Practicing the five practices.....Of fruitful congregations

• Radical Hospitality
• Passionate Worship
• Intentional Faith Development
• Risk-taking Mission and Service
• Extravagant Generosity

BY JOE DAN BOYD
Special Correspondent

So this is the author of the book that’s getting all the buzz!

A 51-year-old, brown-haired,lightly bearded Bishop who looks maybe 40, wearing a checkered sports jacket, button-down baby blue shirt, paisley tie, crepe-soled shoes and an attitude that suggests he really is happy to be here.

His delivery is down-home conversational, his smile is easy and engaging, and all of us at this Paris-Sulphur Springs District workshop are soon under the spell of a master storyteller who found the mandate for his mojo and the call for his ministry here in his native Lone Star State before being elevated to the episcopacy, then appointed to the Missouri Conference, four years ago.

It’s Bishop Robert Schnase all right, and we are here to learn more about his remarkable Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, a book most of us have already read at least once, but–like the Bible–it keeps beckoning us back for more.

An almost invisible wireless microphone allows the Bishop to walk this lengthy pulpit with his hands free for emphatic gestures, as he speaks without notes for the full two hours, and without a break.

Bearing a 2007 copyright date, The Five Practices has already been adopted by this District’s Superintendent, Rev. Keith Payne Boone, as a kind of textbook for his charge conference messages. Today, we learn that, although the book has been out only 15 months, it’s in its 15th printing and has already been tranlated into four languages.

What’s behind all the buzz?

An important part of it, the Bishop believes, is in the choice of these active adjectives: Radical, Passionate, Intentional,Risk-taking, Extravagant.

“What’s really new are the adjectives,” declares Bishop Schnase. “The practices themselves have been around a long time. But, think about it: There’s quite a difference in, say, friendly hospitality and radical hospitality, an adjective that really stretches us.

“It’s the same contrast with, say, heartwarming worship, which is rather bland, versus passionate worship, which actually confronts us with a realchallenge,” adds the Bishop. “In each case, the active adjective intensifies the practice. And, of course, each adjective also describes the attitudes and actions of Jesus toward these same five practices.

“Further, if you think about it, the adjectives could easily be interchanged without losing any of their power. Just move them around with any of the practices: Say, radical generosity and extravagant hospitality!”

By focusing on these Five Practices, Bishop Schnase forces us to think in terms of actions, systems and behavior patterns, eventually learning to translate theology into ministries of the church. When we think of fruitfulness,he wants us to concentrate on the difference our church’s ministries make in results and impact on people.

Despite his conscious choice of five well-chosen adjectives, which obviously inspire Bishop Schnase believes his book is otherwise written in easy to understand, everyday language, presenting the church’s mission or purpose as “comprehensible and doable.”

In a temporary segue into the secular study of excellence, Bishop Schnase reminds us of the famed management consultant Peter Drucker, who argued that the purpose of any nonprofit organization is to change lives, which is, of course, what the church is all about.

In another segue, the Bishop compares our ability to master The Five Practices with our willingness to practice them, and his analogy is that every baseball team, whether little league or major league, never gets too good to stop practicing before every game. Practice is the only way to make The Five Practices become second nature, he says.

“These Five Practices are so critical to the success of congregations that failure to perform them in an exemplary way leads to the deterioration of the church’s mission,” he explains. “Ignore any one of these tasks or perform any of them in a mediocre, inconsistent or poor manner, and the church will eventually decline, turn in on itself and die away.

“Each chapter of The Five Practices features commentary on a real congregation that is i guring things out—something that every growing church is always doing,” explains the bishop, who views those of us in the church—clergy and laity alike—as, ideally, in a constant culture of learning.

His biggest fear is that a reader, or a church, will try to use his book as a quick fix or a program of any kind, in a misplaced hope that The Five Practices can be condensed to a 12-step program or some other kind of formula for success. Worse yet, he fears that someone will simply use the book to re-name current programs that are not working and expect that to make a difference.

“This is not about justifying current programs, but rather translating ideas into strategies, plans and ministries,” he says. “It’s also not just for the leaders of the church: The Five Practices need to be embedded deep into the culture of the entire congregation.”

The Bishop describes churches that have used the book successfully for five-week sermon series, videos on each of the Five Practices, devotional readings, Lenten study, leadership planning, strategy sessions, assessment tools, mission and vision statements and personal discipleship.

The book’s astounding success has caused the publisher, Abingdon Press, to authorize a host of companion study materials, which are described on a helpful website with a live link to Bishop Schnase’s Five Practices blog: www.fivepractices.org

Melba Harris, District Director of Lay Speaking, sings with enthusiasm.

Pickton UMC members at P-SS District Laity Celebration dinner, from left: Sandra and Mike Minter, Jo and Harold Mays, Rev. Henry Suche and Linda Suche.