Dr. Verlon and Melodee Fosner lead a progressive congregation in Seattle Washington and have done so since 1999. In recent years they transitioned from a traditional proclamation church into a multi-site Dinner Church called Community Dinners (www.CommunityDinners.com). In this decade when more US churches are declining than thriving, Verlon and Melodee sensed that a different way of doing church was needed for their 98-year old Seattle congregation. After a long season of trial and error (and mostly error), they hearts became stirred by the manner of church that was practiced during the Apostolic Era.
In 2008, they opened up their first offsite Dinner Church in a sore neighborhood some blocks south of their church campus, and immediately the room began to fill up with more sinners, strangers, and seculars than they had seen in years. Soon they were opening up another one, in another sore neighborhood, and on another night; the results were the same. They now pour into many neighborhoods throughout their city each week with a simple idea — that Jesus still wants to have dinner with sinners and wants his church to set the table.
It soon became obvious that they were not the only ones who needed a new way of doing church. So in 2014, they founded coaching network centered on Jesus’ dinner table theology (www.DinnerChurchCollective.net). Presently, Verlon & Melodee offer half of their time to help leaders outside of Seattle look at the neighborhoods in their cities with new eyes.
In 2016, Verlon and Melodee joined the Fresh Expression US leadership team and began coaching declining churches, leading Dinner Church Day-Conferences across the country, and hosting Seattle Immersions at their home, which enables a few leaders at a time to observe Dinner Churches in action followed by training conversations around a fireplace.
In 2019, Verlon opened the Dinner Church School of Leadership, which is a nine-month graduate program that offers 18 ATS credits that takes a deep dive into the historical roots of the New Passover, its unusual capacity to introduce non-Judeo populations to Christ, and why The Spirit is causing it to rebirth in this day.
Verlon holds a Doctorate of Ministry from Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, and has written several books: Dinner Church, Dinner Church Handbook, A Sword and A Trowel, and Welcome to Dinner Church (which has a nine-week companion video series that enables it to be used as a discussion guide). All of these resources are intended to help leaders and congregations learn how to work with Jesus at one of his dinner tables.
Verlon and Melodee have been married for 40 years; have three adult children, eight grandchildren, a collection of grand-foster-kids, and three grand-dogs.
SESSIONS
PRE-CONFERENCE: Fresh Expressions: Multiplication, Multi-Site, and Missional Vitality for Everyday Christians — Hosted by FLUMC
The realities of the last two years have thrust the church into a new era. The challenge before us is not only to rebuild but to build anew. For the foreseeable future we need a way of being church that is flexible in form, timely in context, rooted in depth, and scalable in resource. This is the call for a new kind of local church. For nearly two decades the fresh expressions movement has been helping existing churches and institutions find new forms of life that put the church Jesus loves closer to where the people Jesus loves are. We believe that every church can be missionally vital, every church can be multi-site, and every church can multiply by living into a new mental model for what it means to be a local congregation. During this pre-conference you will learn about the vision, model, and tools that normal, everyday churches are using to become a movement that reaches new people. Full list of speakers for this pre-con here.
Day / Time: Monday 1:00pm — 5:00pm and Tuesday 8:00am — 11:30am
Location: Kids 2 - Room 116
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