Seedbed is a twenty-first century movement and media platform whose mission is to gather, connect, and resource the people of God to sow for a great awakening. Seedbed hosted its first New Room Conference in the fall of 2014 in Franklin, TN, with a couple hundred people in attendance. You may recognize the name “New Room” as a reference to the first meeting house of the Wesleyan-Methodist movement in Bristol, England.
Recently, Stan Key, Jerry and Jan Coleman, Peggy Welch, and I had the privilege of joining over 2200 pastors, missionaries, students, laity, and other Christian leaders in Nashville for the fifth New Room Conference. The purpose of these annual gatherings is to encourage and equip the global Wesleyan community (and beyond) to recover its roots and extend its reach as a spiritual awakening movement, person-by-person, band-by-band, and church-by-church. Such an awakening is recognized by a renewal of discipleship in the church, leading to evangelizing the world and transforming society. The primary emphases of the New Room network are prayer, discipleship bands, church multiplication, crossing racial lines, and the Spirit-filled life and ministry.
We were blessed by the times of passionate worship and travailing prayer, challenged by biblical insights and calls to action, encouraged by personal witnesses and authentic fellowship, and reminded that God continues to raise up his witnesses to every generation. In several conversations with the leaders of the New Room network, we also sensed that a closer relationship of the Francis Asbury Society and Seedbed would be mutually beneficial. We hope to continue those conversations soon.
As the world waits for a spiritual awakening, and the Spirit searches for the ones who will sow the seeds, we hear this call and promise, “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Ephesians 5:14).
Visit www.seedbed.com if you would like to know more about Seedbed and the New Room Conference.