Innovative Manufacturing is the latest buzzword for giving consumers what they want. Don’t like the doll with blonde hair and brown eyes? Just go to the manufacturer’s website and after five clicks of the mouse you
have a doll with the eyes, nose, hair, skin color, and face shape you want. The process is similar for grown-up toys like cars, kitchen cabinets, bicycles, and even hightop sneakers.

What we can imagine and design begins with a few
fundamental components. You may be able to
choose from 26 different shoelace colors but every
high-top is going to come with shoelaces.

Are there fundamental components to a faithful
congregation? United Methodist Bishop Robert
Schnase believes there are five fundamental
practices so critical to a congregation’s mission that
failure to perform them in an exemplary way results
in congregational deterioration and decline. By
repeating and improving these practices, churches
fulfill their mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ
for the transformation of the world.

Schnase calls the first practice Radical Hospitality -
the active desire to invite, welcome, receive, and
care for those who are strangers so they find a
spiritual home in Christ. Congregations that practice
Radical Hospitality possess a genuine love for others
who are not yet a part of the faith community; an
outward focus; a love that motivates church
members to openness and adaptability, willingness
to change behaviors in order to accommodate the
needs and receive the talents of newcomers.

Worship is the term we use to describe how we
gather, deliberately seeking an encounter with God
in Christ. Passionate Worship is the phrase Schnase
uses to describe an eagerness, anticipation, and
deep commitment to helping people anticipate that
God desires to relate to each person and community.
Transcending definitions like traditional or
contemporary, Passionate Worship is authentic,
connecting, and sustaining.

The practice of Intentional Faith Development refers
to the purposeful learning in community that helps
Christians of every age grow in faith through Bible
studies, classes, support groups, and outreach
ministries. People cannot learn grace, forgiveness,
patience, kindness, or joy simply by reading a book.
Spiritual formation occurs in community through
intentional engagement.

Risk-Taking Mission and Service is the practice that
includes the work of people seeking to make a
positive difference in the lives of others for the
purposes of Christ, whether or not these others will
ever be part of the community of faith. What makes
this work “risk-taking” is the way we are pushed
beyond the circle of relationships that routinely
define our church commitments. It changes the lives
of those people who are served as well as the lives
of those who serve.

Finally, Extravagant Generosity describes the
practices of sharing and giving that exceed all
expectations and extend to unexpected measures.
Every scriptural example of giving is extravagant,
and churches that practice Extravagant Generosity
teach, preach, and practice lavish sharing and giving
in service to God and neighbor.

What examples of each of these five practices do
you see at work in our life together at North Church?
This fall we’ll examine more closely each of these
five practices in study and in worship. We’ll celebrate
the ways these practices already are occurring at
North and explore how God may be calling us into
other bold and imaginative practices.

Schnase’s five practices aren’t consumer gimmicks.
Participating in these five practices requires
boldness and imagination. These practices aren’t so
much about getting what we want as they are about
giving God what God wants: justice, mercy, loving-kindness.
It’s not hard to imagine, however, that a congregation engaged in each of these practices will be made up of people who’ve discovered a satisfaction they can’t find on the Internet.

Shalom,