Books

Producing Missional Resources

Michael enjoys producing practitioner-oriented resources for the local church. As a child of and servant to the local church to this day, he produces blogs, email updates, articles, books, and tools for local church leaders. As a practitioner of missional innovation, his work flows from the front lines of ministry, not an ivory tower.

Doing Justice Together: Fresh Expressions Pathways for Healing in Your Church

by Michael Adam Beck and Stephanie Moore Hand

Discover a process using Scripture as a source of inspiration and instruction for pastors and church people to move through together, to re-envision and reorient themselves away from old, harmful habits. Beck and Hand show pastors how they can, over time, lead the congregation to become a place where racial harmony, justice, and liberation are intrinsic to the structure and life of the church.

Passio Dei: A Daily Devotional Through the Bible for Compassionate Leaders

by Michael Adam Beck

Compassion is the place where the way of Jesus takes on flesh and blood in his followers. It is the defining characteristic of God. The entire overarching narrative of Scripture is the story of a God who creates, sustains, and recreates in unlimited compassion.

This daily devotional is a companion to the One Year Bible. It is an invitation to a journey of deeper formation in the way, truth, and life of Jesus. This discipleship resource is for leaders longing for a trauma-informed way of reading and being shaped by Scripture.

The Four Rhythms of Generosity

by Michael Adam Beck

In The Four Rhythms of Generosity, experienced church revitalization and fresh expressions expert, Dr. Michael Adam Beck, offers a practical reimagining of generosity that synthesizes giving and spiritual growth. It is a framework he has used in congregations to help them go on a journey of death and resurrection, so they don’t have to close. It’s also a way to help those who are new to the faith integrate their material and spiritual lives.

B.R.E.A.T.H. A Guide for Discipleship and Disciple Multiplication

by Michael Adam Beck

In B.R.E.A.T.H. Beck lays out a trauma-informed, compassionate pathway for discipleship and disciple multiplication. He shows that the goal of discipleship is union with Christ which results in Christlike character that is shared with others. He describes how to form communities of people who embody the life of Jesus in the world.

The Five Congregational Personality Types: An Ancient Pathway for Congregational Renewal in the 21st Century

by Michael Adam Beck

Which of the 5 congregational personality types is your congregation? The answer will change everything about how you lead, grow, and empower your church to thrive in the 21st century.

Deep Roots, Wild Branches: Revitalizing the Church in the Blended Ecology

by Michael Adam Beck

In Deep Roots, Wild Branches, missiologist and church planter Dr. Michael Beck contends we must cultivate what he calls a —blended ecology of church that has both deep roots and wild branches. Drawing on biblical wisdom and emerging forms of church planting, Beck introduces us to present-day models and examples that don’t leave traditional forms behind, but harness the power of —both/and.

A Field Guide to Methodist Fresh Expressions

by Michael Adam Beck with Jorge Acevedo

A distinctive Wesleyan approach to the Fresh Expression movement. Fresh Expressions is a movement that strives to introduce people to Jesus, expand the kingdom, and revitalize churches. In A Field Guide to Methodist Fresh Expressions, Beck reminds Wesleyans of their roots and show congregations how to bring that tradition into modern day, yet local, contexts.

Painting with Ashes: When Your Weakness Becomes Your Superpower

by Michael Adam Beck

How broken can you be and still hold on to hope for a better life, even a life that can be used by God for others? What if our weaknesses are actually our superpowers? Can our wounds become a source of healing for others? Dr. Michael Adam Beck tells stories of redemption and new life in this powerful exploration, deep from this pastor’s soul.

Fresh Expressions of the Rural Church

by Michael Adam Beck and Tyler Kleeberger

This book collects stories from the diversity of rural contexts across the US. It lays out a fresh theology for rural life and offers principles for harnessing the potential of what some consider the forgotten spaces. Each chapter includes a helpful Field Exercise—questions for discussion and suggested actions for leadership teams to work through together. Chapters conclude with a Field Story illustrating how the chapter’s main ideas can work in a real church setting.

Contextual Intelligence: Unlocking the Ancient Secret to Mission on the Front Lines

by Leonard Sweet and Michael Adam Beck

In this groundbreaking book from renowned author Len Sweet and trailblazing missional pioneer Michael Beck, you will explore the phenomenon of contextual intelligence, discover a framework for its cultivation, and learn how you can apply it in your own circumstance. In these pages you will be called to a new order that the authors are calling The Issacharians, the tribe known for the ability to “read the signs of the times and know what to do.”

Deep and Wild: Remissioning Your Church from the Outside In

by Michael Adam Beck

For better or worse, Jesus entrusted his mission to “make disciples of all nations” to us, and it starts in our own neighborhood. The God who makes all things new is up to something. Amid a Christian landscape that looks and feels like a desert of decline, new oases of the Spirit are springing forth. Inherited congregations with long histories and deep roots are experimenting with cultivating wild forms of church called “fresh expressions.” Whereas revitalization often involves internal adjustments (an inside-out approach with better preaching, better coffee, better programs, etc.), remissioning through fresh expressions involves an outside-in approach. This book is a guide to help local church folks, the everyday heroes of the faith, make this much-needed journey toward vitality for the twenty-first-century church.

The 21st Century Christian: Following Jesus Where Life Happens

by Michael Moynagh and Michael Adam Beck

In this re-imagining of the Christian life, everyday Jesus-followers like you can be involved in forming new, vibrant Christian communities in every ordinary nook and cranny of life. Drs Moynagh and Beck are your guides to reinvigorating your day-to-day Christian experience and making Christ’s family more accessible for all, right where life happens. Anyone can do it!

Fresh Expressions in a Digital Age: How the Church Can Prepare for a Post-Pandemic World

by Michael Adam Beck and Rosario Picardo

Fresh Expressions is a canary in the coal mine, alerting congregations to reevaluate what the Church is, where and when it can happen, and who can lead it. Church as we know it is inaccessible to most people. A fundamental premise of the movement is that Church can become accessible again by emerging in every nook and cranny where life already happens, including the space of real virtuality. Fresh Expressions is based in simplification, returning to basic scriptural principles, and a recovery of a “priesthood of all believers.”

During a pandemic, we are forced to recognize the digital space as its own kind of new missional frontier.

Red Skies: 10 Essential Conversations Exploring Our Future as the Church

Edited by L. Rowland Smith

With contributions from experts in their fields—including missiologists, pastors, ecclesiologists, entrepreneurs, and prophets—Red Skies explores some of the essential conversations the church must engage with now so we might overcome potential threats and look for opportunities to be good news to both our current and future world.

If you have questions, need a full list of available resources, or want to hire Michael or his team of trainers to teach classes or produce articles, books, or scholarly publications, reach out to us.

Endorsements

“Michael does not produce your typical ‘how to’ books written by an author whose core adventure ended years ago. Beck has ongoing ‘skin in the game’ and has reflected on his successes and struggles with reaching lost people and helping longtime Christians to embrace the future. His work is important and points a true way forward to help communities of faith to engage their neighbors with the Gospel.”

– Dr. Brian D. Russell
Dean and Professor of Biblical Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary’s FL-Dunnam campus in Orlando, FL

“With rich metaphors grounded in Scriptural imagination, a focus on ‘the way’ rather than ‘models,’ and stories deeply rooted in years of pastoral experience, Beck helps his readers discover the why and how of grafting fresh expressions onto the rootstock of the inherited church. He produces important books for pastors, laity, district superintendents and conference staff including bishops who are reaching out for God’s new way.”

– Janice Huie
UMC Bishop, South Central Jurisdiction

“There are now many signposts that are pointing to the notion that the future shape of church will and should be ‘blended’, and Michael offers a compelling argument for that. He consistently offers important editions to the growing library of theological and missional thinking around fresh expressions of church, and his innovative and engaging approach is a breath of fresh air!”

– Phil Potter
UK Archbishops’ Missioner and Fresh Expressions Team Leader and author of Pioneering a New Future andThe Challenge of Change