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Alumni Spotlight: Verlon Fosner

Graduation Year: 2014

Major: DMin (AGTS)

Current Position: Pastor of Community Dinners – Seattle, and Director of the Dinner Church Collective for Fresh Expressions US

City and State: Seattle WA

Tell us about your career and what you do now.

My wife and I came to pastor the First AG church opened in Seattle 25 years ago. After I finished my DMin, we pivoted our traditional church format to multiple AGAPE-STYLE Dinner Church congregations throughout the city. Presently, we have 13, and are now adding several per year. Each Dinner Church is aprox 75 people in size, and this ancient form of church is highly effective at helping secular people find Jesus.

What is your favorite memory from AGTS?

Our time spent in the UK at the Oxford Centre for Missions Studies.

How did AGTS help you identify/develop your calling?

Being with numerous leaders who were so far around the Post-Christian corner than the typical US AG leader was very insightful. Further, recognizing that the American Church is experiencing such sobering melt-downs at present for reasons that we have a deep sociological problem, and finding ways to address it was very encouraging for me.

How did your experience at AGTS prepare you for life after graduation?

The ministry traction I developed in the highly secularized climate of urban core of Seattle was very encouraging. It reversed us from declining by 14% per year to increasing by 50% per years.

What advice would you give a current student preparing for the workforce?

Acknowledge the post-Christian corner we are careening around and look for ministry forms that are not common or immediately visible. At our national church decline rates, the teaching-based weekly gatherings are not going to be overwhelmingly prevalent in ten years.

What would you look for if you were in a position to hire new graduates from AGTS?

Someone who is willing to do church for secular people in a form that fits their sociology, not our traditions.