“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,
while every branch that does bear fruit
He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. . . .
You did not choose me, but I choose you and appointed you
to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.”
(John 15.1-2, 16)
Clearly, our Lord expects fruit. So, what do fruitful congregations do well? It sounds like a simple question, but it is often rather confusing. The confusion creeps in when we focus upon Institutional Strength more than Missional Fruitfulness.
Institutional strength involves increasing church membership, paying apportionments and property insurance, maintaining the church facilities and getting your Charge Conference reports filled out well and on time. While these are certainly not bad things, they are not really at the heart of what Jesus calls His Church to be and do. In fact, we can do all these institutionally faithful things and completely miss the essential mission on which Jesus sends His disciples!
Missional fruitfulness involves fulfilling Jesus’ Great Commission: “Go and make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them . . . and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20) United Methodists put it this way: our mission is to “Make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”
The local congregation is God’s primary mission strategy for reaching and discipling people for Christ and for impacting the world for good. It is also our Annual Conference’s primary missional strategy for reaching and blessing the people and communities of Florida. That’s why congregational fruitfulness is so crucial.
A missionally fruitful congregation is a community of followers
of Jesus Christ who invite and enable other persons to join them
in accepting His transforming love, training to be more like Him and
serving the world so it can be more compassionate and just for all people.
Many congregational leaders find it helpful to break down this core disciple-making process into smaller practical components. That’s what the five practices of fruitful congregations -- also known as “The Methodist Way of discipling” -- accomplish. The five practices help people understand the essential activities that missionally fruitful congregations must focus upon in order to “make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”
- Cultivating a congregation capable of Passionate Worship
- Extending Radical Hospitality into our community and the next generation
- Forming mature followers of Jesus Christ through deep and Intentional Discipling
- Sending out Salty Servants in ministries of mercy and justice
- And pouring ourselves out in Extravagant Generosity
We’ve developed these icons to help symbolize and remind us of each practice:
To find out more about these five practices and what fruitful congregations do
or to download the icons, Powerpoint presentations and other material [click here].
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