What happens in Vegas might usually stay in Vegas, but not this time. The Viva La Church gathering, held October 21-23, 2025, at Green Valley UMC, brought together innovators, dreamers, and builders from across the country. Everyone left the gathering stirred up and ready to do the work of holy disruption.
Hosted by the Western Jurisdiction Developers in partnership with the Desert Southwest Conference, the event pulsed with creativity and collaboration. From Bishop Carlo A. Rapanut’s opening message to Bishop Dottie Escobedo-Frank’s final charge to clergy, every moment created space for the Spirit to speak and for the Church to imagine again.
Bishop Carlo opened with both a welcome and a challenge. “Creating is a movement of imagination, a movement of rhythm, and a movement of joy,” he said, grounding his message in the creation story of Genesis. He reminded the Church that this rhythm still moves through us today and cautioned, “If we deny that rhythm, then we will keep the church on life support, even if there is no more quality of life.”
There were five workshop tracks offered to the 250 participants in the event, which included innovation, revitalization for churches with an AWA of 50 or less, fresh expressions, revitalization of Hispanic/Latino churches, and best practices for church property. In post-event reflections, participants named relationships, collaboration, and a renewed sense of calling as the most meaningful takeaways. One attendee shared, “Even in light of all the challenges, all the shifts, and all the mess, God is excited about what we—and the Spirit—are going to be doing. Let’s go!”
Keynote speakers included Rev. Dr. Rodrigo Cruz from the North Georgia Annual Conference, Rev. Tyler Sit from the Minnesota Annual Conference, and Rev. Kris Sledge from the Susquehanna Annual Conference. The speakers cast a vision for ways to live into God’s good news through diversity in ministry, spontaneous resilience in our churches, and strategic shifts to reach younger generations. Workshop leaders hailed from Cal-Pac, Mountain Sky, Desert Southwest, Great Plains, Northern Illinois, Western North Carolina, North Georgia, Virginia, and New Mexico, with representatives from the ACLU and Path1/Discipleship Ministries. Sponsors of the event included United Methodist Seminaries like Claremont, Iliff, and SMU Perkins, along with GCFA, Discipleship Ministries, Intersect: A Co-Planting Network, and Interfaith Credit Union.
As the gathering came to a close, Bishop Escobedo-Frank, Resident Bishop of the Los Angeles Episcopal Area, offered a powerful call to clergy: to preach boldly and to stand against injustice. In a final act of commissioning, attendees received whistles from Rev. Lindsey Joyce, a pastor and community organizer in Chicago as a symbolic reminder to speak up and blow the whistle when silence would cause harm.
Viva La Church was never just about inspiration. It was about activation. As Bishop Rapanut put it, “May God stir something in you while you are here. May this time and space be a womb where new ideas and new thinking and new practices are born so that we can all work at being healthy churches for a healthy world. And may whatever happens here in Vegas not stay in Vegas. Amen.”
For more information- Find photos from the three-day event at https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCyka4.
- Learn about the Western Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church at https://westernjurisdictionumc.org/
