Cultivating Fruitfulness: Five Weeks of Prayer and Practice for Congregations

By Bishop Robert Schnase

Focus on the Five Practices: A Congregation-Wide Initiative

Based on the book, Five Practices of a Fruitful Congregation by Bishop Robert Schnase

Imagine a congregation-wide focus on these practices that includes a five week sermon series, five weeks with every household reading daily devotions and sharing prayers on these practices, five weeks of leadership teams and small groups stimulated to take new initiatives, five weeks of conversation and commitment focused on the mission of the church. These are the practices that lead to excellence and fruitfulness, and they can change your church. Imagine!

Cultivating Fruitfulness is a congregational resource that inspires participants through 5 weeks of prayer and devotion. Each day includes a Scripture, a short story or concept from book, a personal question and a prayer.

Click here to preview a sample devotion from Cultivating Fruitfulness.


Download a brochure on all available Five Practices products.

Other resources for the "Focus on the Five Practices: Congregation-Wide Initiative":

Five Practices Leader Manual and Media

A participant guide for group study on each of the Five Practices
Five Practices — Radical Hospitality
Five Practices — Passionate Worship
Five Practices — Intentional Faith Development
Five Practices — Risk-taking Mission and Service
Five Practices — Extravagant Generosity

Focus on the Five Practices - Complete Set
Contains one of each of the above resources, including the original book by Bishop Schnase.

For more information on the entire intiative, go to fivepractices.cokesbury.com.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Release date: Sep 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781426722363

Bishop Robert Schnase

Robert Schnase is bishop of the Rio Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church. Schnase is the author of Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, a best-selling book on congregational ministry that has ignited a common interest among churches and their leaders around its themes of radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk-taking mission and service, and extravagant generosity. Five Practices has reached a global community with translations in Korean, Spanish, Russian, Hungarian, and German. Robert is also the author of Just Say Yes!, Receiving God's Love, Remember the Future, Five Practices of Fruitful Living, and others.

Book preview

Cultivating

Fruitfulness

Five Weeks of Prayer and Practice

for Congregations

Robert Schnase

Abingdon Press

Nashville

CULTIVATING FRUITFULNESS:

FIVE WEEKS OF PRAYER AND PRACTICE

FOR CONGREGATIONS

Copyright 2008 by Robert Schnase

All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission can be addressed to Abingdon Press, P.O. Box 801, 201 Eighth Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37202-0801, or e-mailed to [e-mail].

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Schnase, Robert C., 1957-

Cultivating fruitfulness : five weeks of prayer and practice for congregations / by Robert

C. Schnase.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-687-65433-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Church group work.

2. Christian life. I. Title.

BV652.2.S36 2008

268'.434—dc22

2008017081

All Scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Front Cover Art: Redouté, Pierre Joseph (1759-1840). Consignment : COA0065367 (Position : 1) Grenade, Grenadier punica - Pomegranate (Punica grantum). From Choix des plus belles fleurs, by Redouté. Paris: 1827, pl. 67. Engraved by Victor. The LuEsther T. Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY, U.S.A.

08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17—10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Contents

Welcome

The Practice of Radical Hospitality

The Practice of Passionate Worship

The Practice of Intentional Faith Development

The Practice of Risk-Taking Mission and Service

The Practice of Extravagant Generosity

Welcome

Dear friends,

Welcome to Cultivating Fruitfulness: Five Weeks of Prayer and Practice for Congregations. For the next five weeks, you're invited to join in brief daily readings with everyone else in your congregation. You will be learning about the Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations—Radical Hospitality, Passionate Worship, Intentional Faith Development, Risk-Taking Mission and Service, and Extravagant Generosity. Through your daily meditations and prayers, you will be preparing yourself and your church for a deeper relationship with Christ.

Begin each of the five weeks by reading the definition of the practice. Each day is numbered; and other church members, friends, and pastors will read and pray over the same Scriptures and devotions as you.

Each day's reading begins with a Scripture verse and a brief devotion. Read thoughtfully, thinking about your own faith journey and your congregation's ministry. Each day also includes questions for reflection. Some people find it helpful to write their responses in a personal journal or to talk about these with a family member or friend. Each day includes a prayer that the entire congregation will be praying with you on the same day as you. And each day includes a Challenge. Open your heart to the prompting of the Holy Spirit as you respond to the Challenges.

The Five Practices have transformed the lives of hundreds of congregations and thousands of Christian disciples. I pray that this book, supplemented by further conversation, teaching, and planning, can help your church become fruitful beyond measure for the purposes of Christ. And I pray that these five weeks may be a time of spiritual growth for you as we deepen the practices that help us follow Christ.

Yours in Christ,

Robert Schnase

The Practice of

RADICAL HOSPITALITY

Christian hospitality is the active desire to invite, welcome, receive, and care for those who are strangers so that they find a spiritual home and discover for themselves the unending richness of life in Christ.

Radical describes that which is drastically different from ordinary practices, outside the normal, that which exceeds expectations and goes the second mile.

Practicing Radical Hospitality means we offer the absolute utmost of ourselves, our creativity, and our abilities to offer the gracious invitation and welcome of Christ to others. We pray, plan, and work to invite others and help them feel welcome and to support them in their spiritual journeys.

Day 1

Jesus said, "I was a stranger and

you welcomed me.... Just as you did it to one of the

least of these who are members of my family,

you did it