Spring Fruits

Spring has arrived in earnest.  All around us, bare limbs are begining to bud and bloom. Life is rising from what seems to be dead wood.  All aournd us you can see signs and symbols of new life, as clearly as we saw flowers bloom on our Church cross on Easter morning.

It's as if, just for a moment, a hint of resurrection is in the air.  As if each plant answers God's call to life.  Each flower heeds, in its own way, God's command to be fruitful and multiply.

Every congregation wants to answer that call of God, too. We must  be fruitful and multiply by growing in faithful response to God's word and spreading the beauty of God's grace and love.  How?  Hospitality, worship, faith development, missional service and generosity are the five practices of faithful congregations.

Every church exhibits marks of hospitality or displays a certain theology of worship or does service to others.  The question is, according to author Robert Schnase, not whether or not we are involved in these practices, but how we describe our practices.  Here are some of his questions:

* Do we exhibit radical hospitality?

* Is our worship passionate?

* Are we intentional when it comes to faith development?

* Do we take risks in missional service?

* Are we extravagant in our stewardship of God's resources, both personally and as a community?

So, how could we describe our congregation? In answering these questions, we will become more fruitful.

Reflectively,

Pastor Jake