Matt Lake
Matt Lake serves as the Lead Pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Williamsport, PA—an urban congregation that consists of a mix of traditional and contemporary worship experiences.
Matt Lake is a lead pastor and consultant who has decades of ministry experience. He is currently serving at First Church in Williamsport, PA (home of the Little League World series!). First Church is an urban congregation that consists of a mix of traditional, contemporary, and Fresh Expression worship experiences. First Church has spent years aligning around an intentional discipleship journey which simultaneously recognizes where people are in their discipleship journey and helps them grow into deeper discipleship moving forward to live out their God-given identity.
Matt is a graduate of Messiah College, has a Master in Divinity from Duke Divinity School and a Doctorate of Ministry centering on Semiotics and Future Studies through Portland Seminary. Matt has worked with a variety of churches, denominations, and traditions with Fresh Expressions U.S. and A.E. Sloan in order to focus upon adaptive leadership and congregational vitality. Matt is especially passionate about diving deeper into discipleship and desires to see God's Kingdom impacted through lives transformed in the love of Jesus Christ. Matt is happily in love with his beautiful wife Jennifer and does his best to keep up with his three amazing, and now grown-up, children--Alexandra, Josh, and Zach.
Crossing the Discipleship Chasm (Paperback)
How to Turn Crowds Into People Who Follow Jesus
When the road ahead seems too challenging for a conventional approach, staying put is not an option.
This may feel like the reality of today’s ministry landscape. Helping others follow Jesus is no longer straightforward; the path often seems blocked by cultural obstacles.
But we cannot stay where we are.
What’s needed is a higher way—a path that rises above the challenges, strong enough to support your journey, yet flexible enough to adapt to the changing terrain.
In Crossing the Discipleship Chasm, pastor and consultant Matt Lake, draws from deep experience in ministry to introduce a transformative approach that revives the original mission of the church: adaptive discipleship. Grounded in thorough research and tested relationships, his method offers a way forward.
Too often local churches, in their anxiety, jump to quick, programmatic solutions to address the lack of discipleship happening in their settings. However, jumping to a solution that ignores the context and deeper issues of the problem only leads to surface-level, technical responses. It will never work in the long run.
His solution? How to apply an adaptive approach to the issue of discipleship through a series of life-giving “tensions”.
If you’re ready to bridge the gaps in your ministry, you need both a reliable path and a wise guide. With Lake’s direction, discover the confidence and courage to lead others on the journey toward life.