The Common Ground

Episode 16 - Sam Hubbard Part 2

This week we continue our discussion with Sam Hubbard as we discuss our shared broken heartedness and love for the church, new forms of evangelism, how our theology and anthropology inform each other and of course, Fresh Expressions. Sam is an elder in the UMC that serves as the Associate Director of Congregational Development and Transformation in the Louisiana Conference of the UMC and as the Wesley Organizational Pastor at Southeastern Louisiana University.

 

• Contact; sjhubbard@gmail.com Sam Hubbard on Facebook and Sjhubbard2 on Instagram  
• Reading-Universal Christ by Richard Rohr (or anything else by Rohr), Alan Hirsch, Crucifixion of the Warrior God; Crucifixion of the Warrior God, all things Michael Beck
• Listening to Podcasts-The Bible for Normal People, Church Pulse Weekly, NT Wright, Freakonomics, “Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know” 

 

Episode 15 - Sam Hubbard Part 1

This week Sam Hubbard and I discuss our shared broken heartedness and love for the church, new forms of evangelism, how our theology and anthropology inform each other and of course, Fresh Expressions. Sam is an elder in the UMC that serves as the Associate Director of Congregational Development and Transformation in the Louisiana Conference of the UMC and as the Wesley Organizational Pastor at Southeastern Louisiana University.

 

• Contact; sjhubbard@gmail.com Sam Hubbard on Facebook and Sjhubbard2 on Instagram  
• Reading-Universal Christ by Richard Rohr (or anything else by Rohr), Alan Hirsch, Crucifixion of the Warrior God; Crucifixion of the Warrior God, all things Michael Beck
• Listening to Podcasts-The Bible for Normal People, Church Pulse Weekly, NT Wright, Freakonomics, “Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know” 

 

Episode14 - Tom Compton

Tom has a love for the Cleveland Browns that became the birthplace of a Fresh Expression of Church called “Game Day Church.” Since then Tom continues to lean in to where the Spirit is inviting relationships to form that meet people and God where they are already. Tom is also inviting others to pray and dream about where their passions are and how God might be inviting them to building relationships around these affinities and common ground that might bear fruit for the Kingdom of God. 

• Background- Tom Compton is an ordained elder in the UMC and serves as the lead pastor of Old Camp Church in Carrollton, GA. Tom is both a pioneer and a permission giver of Fresh Expressions 
• Contact-tom.compton@ngumc.net 
• Reading; God Outwitted Me by Maxie Dunnam; Why I Am Still Surprised by the Power of the Spirit; An Equal Justice by Chad Zunker 
• Listening to- 7 Minute Seminary Podcast, The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe 

Also mentioned in this episode; Conspiracy of Kindness by Steve Sjogren

 

Episode 13| Jacob Burson

Jacob Burson tells the stories of his various roles within the Methodist Church as a lay person and how God has led him to be serving as a bivocational local pastor, now embracing the fresh expressions movement. His context and the Holy Spirit have led him to start a food pantry in collaboration with other churches and organizations in the community as well as to start a dinner church. Jacob is more and more convinced that when you bring people together around food, relationships are formed and community is built that is modeled after Jesus’s example and has a depth we can’t measure. 

• Background-Jacob is a Licensed Local Pastor in the North Georgia Conference of the UMC and serves bivocationally, also working with a the non profit Orphan Aid Liberia.
• Contact; Jacob.burson@ngumc.net Facebook Jacob Burson
• Reading; Tablet to Table by Leonard Sweet, Sacrilege by Hugh Halter, and 40 day Backyard Pilgrim
• Also mentioned in this podcast; BiVo by Hugh Halter and Barefoot Pastor by Brandon Hatmaker
• Jacob also hosts his own podcast; The Love Period podcast 

 

Episode 12| Isabel De Sousa

Isabel is a compassionate and passionate follower of Jesus and shares the story of how missionaries shared the gospel with her family in Angola and she has come to the states with the same mission. Hear about how God called her to start a fresh expression of church in a local mobile home park where she and her church was serving. 

• Background-Isabel is a native Angolan, mother, daughter of a bishop, and the wife of a United Methodist Pastor.
• Contact; Facebook Isabel Fernandes de Sousa
• Reading; How to Gain Control of Your Finances by Stan Toler 

Episode 11| Bishop Sue Haupert Johnson - Part 2

Bishop Sue fully embraced the FX movement while serving as a DS in the Florida Conference where there are now about 100 Fresh Expressions of church across the conference and brought fresh expressions to the North Georgia Conference when she became the bishop. Bishop Sue has a passion for the church to be the priesthood of all believers it is meant to be and for the people that lead them to do the work of “equipping the saints for the work of the church.

• Background-Bishop Sue has just begun her 5th year as episcopal leader of the North Georgia Conference of the UMC and is a firm believer in the Fresh Expressions movement and all it has to teach us and remind us of what it means to be the church in the world.

• Contact; bishop@ngumc.org
• Reading; A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman and playing the movie “UP” on a loop. 

 

Episode 10| Bishop Sue Haupert Johnson - Part 1

Bishop Sue fully embraced the FX movement while serving as a DS in the Florida Conference where there are now about 100 Fresh Expressions of church across the conference and brought fresh expressions to the North Georgia Conference when she became the bishop. Bishop Sue has a passion for the church to be the priesthood of all believers it is meant to be and for the people that lead them to do the work of “equipping the saints for the work of the church.

• Background-Bishop Sue has just begun her 5th year as episcopal leader of the North Georgia Conference of the UMC and is a firm believer in the Fresh Expressions movement and all it has to teach us and remind us of what it means to be the church in the world.
  

• Contact; bishop@ngumc.org
• Reading; A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman and playing the movie “UP” on a loop. 

 

Episode 09| Mitch Marcello - Part 2

Mitch Marcello is the Director of the Acts Network at First Church Williamsport in Williamsport, PA 

Mitch shares about his entry into the Fresh Expressions movement as a nonclergy person, the value of spending time in the community, what it takes to build a culture of fresh expressions , and the rewards found in experimentation and risk taking to share the gospel and make disciples. 

Mentioned in this episode; Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko 

• Contact;  mitch.marcello@freshexpressionsus.org 
• Reading; Create vs. Copy by Ken Wytsma 
• Listening; Joby Martin, Florida Pastor; https://www.coe22.com/  

Episode 08| Mitch Marcello - Part 1

Mitch Marcello is the Director of the Acts Network at First Church Williamsport in Williamsport, PA 

Mitch shares about his entry into the Fresh Expressions movement as a nonclergy person, the value of spending time in the community, what it takes to build a culture of fresh expressions , and the rewards found in experimentation and risk taking to share the gospel and make disciples. 

Mentioned in this episode; Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko 

• Contact;  mitch.marcello@freshexpressionsus.org 
• Reading; Create vs. Copy by Ken Wytsma 
• Listening; Joby Martin, Florida Pastor; https://www.coe22.com/  

Episode 07| Allyson Lawrence

Allyson Lawrence is an ordained elder in the UMC serving as an associate pastor at Fayetteville First UMC in Fayetteville, GA. Her Fresh Expression, Creative Faith, has birthed additional Fresh Expressions and a new understanding of what it means to be the church in her community. 

• Contact; @therevally on Instagram; Allyson Fowler Lawrence on Facebook; allyson.lawrence@ngumc.net 
• Reading and Listening; The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan, An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor 
• Also mentioned; Nadia Bolz-Weber, Brene Brown