Outdoor Adventure: Fresh Expressions Immersion 2024

Join Luke Edwards, Associate Director of Church Development, and Wayner Dickert, Pastor of Bryson City UMC and the River of Life, for a weekend retreat at the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) that will prepare you to start a fresh expression of church. Over the course of the weekend we will build relationships while learning about the six steps of starting fresh expressions, a process called "The Fresh Expressions Journey." We'll participate in group activities including prayerful listening, a group hike on the Appalachian Trail, a Pub Theology conversation, and rafting down the Nantahala Gorge. You will receive a copy of Becoming Church: A Trail Guide for Starting Fresh Expressions and we ask that you read it ahead of the retreat and jot down any questions that come up as you read.

Details

• Cost - $499.00 includes meals and rough lodging.

Schedule

Friday, May 17th

• 5-6pm - Arrival & Check-in
• Icebreaker
• Activity: Dinner and Listening to the Community at the NOC
• Conversation: Listening to the Community and to Yourself8
• 8pm - Campfire

Saturday, May 18th

Morning:

• 8am - Breakfast onsite
• 9am - Icebreaker games
• Conversation: Loving People – relationship building
• Hike

Mid-day:

• 12pm - Lunch by the river
• Conversation: Building community (forming, storming, norming, performing)
• Free Time

Evening:

• 5:30pm - Dinner & Pub Theology as a group (NOC Pub)
• Conversation: Exploring discipleship

Sunday, May 19th

• 8am - Checkout of room & breakfast
• 8:30am - Attend River of Life (bring rafting clothes to church)
• 9:30am - same place Conversation: Church Taking Shape (paddling guide talk)

(Optional)

• 10:30am - Rafters check in at group adventure center
• 1:30pm - Return to cars and depart

Your Guides

Luke Edwards is a Mission Strategist and Trainer for Fresh Expressions US. He is also the Associate Director of Church Development for the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church. He is the author of Becoming Church: A Trail Guide for Starting Fresh Expressions. He was the Pastor of King Street Church, a network of fresh expressions and campus of Boone United Methodist Church in Boone, NC. He co-leads a community of dads and father figures called Who Let the Dads Out? Lake Norman. Luke is an elder in the United Methodist Church and graduated from Asbury Theological Seminary. Participating in local, regional, and national levels of the Fresh Expressions movement has given Luke a unique perspective into the future of the church in a post-Christian society.

Wayne “Wayner” Dickert started the River of Life in 2007. So he created a place in an outdoor setting where raft guides, kayakers, and others who love being in natural settings could find space with the Creator. His love for Jesus led him to combine the shared passion of the water with the one who walks on water. For the past ten years, he has also served as the pastor of Bryson City UMC in nearby Bryson City, NC.