In some sectors of the progressive Christian movement, evangelism and church growth have been set aside. Yet if we truly believe in a loving and liberating gospel, then we must remember that countless people—and all of creation—are still waiting to hear and experience this good news.
This full-day workshop brings together experienced and fruitful church planters to help us rethink evangelism and growth within the progressive church. Whether you are a church planter, a congregational leader, or someone building new evangelism programming, you won’t want to miss this opportunity for inspiration, equipping, and renewal.
Matt Miofsky
Matt Miofsky is the Lead and Founding Pastor of The Gathering in St. Louis, Missouri. Since Matt founded The Gathering in 2006, it has grown into a thriving multi-site congregation with three locations scattered throughout St. Louis. With over 1600 in worship a weekend, The Gathering was recently named the 3rd fastest growing large United Methodist Churches.
Matt is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis where he received a B.A. in mathematics. He then completed his Master’s of Divinity at Emory University in Atlanta. He served as an associate pastor for a local UM church in St. Louis before starting The Gathering.
Matt is passionate about church planting, connecting with new generations, and multi-site ministry. He frequently speaks and teaches on these subjects. Matt is the author of “The Methodist Book of Daily Prayer” (Abingdon, 2023), “Let Go: Leaning Into the Future Without Fear” (Abingdon, May 2019), “8 Virtues of Rapidly Growing Churches” (Abingdon Books, October 2018), “Happy? What It Is and How to Find It” (Abingdon Books, April 2017), “Fail: What to Do When Things Go Wrong” (Abingdon Books, September 2017), a contributor to Disciple Fast Track: Into the Word, Into the World (Abingdon, 2017), “Flipping Church: How Successful Church Planters Are Turning Conventional Wisdom Upside-Down” (Discipleship Resources, 2016), and the “Ask: Faith Questions in a Skeptical Age” DVD project (Abingdon, 2015).
In addition to serving as Founding/Lead Pastor and an author, Matt served as a delegate from Missouri to the United Methodist General and Jurisdictional Conferences in 2012, 2016, 2019, and 2024. Matt is also passionate about the Mozambique safe water ministry he began through The Gathering. To date this ministry has raised almost $2.2 million for safe water and dug over 175 wells.
When he's not writing, preaching, or teaching, he enjoys spending time with his wife and three kids.
You can connect with him via:
Facebook: @MattMiofsky
Twitter: @mmiofsky
Instagram mmiofsky
www.mattmiofsky.com
https://www.amazon.com/Matt-Miofsky/e/B06XBHHRYM%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
Osagyefo Sekou
As the Pastor of Theology and Art at Valley and Mountain Fellowship. Rev. Osagyefo Sekou (he/him) has written two collections of essays. Urbansouls: Meditations on Youth, Hip Hop, and Religion (Chalice Press 2016) and Gods, Gays, and Guns: Essays on Religion and the Future of Democracy (Chalice Press 2016). and the forthcoming Riot Music: Race, Hip Hop and the Meaning of the London Riots 2011 (Hamilton Books). He wrote, produced, and directed two musical documentary shorts, Exiles in the Promised Land (2007) and Mississippi: A Love Story (2018).
With the Deep Abiding Love Project, he has helped train over thirteen thousand clergy and activists in militant nonviolent civil disobedience throughout the United States. He faced years in prison for his role in the Ferguson Uprising and spent six weeks on the ground in Charlottesville, VA training clergy in response to the Unite the Right rally. He is a founding national coordinator for Clergy and Laity Concerned about Iraq (CALC-I), which represents over 300 faith-based institutions and organizations working to end the war in Iraq. In 2006, CALC-I led a civil disobedience at the White House.
His music is a unique combination of Delta Blues, Memphis Soul, 1970s funk, and Gospel. His performances are one-part protest rally, one-part Pentecostal tent revival, and one-part late night juke joint. He released three albums The Revolution Has Come; In Times Like These; and When We Fight, We Win: Live in Memphis. NPR’s Bob Boilen commented that Rev. Sekou delivered one of “the most rousing Tiny Desk performances”. His documentary short film, ‘Exiles in the Promised Land” is based on his visit to a Palestinian refugee camp and lecture in Beirut, Lebanon. It was selected for the Amnesty International Human Rights Film Festival (2009). Rev. Sekou has lectured widely, including at Princeton University, Harvard Divinity School, the University of Virginia, University of Paris IV - La Sorbonne, and Vanderbilt University, and is a former Professor of Preaching in the Graduate Theological Urban Studies Program at the Seminary Consortium of Urban Pastoral Education, Chicago, IL.
Reverend Sekou served as Pastor for Formation and Justice at First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain, Boston. He was formerly Senior Pastor of Lemuel Haynes Congregational Church in Queens, served as Special Assistant on Social Justice to the Bishop for the Church of God in Christ, Senior Community Minister at New York’s Judson Memorial Church, and Social Justice Minister at Middle Collegiate Church, New York. He has been Fellow-in-Residence at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, and as Ella Baker Fellow at New York Theological Seminary's Micah Institute, he served as a strategist organizing clergy for economic justice in New York City. Rev. Sekou holds a Bachelor of Liberal Arts from The New School in New York where he concentrated in creative writing and continental philosophy. Currently, is a MPhil/PhD candidate in Religious Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. His dissertation title is “Being and Somebodiness: The Ferguson Uprising and the Making of Black Pentecostal Liberation Theology”.
