Wednesday, October 17, 2018
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5 Practices for Fruitful Congregations in a Post-Attractional Era by Robert Schnase
Robert Schnase’s five key practices — radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk-taking mission and service, and extravagant generosity — have helped thousands of congregations be more fruitful in ministry. But churches today face a more challenging reality than when Schnase first articulated these principles a decade ago. In a new, revised version of Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, Schnase reframes these key practices to move beyond attractional assumptions.Why do we assume that people who do not know our congregation will one day find themselves as a member of our church? Most congregations, consciously or unconsciously, operate with attractional assumptions. They imagine that a person, couple, or family becomes aware of their church, perhaps through the invitation of a friend, an advertisement on a billboard, or by driving past the sanctuary. Churches then hope that what the new persons hear or see will draw them toward the congregation. They assume that the visitors will share a common interest in the purpose of the church or feel a desire to form an affinity with the church. A yearning to learn, grow spiritually, belong, and serve will cause them to visit and will lead them to greater participation. We assume this is the pathway for entry into the church because it matches the experience of many people who currently belong.
Why the attractional model is no longer enough
When people do not find the idea of church appealing, they are not attracted to what we do, no matter how well we do it.
Attractional models worked in the past when the culture expected people to attend worship and people wanted to be members of churches. What happens when people no longer trust institutions in general or the church in particular? Or when next generations don’t share a taste for the style of music we offer in worship and don’t appreciate the one-way verbal communication of a sermon? Becoming a member of anything is unappealing to many people and does not motivate them to deepen their spiritual lives. They are not seeking to join anything. Many churches are surrounded by neighbors who speak a different language or who are of a different ethnicity than the majority in the congregation. What would cause them to show up for worship?What happens when generations of people living around us have no experience with worship, no vocabulary for understanding faith, no familiarity with scripture, and have never once stepped inside a church? The culture provides an ever-increasing number of competing activities on Sundays that are more compelling than church attendance. When people do not find the idea of church appealing, they are not attracted to what we do, no matter how well we do it.
A significant shift
What is required is a significant shift in how we think about ministry:
- “Come to us” ideas must be balanced with “go to them” initiatives.
- Strategies for doing things “better” must be strengthened with ideas of doing things “differently.”
- Teaching people to “do things our way” must be intermixed with “learning new things” from others.
- Doing ministry “for” becomes doing ministry “with.”
- Welcoming the guest expands to becoming a newcomer among others.
- Increasing activities “in the church” shifts toward offering ministries “beyond our facilities.”
- Making our church more interesting to others expands to becoming more interested in the spiritual needs and real-life issues of others.
- Receiving people in the spirit of Christ expands to being sent to people around us in the spirit of Christ.
The original Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations relied on attractional assumptions. Today, fruitful congregations have discovered that while attractional models are helpful and necessary to fulfill the mission of Christ, they simply are not enough. Faith communities must also develop ministries that derive from missional assumptions, activities that primarily benefit people who are not members of the church, often in places far away from their facilities. These ministries require a different posture toward our neighbors, a more deliberate outward focus, and a willingness to carry Christ’s love to where people already live and work and play, rather than hoping for people to come to us.
1. Radical hospitality
Radical hospitality is not merely focused on getting people to come to church. Rather, it focuses with greater intentionality about how we carry hospitality with us into our neighborhoods, work life, and affinity networks. What good is Christian hospitality if it’s something we only practice for an hour on Sunday morning while failing to form relationships with people who live next door?
2. Passionate worship
Passionate worship extends beyond improving what happens on Sunday morning in the sanctuary. Worship becomes mobile, portable, on the move, going where people live, and work, and play.
3. Intentional faith development
Intentional faith development includes more focus on experiential learning, mentoring, spiritual formation, and forming relationships in addition to traditional content-based education in Bible studies and Sunday school classes.
4. Risk-taking mission and service
Risk-taking mission and service explores relationships more deeply and offers examples of shifting from doing ministry for to less patronizing, more relational models of doing ministry with those who suffer hardship or injustice.
5. Extravagant generosity
Extravagant generosity involves helping people learn to love generosity as a way of life not just a way of supporting the church.
This shift of energy, focus, and imagination is life-giving. When the church leaves the building to offer ministries that matter, we view ourselves as part of Christ’s mission in a whole new way, as sent into a mission field uniquely prepared by God that uses the talents, gifts, and relationships God has given us.
This material is excerpted from Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, Revised and Updated (Abingdon Press, 2018) by Robert Schnase. Used by permission. The book is available at Cokesbury and Amazon.
Related Resources:
- “Ministry Beyond the Wall: Revisiting the Five Fruitful Practices,” a Leading Ideas Talks podcast episode featuring Robert Schnase
- Taking Church to the Community Video Tool Kit
- The Challenge of Fruitfulness by Robert Schnase
- Review of Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations by Robert Schnase
About Author
Episode 20
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Church Childcare Programs: Income Generators or Missional Opportunity? by Doug Powe
Nursery schools and childcare programs are more to churches than a source of rental income. Lewis Center Director Doug Powe says they offer important missional opportunities as well. He outlines four simple strategies for engaging children and families.Many congregations have daycare centers, preschools, nursery schools, or after-school programs. Some see the revenue-generating possibility of these programs as their primary advantage, but they offer important missional opportunities as well. What are some ways congregations can engage families in their childcare programs?
There is no reason to be afraid of extending invitations. It is a matter of being a good host. And it lets the families know you truly welcome their participation in what the congregation does.
1. Greeters
At least once a week, have a team of greeters provide coffee for the parents dropping off or picking up children. Many parents will appreciate a good cup of coffee or tea because they will not have time to stop someplace else to get it. You might even occasionally have your pastor or church staff members join the greeting team. Over time, these greeters will learn the names of the children and their parents and become a familiar, welcoming presence. As the initial point of contact, they can be important ambassadors between the church and families.
2. Invitations
Look for fun, family-friendly events on your church calendar, such as a fall festival, trunk-or-treat, block party, or carol sing. These types of low-barrier, intergenerational events are great opportunities for inviting your childcare families. Make sure some of the greeters who are already known to the families will be on hand. Seeing a familiar face will help the children and their parents feel more comfortable and at home. There is no reason to be afraid of extending these invitations. It is a matter of being a good host. And it lets the families know you truly welcome their participation in what the congregation does.
3. Conversations
The pastor and/or other mature members of the faith community might set aside time when parents or others connected with your childcare families can drop by and talk. Like anyone else, they may be struggling or experiencing life crises. And even if they do not attend church or have no religious affiliation, they may still have faith questions or just need a listening ear. Set aside some time, perhaps two days a week, for people to just drop by and talk. Typically, this would happen right after or right before picking up a child. The goal is simply to be available for individuals who may just need to talk.
4. Adopt a child
Ask members of your congregation to “adopt” a child or two from the childcare program. At Thanksgiving or other holidays, these members could send the child an appropriate greeting card or a parentally approved treat as a way of letting the child and their family know the church is praying and thinking about them. Certainly, the ability to adopt all the children hinges on the size of your congregation and childcare program. But even for smaller congregations, this can be a cost-effective way of helping the children feel more connected to the congregation.
I often hear congregations lamenting the lack of connection between their nursery school — or other children’s programs — and the church. There are missional opportunities like greeting, inviting, setting aside time, and adopting children that can create a closer connection. The congregation has to be willing to invest the time and energy to make these things happen. These connections are unlikely to happen merely by accident. It’s up to us to initiate appropriate ways of building relationships.
Related Resources:
F. Douglas Powe, Jr., is director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership and holds the James C. Logan Chair in Evangelism (an E. Stanley Jones Professorship) at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC.
The Right Question
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions.
Canadian pastor Carey Nieuwhof offers a series of questions to help leaders gain momentum in their leadership, including these:
Explore strategies your congregation can use to reach beyond its walls with worship, community events, ministries, and service. The Taking Church to the Community Tool Kit features engaging videos and presentations and is designed for both self-study and for use with groups in your church.
Learn more and watch introductory videos now.
Revitalizing congregations must strip away some of the vestiges of the past to make space for the new amidst decades of physical and emotional clutter. To the Point: Unclutter Your Church Now helps congregations unshackle from the weight of clutter and disorganization.
Read now and download free.
1. Greeters
At least once a week, have a team of greeters provide coffee for the parents dropping off or picking up children. Many parents will appreciate a good cup of coffee or tea because they will not have time to stop someplace else to get it. You might even occasionally have your pastor or church staff members join the greeting team. Over time, these greeters will learn the names of the children and their parents and become a familiar, welcoming presence. As the initial point of contact, they can be important ambassadors between the church and families.
2. Invitations
Look for fun, family-friendly events on your church calendar, such as a fall festival, trunk-or-treat, block party, or carol sing. These types of low-barrier, intergenerational events are great opportunities for inviting your childcare families. Make sure some of the greeters who are already known to the families will be on hand. Seeing a familiar face will help the children and their parents feel more comfortable and at home. There is no reason to be afraid of extending these invitations. It is a matter of being a good host. And it lets the families know you truly welcome their participation in what the congregation does.
3. Conversations
The pastor and/or other mature members of the faith community might set aside time when parents or others connected with your childcare families can drop by and talk. Like anyone else, they may be struggling or experiencing life crises. And even if they do not attend church or have no religious affiliation, they may still have faith questions or just need a listening ear. Set aside some time, perhaps two days a week, for people to just drop by and talk. Typically, this would happen right after or right before picking up a child. The goal is simply to be available for individuals who may just need to talk.
4. Adopt a child
Ask members of your congregation to “adopt” a child or two from the childcare program. At Thanksgiving or other holidays, these members could send the child an appropriate greeting card or a parentally approved treat as a way of letting the child and their family know the church is praying and thinking about them. Certainly, the ability to adopt all the children hinges on the size of your congregation and childcare program. But even for smaller congregations, this can be a cost-effective way of helping the children feel more connected to the congregation.
I often hear congregations lamenting the lack of connection between their nursery school — or other children’s programs — and the church. There are missional opportunities like greeting, inviting, setting aside time, and adopting children that can create a closer connection. The congregation has to be willing to invest the time and energy to make these things happen. These connections are unlikely to happen merely by accident. It’s up to us to initiate appropriate ways of building relationships.
Related Resources:
- 7 Ideas for Making Vacation Bible School an Evangelism Opportunity by Doug Powe
- The New Church Family by Ann A. Michel
- Engaging Local Schools Video Tool Kit
- Back-to-School Children Evangelism Reach New Disciples
About Author
The Right Question
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions.
Canadian pastor Carey Nieuwhof offers a series of questions to help leaders gain momentum in their leadership, including these:
- Are you spending most of your time in your sweet spot?
- In your weekly routine, what are you having to manufacture energy to do?
- How can you put more fuel in the areas that are seeing the most traction?
Learn more and watch introductory videos now.
Read now and download free.
To the Point: Unclutter Your Church by Lewis Center
What needs to die in your church? We begin the journey of restarting your church by allowing for, even encouraging, places of death. We choose to have a memorial service for what worked in the past, to honor the prior period of time, and to make a decision to move forward. We choose to let the past set us free to fly, instead of letting the past become a shackle that chains us to a certain way of doing things.
Look around you with fresh eyes, and you will see obvious signs of the past still trying to shackle life in your church. The first thing I see in reStart churches is clutter. Enormous amounts of clutter and disorganization. Clutter that looks like hoarding.
In my current church, we spent my first year clearing out massive amounts of clutter. One day early in my tenure I walked into the nursery where the children are cared for during Sunday morning, and there was an aisle to walk through that led to a station with toys in the back of the room.
The first thing I saw when I stepped into the room was a big sign that read “Do Not Come in Here without an adult!” I understood the sign because the area really was a danger zone. The “aisle” was actually a little path that cut through tall stacks of equipment, papers, toys, boxes, books, and papers. There was so much stuff crammed into the room that it was massively depressing.
As we began cleaning out the nursery, we found old vacation Bible school papers from four decades prior. While they were fascinating to see in a memorabilia sort of way, they weren’t doing any good stacked in boxes and cluttered piles in the nursery.
As we began throwing this stuff away, there was a lot of pain around letting it go. The people worried that they might need that curriculum, since it was expensive to buy new VBS materials. They thought perhaps we needed to store it somewhere, just in case it might be needed.
They groaned, grieved, held tight, and fought as we all pried our fingers off the stuff of our history.
Some churches may not have literal clutter but rather institutional or habitual clutter. “We’ve always done it this way” is a common statement about clutter. “I can’t worship without my hymn … my cross … my pew” are declarations of a cluttered soul.
The only One we worship is God. We don’t worship our stuff, our memories, our dreams, our dashed hopes, or our traditions. We worship our God. We worship the One who knows how to raise up a king from a person who starts out hiding among the baggage.
There is hope for us. We may have surrounded ourselves with things that were once comforting and are now binding, but God still can choose us to lead the way forward. There’s hope for clutter-dwellers, hoarders, and memory-storers. There’s hope for the fearful ones who hold on with clenched hands. There’s hope because God can make a way.
Remember the words of remembrance called the Shema, which centered the people of Israel: “Israel, listen! Our God is the Lord! Only the LORD! Love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your being, and all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).
The people were first admonished, encouraged to hear, to open up their ears to receive the sounds of the message. And the message was one of great love. Love God fully and wholly and completely. Love God with great strength.
But instead, when we describe our churches, we speak out words that show the soul’s depressed state. These words are sounds of hopelessness. We come at people, including ourselves, reminding everyone of our faults, as if we have no recognition of the beauty among us. I have done this.
But faith requires hearing, and hearing requires faith in God. When we speak, what story do we tell ourselves, and others? Is it the story of our failings, or the story of how God met us in our failure and showed something new and beautiful among us?
What is your church beautiful at? Does it sound beautiful when it sings? Is it beautiful in community? Is it a beautiful place for mission? What is your church’s beauty, and how can you shout out the good, while changing the not-so-good?
This article is by Dottie Escobedo-Frank, a United Methodist pastor. It is adapted from reStart Your Church (Abingdon Press, 2012) and appeared in Leading Ideas January 16, 2014. Used by permission.
Download a PDF to share with others.
Support the Lewis Center
Leading Ideas is made possible by contributions to the Lewis Center for Church Leadership from readers like you. Thank you.
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How do Christians think and act faithfully in a complex and often ambiguous world? A Life Worthy of the Gospel is an eloquent, challenging, and inspiring six-session introduction to Christian ethics that avoids pat answers and simplistic lists of dos and don'ts. This study is a mid-level course that is densely packed with rich content and is ideal for your congregation's small groups, adult Bible studies, and Sunday school classes.
Learn more now.
Quotable Leadership
If something's not producing good fruit, it's time to prune that branch so the tree can regain health. (Tony Morgan)
The need for leadership in the church is pressing, and the need for clear, insightful thinking about leadership is great. In Church Leadership: Vision, Team, Culture, Integrity, Dr. Weems draws on the best new ideas and research in organizational leadership, yet always with his trademark theological grounding foremost in mind. Anyone who guides the life of a congregation, be they clergy or laity, will find this book the indispensable tool with which to follow their calling to be a church leader.
Learn more and order now.
Look around you with fresh eyes, and you will see obvious signs of the past still trying to shackle life in your church. The first thing I see in reStart churches is clutter. Enormous amounts of clutter and disorganization. Clutter that looks like hoarding.
In my current church, we spent my first year clearing out massive amounts of clutter. One day early in my tenure I walked into the nursery where the children are cared for during Sunday morning, and there was an aisle to walk through that led to a station with toys in the back of the room.
The first thing I saw when I stepped into the room was a big sign that read “Do Not Come in Here without an adult!” I understood the sign because the area really was a danger zone. The “aisle” was actually a little path that cut through tall stacks of equipment, papers, toys, boxes, books, and papers. There was so much stuff crammed into the room that it was massively depressing.
As we began cleaning out the nursery, we found old vacation Bible school papers from four decades prior. While they were fascinating to see in a memorabilia sort of way, they weren’t doing any good stacked in boxes and cluttered piles in the nursery.
As we began throwing this stuff away, there was a lot of pain around letting it go. The people worried that they might need that curriculum, since it was expensive to buy new VBS materials. They thought perhaps we needed to store it somewhere, just in case it might be needed.
They groaned, grieved, held tight, and fought as we all pried our fingers off the stuff of our history.
Some churches may not have literal clutter but rather institutional or habitual clutter. “We’ve always done it this way” is a common statement about clutter. “I can’t worship without my hymn … my cross … my pew” are declarations of a cluttered soul.
The only One we worship is God. We don’t worship our stuff, our memories, our dreams, our dashed hopes, or our traditions. We worship our God. We worship the One who knows how to raise up a king from a person who starts out hiding among the baggage.
There is hope for us. We may have surrounded ourselves with things that were once comforting and are now binding, but God still can choose us to lead the way forward. There’s hope for clutter-dwellers, hoarders, and memory-storers. There’s hope for the fearful ones who hold on with clenched hands. There’s hope because God can make a way.
Remember the words of remembrance called the Shema, which centered the people of Israel: “Israel, listen! Our God is the Lord! Only the LORD! Love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your being, and all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).
The people were first admonished, encouraged to hear, to open up their ears to receive the sounds of the message. And the message was one of great love. Love God fully and wholly and completely. Love God with great strength.
But instead, when we describe our churches, we speak out words that show the soul’s depressed state. These words are sounds of hopelessness. We come at people, including ourselves, reminding everyone of our faults, as if we have no recognition of the beauty among us. I have done this.
But faith requires hearing, and hearing requires faith in God. When we speak, what story do we tell ourselves, and others? Is it the story of our failings, or the story of how God met us in our failure and showed something new and beautiful among us?
What is your church beautiful at? Does it sound beautiful when it sings? Is it beautiful in community? Is it a beautiful place for mission? What is your church’s beauty, and how can you shout out the good, while changing the not-so-good?
This article is by Dottie Escobedo-Frank, a United Methodist pastor. It is adapted from reStart Your Church (Abingdon Press, 2012) and appeared in Leading Ideas January 16, 2014. Used by permission.
Download a PDF to share with others.Support the Lewis Center
Leading Ideas is made possible by contributions to the Lewis Center for Church Leadership from readers like you. Thank you.
Donate now.
Learn more now.
Quotable Leadership
If something's not producing good fruit, it's time to prune that branch so the tree can regain health. (Tony Morgan)
Learn more and order now.
Editor: Dr. Ann A. Michel
Copyright © 2004-2018 Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary
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