Plant Practices, Not Buildings
The Wesleyan Way
by Abigail Browka
John Wesley didn’t plant churches.
He planted societies, class meetings, and bands. He braided ancient piety and patristic spirituality with field preaching, lay leadership, and rhythms of accountability outside church walls. He went to the people. He met them in fields, in homes, in the ordinary places of their lives. And what grew there was not buildings and churches. But a movement.
“John Wesley didn’t plant churches. He planted societies, class meetings, and bands. He went to the people. And what grew there was not buildings and churches. But a movement.”
We are his tradition’s children. And maybe we’ve lost the way.
When we talk about starting something new in the United Methodist Church, the conversation often begins with brick and mortar buildings. The assumption underneath is that church is a place people come to. And for many of us, it is.
We love our sanctuaries, our hymnals and our pews and the particular way the light comes through the windows on Sunday morning. That’s real. I don’t want to diminish it. But Wesley didn’t start there.
Wesley started with a question that had nothing to do with a building: Where does God need to be? Where are people already gathering, and what would it look like to bring the life of faith into that space?
That question is the heartbeat of what we now call Fresh Expressions of Church.
A Fresh Expression is a form of church for people who aren’t part of an existing congregation. It doesn’t replace traditional church. It grows alongside it. The language for this is a blended ecology: traditional worship and new forms of church, strengthening each other.
Rather than assuming a one-size-fits-all approach to church and faith, we need multiple expressions of church. We need new expressions of Christian practice. Within a mixed ecology, our traditional expressions of church have their place — but they are not the only way to reach new people.
“We need multiple expressions of church. We need new expressions of Christian practice. Our traditional expressions have their place — but they are not the only way to reach new people.”
Here’s what I want to name: the Wesleyan tradition has Fresh Expressions in its bones. This is not a new idea borrowed from somewhere else. This is who we have always been at our best — faith and practices that stir outside of the church.
In Upper New York we care to cultivate people of faith who want to plant practices in the places they already live. Not just programs. Authentic presence.
If something in this stirs you — curiosity, recognition, maybe a question about what this could look like where you are — here are two upcoming opportunities.
How to Connect with Your Community
Upper New York Annual Conference — Thursday, May 28, 2026
An outside-the-church orientation to learn what it means to authentically connect with your community. Led by Abigail Browka and Kristina Clark.
Fresh Expressions: How to Build a Blended Ecology in Your Local Church
SCD 2026: RISE UP — Love, Serve, Lead — August 2–5, 2026, Columbus, Ohio
Featuring plenary speaker Carey Nieuwhof: “If you care about the future of the church, this gathering is for you.”
Fresh Expressions of Church meet people where they are: whether around a dinner table, on a trail, or in a coffee shop. This workshop explores how to cultivate a blended ecology in your local church, where traditional worship and new forms of church grow side by side — not as a program to add, but as a culture to nurture. You’ll gain clarity on how Fresh Expressions enhance the life of the church and leave with practical, faithful next steps for your own context.
Led by Abigail Browka and Daniel Park, Lead Pastor of Restoration Church in Reston, Virginia.
Rev. Abigail Browka is the Director of Innovation and New Faith Communities in the Upper New York Conference of the United Methodist Church.