Little Rock, AR, July 31, 2024: Rev. Dr. Todd Seelau of the New Mexico Conference of the UMC will be the keynote speaker at the Arkansas Conference 2024 Vital Church Summit for Clergy on November 13, 2024.
Most recently, Seelau was a “LED Talk” presenter at the 2024 South Central Jurisdiction Conference where he spoke about creating worship spaces outside of the church building. See his video here.
Born outside of Buffalo, New York, to a United Methodist Mother and a formerly Catholic Father, he established his blue-collar work ethic and ability to transgress obstacles that you can see in his work today. Rev. Todd, as he is known to the people in the bars and on the streets of Albuquerque, received his Master of Divinity Degree from Candler School of Theology and his Doctor of Ministry Degree under Dr. Leonard Sweet at Portland Seminary and was Ordained as an Elder in the United Methodist Church in 2007. His sustained success in youth ministry for over 10 years gave Rev. Todd the skills and passion to help people get to know Jesus again for the first time. Rev. Todd’s first appointments were in Clint and Fabens, TX. He grew with those churches in marvelous and transformative ways. He took the profound sense of community that he found there and in Atlanta, and began to create a community for people that didn’t fit in with the local inherited church, for various reasons.
Rev. Todd then began work at St. Johns UMC, a large church in the middle of Albuquerque, NM. There, he started his new church, X-ile, and also worked at Asbury UMC, helping to revitalize their contemporary service, which has now become its own church plant. Rev. Todd led the congregation there to start a ministry to regularly make food and eat with the neighbors in the University area, called Breaking Bread. This ministry is stronger than ever and has been expanding in different ways for the last 12 years. From there he went on the road with his band, Next 2 the Tracks, for 7 years and they brought this incarnational, wild west show of a church to different settings all over the country. After learning a great deal from all of these experiences, Rev. Todd returned to New Mexico with his band to record their next album, and he started the next iteration of X-ile in Albuquerque. New Mexico shut down for Covid and as a church that meets in public spaces, X-ile went online and underground for a couple of years. In February of 2022, the next form of X-ile began to take over Albuquerque, starting brand new people. At present, X-ile has over 600 people a week engaged in 30 groups meeting in many, mostly public, locations and making over 60,000 meals for hungry kids in Albuquerque each school year. Rev. Todd is a pastor, artist, innovator, philosopher, mystic, and curator… and he always loves to find new people to follow Jesus with.
The Vital Church Summit is being developed specifically for clergy and will also include breakout groups being led by clergy leaders from the Arkansas Conference.
The Summit is being sponsored by a generous grant from the Methodist Foundation for Arkansas.
Location and registration will be available soon!