Key Points:
- A new book by a United Methodist leader promotes the Fresh Expressions movement as a balm for an epidemic of loneliness.
- Fresh Expressions is a movement to get the church to switch roles and become a flexible guest instead of a stationary host.
- Groups can be formed out of many different common interests, such as comic books, a good cup of joe or a love of tattoos.
Jasmine Lovelace hadn’t seen her partner for a week.
“He is out using (drugs) somewhere,” said Lovelace, a phlebotomist, recovered methamphetamine user and mother of five in Ocala, Florida.
“He relapsed previously,” she revealed. “Without the faith that I have now, I would just be falling apart.”
Lovelace finds strength through her community at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Ocala. The church played and still plays a large role in her deliverance from addiction and loneliness.
“We’re in an anti-membership, anti-joiner kind of society,” said the Rev. Michael Adam Beck, co-pastor with his wife, the Rev. Jill Beck, at St. Mark’s. He is also director of Fresh Expressions for The United Methodist Church and author of “Never Alone: Sharing the Gift of Community in a Lonely World.”
Reaching folks like Lovelace is his mission.
In “Never Alone,” Beck claims that the old ways of recruiting people to attend church are increasingly out of touch, and even the goal of getting them to a church may be a problem.
“In the Christendom form of the church, we have largely sought to be a church on the mountaintop,” Beck writes. “We build grand structures. … We announce what’s happening and invite people to join us. We are always playing host. ‘Come to us, we will host you here, at a time we have chosen, in ritual ways we have predetermined.’”
Being a good guest is a better strategy, he argues. That’s the reasoning behind the Fresh Expressions movement.
From prisoner to pastor
The Rev. Michael Adam Beck knows all about being lonely, and he thinks he can help a lot of other people like him get to a better place.
Read related storyThe movement began in Methodist and Anglican churches in England in the early 2000s when churches began to “mesh the existing church culture with newly inspired ways of reaching those who don’t go to church.”
A decade later, the concept spread to the U.S., as a way to reach Americans who had no ties to organized religion. It brings together smaller groups based around mutual interests, with no agenda to recruit members to church attendance. It could be as serious as a 12-step program to escape addiction, or as casual as enjoying comic books, bowling or a hot cup of coffee.
For Lovelace, it was an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
“The funny part was, I was looking for a (Narcotics Anonymous) meeting, and I stumbled across them,” Lovelace said. “And it’s literally become like a home for me. … There’s so much comfort and love there.”
There are lots of lonely people out there.
A 2023 report from the Pew Research Center found that 8% of adults say they have no close friends. The same year, a report from U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation,” reported that a lack of social connection “can increase the risk for premature death as much as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.”
Insufficient social connection is associated with a 29% increased risk of heart disease and a 32% increased risk of stroke, the report said. It is also linked with anxiety, depression and dementia, and may increase susceptibility to viruses and respiratory illness.
“I’ve gone through so much stuff in life,” Lovelace said. “It started when I was almost 5 years old; my mom died, and then a few years down the road, I was sexually abused for a while.”
As she got older, there was a decade-long abusive relationship and addiction to methamphetamines.
“You go through so much and it makes it to where you really want to trust anybody, but you can’t trust anybody,” she said. “Your brain won’t let you.”
It’s no way to live, said Murthy in his book “Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World,” which is quoted in “Never Alone.”
“Quite simply, human relationship is as essential to our well-being as food and water,” Murthy writes. “Just as hunger and thirst are our body’s ways of telling us we need to eat and drink, loneliness is the natural signal that reminds us when we need to connect with other people.”
Social media can feel like connection, but it falls short, Beck said.
“Technology devices make you feel like you’re connected and gives you that momentary high when somebody likes your stuff or gives you a tweet or whatever,” Beck said. “But it’s superficial.”
Fresh Expressions conference
Social media can aid in building community, but it can’t do it on its own, he said.
“I believe in (using social media), but mostly it’s just people using it to feed that John Wayne (type of rugged) individualism.
“But then, at the end of the day, we’re by ourselves.”
Churches are still an important place to counter individualism by finding community, Beck said.
“People are motivated by a deep moral compass and spirituality and want to be in community with others,” he said. “A lot of churches create this superficial level of connection and community … so you can really be known and loved, and it can ease that loneliness and isolation.
“I think when you look at things like Fresh Expressions, it’s more effective at creating a depth of community, or what the Bible calls koinonia, because it’s smaller, more intimate. … You’re bringing real-life struggles, and it’s happening in real-life places.
“I see Fresh Expressions as a positive way to create the depth of community that people really need for that traditional church that may or may not have that.”
Patterson is a UM News reporter in Nashville, Tennessee. Contact him at 615-742-5470 or [email protected]. To read more United Methodist News, subscribe to the free UM News Digests.