Five Practices, Plus Three More!
Enlarging the Challenge
By John T. Schwiebert
By John T. Schwiebert
By now every United Methodist congregation in the Oregon-Idaho Conference has been invited to seek renewal through the rigorous development of “five practices of fruitful congregations,” as first proposed by U.M. Bishop Robert Schnase of Missouri.
As one such congregation, we in Metanoia Peace Community UMC are in agreement that these five practices are indeed important: (1) radical hospitality, (2) passionate worship, (3) intentional faith development, (4) risk taking mission and service, and (5) extravagant generosity. Indeed we have applied ourselves to all of these practices since our founding almost 25 years ago, and we have powerful stories to tell about the fruits born of God through our attempts to be faithful in these 5 areas.*
But we find ourselves asking: why only these five practices and not certain other practices that are so clearly held up in the New Testament as vital for the followers of Jesus in the New Testament?
Two years ago the members of Metanoia Peace Community went on an all-day retreat where we explored “Four Essential Characteristics of the Authentic Church.” For what it’s worth, three of the four characteristics that we held up as essential were not even mentioned in the list of five practices of fruitful congregations proposed by Bishop Schnase. These three essentials, using the New Testament words that identify them, are metanoia (repentance), koinonia (sharing-in-community), and marturia (witness, or testimony).
Moreover, it occurred to us that these three missing ingredients are actually so important to the health of a fruit bearing congregation that, if they are left out, the five practices of essential congregations proposed by Bishop Schnase are in danger of being watered down and of losing their radical specificity. This same danger also applies to the fourth essential characteristic that in our analysis we refer to by the New Testament word diakonia (ministry or service), and that Bishop Schnase describes as “risk taking mission and service.”
To understand what we mean let us consider the following four Biblical characteristics of the authentic church and the ways they relate to Bishop’s Schnase’s five practices:
1. metanoia (repentance)
We named our congregation “Metanoia” because of a strong conviction that the risen Christ whose spirit formed the church at Pentecost calls all of us to a radical life of repentance. This repentance involves a turning away from the distorted values and practices of the dominant culture and a turning toward the Kingdom (Reign, Rule, or Commonwealth) of God. (See Mark 1:15, Luke 24:45-47, Acts 2:37-42, Acts 5:27-32, and Acts 11:18 and notice the way the words “repent” and “repentance” are used).If, in response to Jesus’ call, we are actively endeavoring to practice metanoia, i.e. seeking first the commonwealth of God, and renouncing allegiance to any other rule or power, our “intentional faith development” will require a whole lot more of us than attending classes, retreats, and spiritual support groups to improve our spiritual practice. When we decide to take up the cross and really follow in Christ’s path of non-violent resistance and (sometimes) civil disobedience, “faith development” will necessarily include learning to live by faith alone, and sometimes in hostile political environments, without the comforts and amenities of institutional Christianity as we know it! Only then will we experience the real costs, and authentic joys, of fruitful discipleship!
And “radical hospitality” will become more than having an invitational posture toward visitors, seekers, and others that we would like to attract to our church activities. For instance it will probably include activities like providing sanctuary to undocumented immigrants and other oppressed persons, both inside and outside the church, who are threatened by state-sanctioned violence. And for that we may risk the wrath of the powers that be.
2. koinonia (sharing-in-community)
This Greek word is usually translated into English as “fellowship,” but the koinonia that binds together the followers of Jesus is much more precious, more mystical, more deeply satisfying than the word “fellowship” can convey, especially as the word is typically used in our time. Rather koinonia is a deep and abiding communion that happens among persons “whose relationships go deeper than their masks of composure, and who have developed some significant commitment to rejoice together, mourn together, delight in each other, and make each other’s condition their own” (M. Scott Peck). For the followers of Jesus this communion is realized in the body of Christ, and recognized as “Holy Communion” when we gather together at the Lord’s Table (see 1 Cor. 10:16).
The extent of this communion is further revealed in Romans 15:26 and 2 Cor. 9:13 where, in the RSV, the word koinonia is translated by the word “contribution.” Here it clearly refers to a voluntary transfer of funds from the churches of Macedonia and Achaia to help meet the economic needs of the poorer saints in Jerusalem, who themselves, according to Acts 4:32 were already sharing all things in common (koina).
“Extravagant generosity,” when practiced in the framework of the individualism and privatization that is the curse of the dominant culture today, simply does not meet the Biblical standard which moves the followers of Jesus beyond the notion of private wealth and property and calls us to use the collective resources that God has given to all to meet the collective needs of all. In other words, each of us is called not merely to be extravagantly generous with what is “mine,” but to think only in terms of what is “ours,” i.e. what we share in common, as God’s gift to all.
3. diakonia (ministry, service)
Diakonia is what Bishop Schnase refers to as “risk-taking mission and service” in the form of mentoring programs, VIM projects, ministries in nursing homes, etc. But in the New Testament diakonia implies more than charitable activities directed towards others, and risk-taking implies more than going outside of our comfort zone to offer charity to people unlike us. For example, in Acts 6 the word diakonia appears twice where it is translated (in NRSV) both as “waiting on tables” and “distribution.” In this case the problem addressed by diakonia is not only the serving of food, but also the fair or just distribution of food. Thus diakonia involves not just serving people who are hungry, or helping people who are sick, but also seeking to discover why so many are hungry in a world of plenty, and why so many are sick, and then working to change or replace the social, political, and economic arrangements and systems that allow or promote hunger and illness. And it is at that point that the followers of Jesus could face the greater risk!Another thing to know about diakonia in the church that was born at Pentecost is that everyone in the church is called to ministry. Look up 1 Cor. 12: 4-7 where Paul says,
“ . . .there are varieties of services (diakonion) . . . but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good . . . All of these are activated by one and the same Spirit who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.”
Moreover, in the New Testament there is never any suggestion that the one who ministers or serves is to be regarded as superior to the one who receives that person’s ministry or service. Indeed diakonia is always mutual ministry, as we are reminded in the opening words of a song we love to sing:
Brother, sister let me serve you. Let me be as Christ to you!x
Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.
4. marturia (witness)
The Greek word means “testimony”, and a related word, martus, means “one who testifies.” In a court of law or even in the court of public opinion we depend on witnesses to provide information that will help us to separate claims that are true from claims that are less than truthful. The bulk of a court trial is devoted to hearing from witnesses and examining and cross-examining their testimony.Jesus says to his followers, “You shall be my witnesses (martures) in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). In other words, Jesus is saying, when people anywhere are confused or curious and want to know about me—and what my life, death and resurrection mean for the world and its people, I am counting on you, my church, to testify about me—to tell what you have seen and what you have experienced concerning me and my importance in your life together.
Each of you individually and all of you together will be my martures; each of you and all of you together will share your marturia with others.
In and from the church there always needs to be two kinds of witness or testimony. The first is the testimony that we give just by being who we are and doing what we do openly so that others may observe us. When people see us publicly acting out the characteristics associated with authentic metanoia, koinonia, and diakonia they will catch a glimpse of what the kin-dom of God will look like when its influence extends to all nations and peoples. As the song says, “And they’ll know we are Christians (people who follow Christ) by our love” for one another.
But our witness may well involve us also telling in words the meaning of the collective life we live, and letting others know that it is God who, in Christ, has called us to this life. This kind of story telling will become an invitation to strangers to consider also accepting God’s gifts of metanoia, koinonia, diakonia, and even marturia, through becoming a part of God’s church (ekklesia)!
By now you have probably figured out that our English word “martyr” has its root in the Greek words martus and marturia. And perhaps you have also surmised that martyrdom in its original meaning was not about just any unpleasant death at the hands of an enemy, but more specifically the death of a star witness, by those who would attempt to silence his or her testimony. Thus a person is not a martyr because he/she has died; he/she has died because of already having been a martyr (i.e. a witness) and having been silenced by death for doing so. So clearly marturia involves risk. But that should be no problem for those who follow the Christ who died so that others might live.
So, to summarize: Following Bishop Schnase’s five practices of a fruitful congregation is not a bad idea, and it may indeed attract those who are looking for an attractive church. But those who are ready to commit to the deeper level of discipleship to which Jesus calls us would do well to consider upping the number to eight!
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*If you would like to know more about how the people of Metanoia Peace Community have engaged the “five practices, plus three more,” and what we have learned in that process, visit our website, www.metanoiaumc.org, or contact us directly. We would love to have a conversation with you, at your place or ours!
Metanoia Peace Community United Methodist Church
2116 NE 18th Ave.
Portland, OR 97212
503 281-3697
john@metanoiaumc.org
