Michael serves as the co-pastor of both Wildwood and St Mark’s United Methodist Churches with his wife Jill, where they direct addiction recovery programs, a jail ministry, a food pantry, an interracial unity movement, and house a faith-based inpatient treatment center. Wildwood and St Mark’s are traditional congregations AND a network of thirteen fresh expressions gathering in a variety of settings. Michael cultivates missional innovators in an individual, regional, statewide, and national capacity. His coaching and consulting work are not theoretical only, but experiential. He believes in maintaining a practitioner’s ethos: “I eat my own cooking and share experimental recipes.” Beck earned a Master of Divinity degree from Asbury Theological Seminary and a Doctorate in Semiotics and Future Studies at Portland Seminary. He’s the author of eight books, including the Abingdon title A Field Guide to Methodist Fresh Expressions.