrestle with what it means to integrate these various expressions of the Church of Jesus Christ together.

In this workshop , Matt Lake, Shannon Kiser, and Michael Beck will share how a hybrid kind of approach will allow us to cultivate resilient congregations that can engage mission and ministry in a changing world. As we consider what a pandemic church strategy will be in our individual settings, what if we could enter this new season better prepared to engage the complexity of the time in which we find ourselves? In that spirit, we hope you will join Fresh Expressions US for a morning that could change the world