New Resources and Events from Fresh Expressions US
Join churches around the world are discovering that revitalization comes when we get back to our roots.
The Book
Deep Roots, Wild Branches: Revitalizing the Church in the Blended Ecology
You’re invited to a picnic at the tree of life!
Our story begins (Gen 2:9), rebegins (Gal 3:13), and continues eternally at the tree (Rev 22:2).
The tree reveals the heart of a dumpster-diving God, who doesn’t waste anything. In a culture obsessed with brand-spanking newness, God’s way of making new is resurrection. Resurrection is a force of remix, infusing the disposed with new life.
Many churches are being crushed in the Iron Maiden of either/or. We need emerging forms of church, but we need not leave traditional forms in the rearview. New life is found by harnessing the power of one little word… “and.”
New creation is about andness, the old/new, both/and, tree story.
Existing congregations planting fresh expressions of church are experiencing revitalization.
The blended ecology way is vintage and fresh modes of church working together in life-giving synergy. Declining churches enter a process of death, self-donation, and ultimately resurrection by releasing the priesthood of believers to engage the greatest missional opportunity in US history.
This bite-sized appetizer helps local churches cultivate the blended ecology.
Launch Special!
Register for our livestream Launch Party Deep Roots, Wild Branches: Re-Missioning the Church from the Outside In featuring Michael Beck and Jorge Acevedo, and we’ll send you a coupon code for a FREE copy of the book!
Order by March 22 and receive 10% off!
Additional discounts for bulk purchases of 5, 10, 50 and 100.
Purchase 50+ books and book a Fresh Expressions Local Church Workshop for 25% off!
The Event
Deep Roots, Wild Branches: Re-missioning Church from the Outside In
Thu, May 16, 2019, 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM CDT Fort Worth, Tx or Livestream Anywhere
Featuring Michael Beck and Jorge Acevedo
Across the United States and beyond, the God who "makes all things new" is up to something.
Amid a Christian landscape that looks and feels like a desert of decline, new oases of the Spirit are springing forth. Inherited congregations, with long histories, deeply rooted in their traditions, are experimenting with cultivating "fresh expressions" of church and experiencing forms of revitalization. The revitalization conversation with many of its fundamental assumptions is quite flawed.
At this point in world history, amid the significant decline of the US church, our current strategies around revitalization are insufficient. Churches rarely find new life by internal maneuvering, trying to attract the dwindling numbers of already Christians playing church musical chairs. Revitalization occurs through re-missioning from the outside in, when the whole people of God, the apostlehood of all believers, are released to join what the Spirit is up to in our neighborhoods and networks.
Acevedo and Beck are practitioners of a blended ecology (inherited and incarnational forms of church living together in an amplifying fashion, for the betterment of all). Don't miss a day of interactive learning, sharing tools, and practical processes!
What People are Saying about Deep Roots, Wild Branches
Michael Beck is likely to become a substantial contributor to the ongoing missional conversation as it seeks to assist the inherited forms of church recover their unique calling of being sent by God into the world. In this book, Michael blends astute theological insights with real live testimony and in doing so bequeaths a working model of missional renewal for a worn out institutional church. A great resource!
Alan Hirsch, author of category shifting books including, The Shaping of Things to Come, The Forgotten Ways and 5Q, and founder of 100 Movements, Forge, and Future Travelers.
**Hours are subject to change. Please check back for updates.
In thinking about missional living and ministry in new and fresh ways, Michael Beck has written a volume full of brilliance, beauty, and infectious pleasure.
Leonard Sweet, best-selling author (Tablet to Table), current professor (Drew University, Portland Seminary, Tabor College, Evangelical Seminary), and founder of preachthestory.com
**Hours are subject to change. Please check back for updates.
Michael is quite adept at shepherd malpractice—he frequently leaves the 99 to go after one lost sheep—I love that about him. I love even more that devoted local church folks follow him in that malpractice. If you want a practical resource to help your church live into the blended ecology, written by a practitioner who lives it every day, you’ve found it in Deep Roots, Wild Branches.
Sue Haupert-Johnson Resident Bishop of the North Georgia Episcopal Area The United Methodist Church
**Hours are subject to change. Please check back for updates.
This is a brilliant introduction to a whole new missional movement in the West - fresh forms of church, growing up within the denominations, but reaching people in everyday life whom the current church leaves out. Buy it before you buy anything else!
Michael Moynagh, author of ‘Church for Every Context’ and ‘Church in Life’
**Hours are subject to change. Please check back for updates.
This book is a thoughtful invitation for churched people to learn relevant ways of being in ministry with local people in communities. This book should be required reading for every Adult Sunday School Class!
Rev. Dr. Candace M. Lewis District Superintendent, Gulf Central District The Florida Conference, UMC Author, Resurgence: Navigating the Changing Ministry Landscape
**Hours are subject to change. Please check back for updates.
This is not your typical “how to” book written by an author whose core adventure ended years ago. Beck has ongoing “skin in the game” and has reflected on his successes and struggles with reaching lost people and helping longtime Christians to embrace the future. This is an important book and points a true way forward to help communities of faith to engage their neighbors with the Gospel.
Dr. Brian D. Russell (Dean and Professor of Biblical Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary's FL-Dunnam campus in Orlando, FL)
**Hours are subject to change. Please check back for updates.
There are now many signposts that are pointing to the notion that the future shape of church will and should be ‘blended’, and Michael offers a compelling argument for that. This an important edition to the growing library of theological and missional thinking around fresh expressions of church, and it’s innovative and engaging approach is a breath of fresh air!
Phil Potter, author Pioneering a New Future, The Challenge of Change, and UK Archbishops' Missioner and Fresh Expressions Team Leader.
**Hours are subject to change. Please check back for updates.
Every once in a while, God in his goodness and holiness sends to the church a new John the Baptist to awaken us to the rich possibilities of the Kingdom. Michael Beck is indeed one of these prophets. In this powerful little book, he will quicken, anger, encourage, challenge and instruct you and your local church to join Jesus in his mission in this wild, promising, waiting world.
Jorge Acevedo, Lead Pastor, Grace Church A multi-site United Methodist congregation
With rich metaphors grounded in Scriptural imagination, a focus on “the way” rather than “models,” and stories deeply rooted in years of pastoral experience, Beck helps his readers discover the why and how of grafting fresh expressions onto the rootstock of the inherited church. This is an important book for pastors, laity, district superintendents and conference staff including bishops who are reach out for God’s new way.
Janice Huie UMC Bishop South Central Jurisdiction
Phil Potter, author Pioneering a New Future, The Challenge of Change, and UK Archbishops' Missioner and Fresh Expressions Team Leader.
**Hours are subject to change. Please check back for updates.