OVIEDO – The Rev. Dr. Jon Davis loves talking history and how the Episcopal Church relates to important moments, even great American pioneering events such as the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Davis likens the decline in traditional church membership – a 20 percent drop from the late 1930s to 2016, according to a recent Gallup Poll – to the challenges that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark faced when crossing the western portion of the U.S. for the first time.

“All of a sudden, they get out west and they run out of water,” said Davis, referring to the expedition that began by water in St. Louis, Missouri. The expedition ran into the Continental Divide at Lemhi Pass, a two-mile mountainous span covering the current border between Montana and Idaho. “They thought they were going to paddle all the way to the Pacific.

“They had a choice to make,” Davis said. “Either they could turn around and go back or adapt to an uncharted territory. They were off the map. They stopped being rafters and river men and they became mountain climbers. And I think in some ways, we are running out of water in the traditional church, not just Episcopal.

“We have to adapt to an uncharted territory to something we don’t know,” Davis said. “It’s going to require different kinds of skills and different kinds of models for ministry. And a lot of those will be church, but it won’t be what Sunday morning looks like.”

One of those models in the post-Christendom area is Fresh Expressions, an innovative worldwide movement in which members create new forms of church alongside existing congregations to make contact with an ever-changing world. Fresh Expressions members go to a variety of places, including pubs, parks, and other venues to share Christ’s message.

Following 1 ½ years of research and reflection, Davis has decided to join that movement after nine years of working as the executive director of Canterbury Retreat & Conference Center in Oviedo. He said April 30 was the transitional date in which he formally planned to leave Canterbury. Canon Tim Nunez of the Diocese of Central Florida said the Canterbury Board would like to have someone in place by June.

“I’m very excited,” said Davis, 58. “I’ve always had a passion for people to come and know and love Jesus. This is fueling those passions once again. I want to get back to seeing people come to faith and being formed in faith. It taps a lot of my excitement around the mission of the church. Canterbury has that mission, but it expresses it differently than a mission of community.”

Davis, who is married with two grown daughters, will be the first diocesan priest to run a Fresh Expressions movement in Seminole County. He will work virtually, reaching out from his home in Oviedo, as well as venture to places like Starbucks, Panera Bread, and other venues to share the Word of God.

“I’m framing it as an Abbey Mission,” Davis said. “An Abbey is a mission of community that does life together.”

Davis said his idea for an Abbey Mission came from book reading and a liturgical phrase: “Always and everywhere. In our liturgy in any joyful thing, always and everywhere you give thanks. I want this mission to be an always-and-everywhere thing. It’s a nice little way to think about how the kingdom grows.”

A native of Atlanta, Davis said he will work with John Motis, a deacon at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Lake Wales who is the diocesan chairman for Fresh Expressions. “I’m doing what a Christian might do with Campus Crusade for Christ,” Davis said.

Although he has been intrigued by Fresh Expressions for more than a year, Davis said his interest peaked when he attended the National Fresh Expressions Conference in March in Reston, Virginia.

“One of the very best conferences I’ve been to in a long time, in probably 20 or 30 years,” Davis said. “It was just top-notch. It was kind of reaffirming in a lot of ways. I’ve been working with the national director for Fresh Expressions, Chris Backert, as well as with some of the other staff.”

Davis’ enthusiasm for the movement was noticed, and he was invited to join a team meeting before the conference started. “I really felt that these folks are doing the kingdom work that I want to be a part of,” he said.

Through Fresh Expressions, research and contacts, Davis has learned that people need to think of church in different ways in today’s society: a mission of community, highly relational, life together, and always and everywhere.

“It’s a highly relational model that I feel like God is calling me to,” Davis said. “We have had these movements over the past few years. Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, All Lives Matter. But I really like what our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said: ‘Of course, all lives matter. But when there’s a house that is burning down, like in Ferguson, Baltimore, Chicago, where do you send the fire truck?’

“There’s been some injustice in our culture,” Davis said. “There has been some racism. There have been some problems out there. But even in that, All Lives Matter … we need to do some things about these things. But, ultimately, what it comes down to is – your life matters.”

Davis said there is a pronounced need for movements such as Fresh Expressions. Some religious scholars have categorized two types of people – “Nones” and “Dones” – that spiritual leaders are trying to reach today.

“‘Nones’ are people who have never had any connection with the church,” Davis said. “‘Dones’ are people who are fed up with the church – have walked away for whatever reason. Fed up with the politics of the church, the theology of the church.”

Davis said one study showed that there are 14 million “Dones” out there, further justifying the need for Fresh Expressions. His decision to parlay his work into an Abbey Mission is based on how Abbeys worked in the Middle Ages to help people, most notably in hospitals and health care. Abbeys also worked in commerce and education, among other fields.

“Abbey Mission is one of a sense of living in community, this very intense relational community where your lives are shared, where you’re connected, where you’re growing in faith in the eyes of the Lord,” Davis said. “And their purpose is to invite others to be a part.”

Davis said he tentatively has about 10 to 15 lay people, some from the diocese, to help him in the Fresh Expressions movement in Seminole County. “It’s a mission of community that can meet at Starbucks, Panera or Tijuana Flats,” he said. “We can figure some of that out. It’s a fluid kind of thing.”

The Fresh Expressions movement seems like a natural fit for Davis, who worked in youth ministry for 30 years. He also served as vicar of the Church of the Incarnation in Oviedo for eight years (2006-14), which included a five-year overlap as executive director at Canterbury.

“My track hasn’t been typical,” Davis said. “But I don’t know if anyone’s life is typical. I’ve done a variety of different things that are kind of outside the norm for an Episcopal priest. I’ve been on the diocesan staff, I’ve planted a church and have run Canterbury, those kinds of things.

“Having been in youth ministry for 30 years, Fresh Expressions kind of feels like youth ministry to me,” Davis said. “It’s highly relational, it’s entrepreneurial, it’s about people coming to faith, and growing in their faith and being made disciples. That’s what youth ministry always was to me. That felt natural. I sensed for a while that my time at Canterbury was coming to an end.”

Davis oversaw a period of regrowth at Canterbury, taking over at a time when the economy was bad and unemployment was high. Today the retreat hosts diocesan events, community organizations, national events, a variety of missionary groups and much more.

“I feel like Canterbury has ministry as its driver,” Davis said. “Our distinction is that we offer people the idea of sanctuary, that sacred space. There are places around here that have spas and shopping and golf courses and all kinds of amenities. Our one single amenity that we really have that separates us is sacred space. I think we have seen Canterbury prosper under that over the last few years.

“It’s time for someone else to take the reins and take Canterbury to the next phase,” Davis said. “We brought the operation to health and sustainability. We brought it to a way that is fruitful for the mission that Canterbury has.”