Congregational life · the five practices

What helps a congregation bear fruit, week after week?

Vine & Lintel is an independent publication for pastors, lay leaders and church members who want to think clearly about the ordinary life of a congregation: how it welcomes, worships, learns, serves and gives. We explain the widely used "five practices" framework, look at what research on church vitality does and does not show, and offer questions a leadership team can actually use.

Start with hospitalityWho we are

Rows of bare grapevines on trellises in early spring, with a low sun behind trees
Vines in early spring, before the fruit. Photo: No-till-vineyard, CC0.

The five practices, one by one

In 2007 the United Methodist bishop Robert Schnase named five practices he saw in flourishing congregations, each with a deliberately demanding adjective. Our explainers take each practice on its own terms: what it means, where it comes from, how churches get it wrong and how they can begin.

  1. 1Radical hospitalityWelcome that goes beyond the greeter at the door.
  2. 2Passionate worshipWorship that is alive, whatever its style.
  3. 3Intentional faith developmentLearning in community, on purpose, for years.
  4. 4Risk-taking mission & serviceServing beyond comfort and beyond the walls.
  5. 5Extravagant generosityGiving as a spiritual practice, not a budget line.

Practice explainers

All five
A small white wooden church with a steeple and green roof under a blue sky with clouds, surrounded by grassThe five practices

Radical hospitality

Welcome that goes beyond the greeter at the door: what the first practice asks of a church.

 The nave of a large church seen from the gallery, with rows of wooden pews leading to the altar under a vaulted ceilingThe five practices

Passionate worship

Worship that is alive and prepared, whether it uses an organ, a band or both.

 Loaves of homemade bread piled on a table above a hand-painted banner reading Fresh BreadThe five practices

Extravagant generosity

From annual campaigns to a culture of giving: how congregations can talk about money honestly.

Independent

We are not a church, a denomination, a publisher or an author's website. No one reviews our articles before publication, and we sell nothing.

Sourced

Facts about books, authors, studies and church decisions link to the public record. Where we offer our own view, we say so.

Practical

Each explainer ends with questions a council, a small group or a pastor can use in a single meeting.

From the notebook

All essays

Longer essays on fruitfulness, measurement, covenant and change in congregations.

A young grapevine shoot with fresh green leaves and tendrils growing along a wire above grassNotebook

Fruitfulness is more than numbers

Counting matters, but counts are not the fruit. How to measure without being ruled by the measure.

 Oil portrait of John Wesley as an old man with long white hair, wearing black clerical dress with white bandsNotebook

Wesley's Covenant Prayer

From Spitalfields in 1755 to January services today: the history and shape of covenant renewal.

 A small wooden book-exchange cabinet on a street corner, its glass door showing shelves of novelsNotebook

Why "practices"?

Programs end; practices are repeated and improved. What the word changes for church planning.

Books & author

All book notes

Factual, unofficial notes on the books behind the framework and on their author: what they contain, when they appeared and where to read more.

A young grapevine shoot with fresh green leaves and tendrils growing along a wire above grassBooks & author

Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations

What the 2007 book argues, how it is built and how churches have used it.

 The limestone Gothic Revival facade and tower of a large downtown church with red doors, under a blue skyBooks & author

Robert Schnase, author and bishop

An unofficial, sourced profile: pastor in Texas, bishop in Missouri and Rio Texas, author.

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