Rev. Corey Jones has a background in children’s, outreach, camping, and pastoral ministries, serving in different capacities since 2000, including the pastor of St. Mark UMC, Lakeland and St. Luke's UMC, Orlando upon earning his M.Div. from Asbury Theological Seminary in 2012. In 2019, Corey was appointed Senior Pastor of Pasadena Community Church. Beginning July 1, 2023, he will serve as the Executive Director of Florida Camps and Retreats at the Warren Willis UM Camp and Conference Center.

He serves on the Bishop’s Anti-Racism Task Force, Board of Ordained Ministry, Committee on Episcopacy, Florida Delegation, Simpkins Wesley Retreat Board of Trustees, and Florida Southern College’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council. Corey is married to his best friend, Carol, a middle-school mathematics teacher and coach. They have two sons, Gavin Michael and Isiah Jackson. The four of them love swimming, watching sports and movies, playing boardgames, going to the beach and on cruises, and dancing in the kitchen.

Tex Sample is a specialist in church and society and a much sought-after lecturer, storyteller, workshop leader, and consultant. He is a pastor, ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, and the Robert B. And Kathleen Rogers Professor Emeritus of Church and Society at The Saint Paul School of Theology and has published 13 books. 

Sample was born and grew up in Brookhaven, Mississippi, and as a young man drove a cab, worked in construction, and was a roustabout in the oil field. He writes about ministry and organizing in working-class America. Sample is married to Peggy Jo Sanford Sample. “Tex” is his real name. His father named him after Texanna Gillham, an African-American woman who lived near Shelbyville, Texas. 

Chris and Jaidy Smith are a pastoral team serving in central North Carolina at Jordan Memorial UMC and La Luz De Cristo IMU. Jaidy was born and raised in Puerto Rico while Chris is a native North Carolinian.

They met in Puerto Rico and began a life together nearly 14 years ago.  Their marriage reflects two cultures coming together which is also reflected in their ministry. Through their Fresh Expressions they seek ways to bridge cultural and language barriers in order to create spaces for authentic love based communities.

Elaine is an author, speaker, retreat leader, consultant, and abbess. After growing up in poverty, Elaine earned a PhD in theology, was ordained in the United Methodist Church, served as a professor for eleven years at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University and as dean and professor of missional and pastoral theology at Duke Divinity School, Duke University. She retired from Duke to lead Neighborhood Seminary, which she co-founded with several friends.

She now lives with her spouse at Spring Forest, a new monastic community in rural North Carolina, where, along with friends, they tend a forest and small farm. Spring Forest supports refugee resettlement through sponsorships and an ESL program. They also donate fresh produce to area food banks, host a range of spiritual formation ministries, children's programs, and much more.

Marlon has served as the Senior Pastor of the Sweet Home Missionary Baptist Church of Gary, IN since 2008. He is currently the 1st Vice Moderator of the Indiana Brotherhood Missionary Baptist District Association and the Special Assistant-to-the-President of the General Missionary Baptist State Convention of Indiana, Inc. He holds a B.S. in Biblical Studies from Indiana Wesleyan University and is currently pursuing a Masters of Ministry in the Fresh Expressions House of Studies at United Theological Seminary.

He and his wife Shanta are the proud parents of four sons; Marlon Jr., Marcus, Matthew, and Rashawn, and one daughter, Sara.

Tom Berlin is a native of Winchester, Virginia. He attended Virginia Tech and received a BS in business with a major in public administration. Bishop Berlin received his Master of Divinity from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Ordained in 1987, he has served churches of all sizes in the Virginia Conference, including 25 years as the Lead Pastor of Floris UMC, a multi-site, multi-staff congregation near the nation’s capital. 

The bishop has chaired the Board of Governors at Wesley Theological Seminary, led delegations to General Conference, and served on the Commission on a Way Forward and the team that created the Protocol of Grace and Reconciliation through Separation.

Rev. Dr. Stacey Spence-Baldwin is a pastor in rural North Central Florida where she currently serves a three-point charge. She recently earned a Doctorate of Ministry in Semiotics, Church, and Culture from Portland Seminary at George Fox University.

Her doctoral work focused on the rural church and its decline or dying because it lacks connection with the Holy Spirit. Her key finding was that when a church embraces the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it will live again. This finding came from her personal experiences of the Holy Spirit resurrecting three small rural churches which were in decline/dying back to life. When congregations allowed the Holy Spirit to prompt their mission work the rural churches, in serious decline, discovered innovative and creative ways in re-innergizing the body of Christ.  One way this is shown is in her passion about horses and therapeutic riding and she uses that passion to cultivate Fresh Expressions of church.

Rev. Dr. Michael Beck is a pastor, professor, author, and the Director of Fresh Expressions Florida. Michael and wife Jill are co-pastors of Wildwood/St Marks UMCs, and a network of thirteen fresh expressions led by laity that gather in tattoo parlors, dog parks, burrito joints, and digital spaces. They direct an inpatient rehab, a shelter for those experiencing homelessness, and a local anti-racism movement. Michael also teaches as an adjunct professor at several seminaries. 

Beck earned a Master of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary Orlando and a Doctorate in Semiotics and Future Studies at Portland Seminary with his mentor Leonard Sweet. He’s the author of nine books and serves as Director of the Fresh Expressions House of Studies at United Theological Seminary, Fresh Expressions Strategist for Path 1, and Director of ReMissioning for Fresh Expressions NA.

Luke is the Associate Director of Church Development for the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, a trainer for Fresh Expressions NA and Fresh Expressions UM, a professionally trained ministry coach, and the author of Becoming Church: A Trail Guide for Starting Fresh Expressions. He co-leads a community of dads and father figures called Who Let the Dads Out?. Luke is an ordained elder in the UMC and was the founding pastor of King Street Church, a network of fresh expressions in Boone, NC.

He grew up in an area of western Massachusetts that was recently named the most post-Christian metropolitan area in the US where he joined his first microchurch at 14. Between his upbringing and his work in local, regional, and national levels of the Fresh Expressions movement Luke has a unique perspective into the future of the church in a post-Christian society. He lives in Denver, NC, where he enjoys hiking, coaching his daughter's soccer team, and being a superfan of Charlotte FC.