I scored when I chose to read Simple Church! I picked the book solely based on the title (kudos to the publisher/marketing department!) having no clue of the authors/endorsers it. The simplicity drew me in and reading the book confirmed the book’s premise; namely, that people are drawn to simple while complexity deters. The book is endorsed by many thriving churches like the Village Church in Texas. Having evaluated 400 American churches, the authors conclude that the simple revolution is trending with great momentum in the west.
Summary
The Simple Church philosophy is clear: Design a process for discipleship and then say no to everything else. Churches (i.e. leadership) must ask right up front, “What kind of disciples do we want to make?” and then cut out everything that does not bear fruit in that objective. Then, what was cut must be replaced it with something that bears fruit. Large lists of programs must be truncated to a simple one that exists to reach one desired endstate.
The key word is not simple, process.
The simple definition of Simple Church,
A congregation designed around a straightforward and strategic process that moves people through the stages of spiritual growth.” [1]
The expanded definition explains the four core elements that Rainer and Geiger found in all vibrant (simple) churches. They say these should be at the forefront of the church leadership’s mind,
...the leadership and the Church are clear about the process (clarity) and are committed to executing it. The process flows logically (movement) and is implemented in each area of the church (alignment). The church abandons everything that is not in the process (focus). [2]
Clarity, movement, alignment, and focus are the drumbeat from cover to cover. There is no way readers can miss these elements while reading the book. Vibrant/fruitful churches are driven by these paradigms whereas comparison churches lack them. Clarity refers to “the ability of the process to be communicated and understood by the people.”[3] Movement is “the sequential steps in the process that cause people to move to greater areas of commitment.”[4] Alignment requires that all ministries and staff arrange around the simple process[5] and focus entails “abandoning everything that falls outside of the simple ministry process.”[6]
Recommendations
My recommendation for the authors is to shift the usage of the word church. The word, “church” should be used as a verb and not a noun. The apostles and early Christians might be confused to hear church as a noun such as, “Where do you go to Church?” or “How many people are there at your church?” or any other usage that plays into the narrative that church is a location/event rather than an identity. At the risk of redundancy, church is not a 90-minute event, but a way of life; church is not a what but a who.[7]
I believe the simple church philosophy must include a statement that downplays the primacy of the church in conjunction with the supremacy the Kingdom of God. When congregations [not churches] dismiss the kingdom, there will arise a tendency to compare themselves with other congregations and in worst cases become competitors and “sheep-stealers.” That mindset is anti-church and anti-community.
A discussion on how to “do church" apart from its proper place in the kingdom is a dead end. Since the church is a means to an end, we must begin with the end in mind. The end state is life in the kingdom of God in the new heaven and new earth. A couple more proofs may help clarify this point. The church did not exist in the Garden of Eden and she does not exist in the new heaven and new earth. We conclude therefore that the church is just a means to an end and it would behoove the church to recognize her place in the plan of God for the restoration of all creation.
A word to all church planters: It is not enough to reject unfruitful complex church ministry paradigms, but also to reject unbiblical ones. It is not just the unproductive practices that should be avoided, but the status quo. For instance, the church has grown accustomed to asking for blessing when they should have been asking God to bless others and to bless others through them; In other words, be a blessing.
The Western church has embedded in their minds the prayer before eating: “Lord, thank you for this food. Bless it and help make it healthy and nourishing for our bodies. Bless us now as we eat this meal, amen.” I don’t think Jesus asked us to pray this way about creation, but rather use created things to point to the creator. I long to see more prayers such as, “Lord, thank, you for blessing us with this yummy food! What a reminder of how good you are to us that you would make it taste so amazing and remind us of who you are…” Something to the effect of worshiping the creator instead of the creation. Blessing God rather than asking for blessing. Somehow we have made Christianity all about us, when it is all about God and glorifying him.
Lastly, the church’s problem is not simplicity versus complexity, per se, but rather biblical vs. unbiblical mindsets. The heart of the issue is an issue of the heart. We have simply rejected the cultivation of the Kingdom culture in exchange for church culture. We have become experts at growing the church and lack in a process of making disciples and kingdom-minded citizens.
Innovation/Application
The simple church revolution is the perfect opportunity to challenge the status quo. The simple church revolution has been emerging perhaps for over a decade now and the church can ensure the death of Christian America [as Gabe Lyons put it] by exposing the lies we have believed for so long. Let’s not just call churches to be simple and process-driven, but rather call out by name the unbiblical practices that have kept us back and created complex messiness. Phrases that came out of evangelism explosion, Sunday school, door knocking, altar calls, RX’d prayers of salvation, etc. They all need to be exposed and we must do our best to keep them where they belong; in the lessons learned file.
The combination of the renovation of the heart with the simple process (i.e. clarity, movement, alignment, focus) is a deadly combination that will change the trajectory of congregations in America forever. And all for the glory of God so that his will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. The church no longer has to promote the “sinner’s prayer” in which people wait to “get to heaven” but they can be clear about her subordinate role in the kingdom (clarity), disciple others in sequential steps to move people to greater commitment (movement), get the entire congregation on a kingdom-centered program (alignment), and toss everything that does not line up with kingdom-centrality (focus).
Endnotes
[1] Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger. Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples (B&H Publishing Group, 2011), 60.
[2] Ibid., 67-68.
[3] Ibid., 70
[4] Ibid., 72
[5] Ibid., 74
[6] Ibid., 76
[7] There are instances where church is used as a noun (e.g. 1 Corinthians 14:28; 34). The point here is to increase awareness of how church as a location/noun is typically used in western churches.
Tweetable Quotes
“Ministry will never ea easy. It is messy and difficult because people are messy and difficult” p. 16. @ThomRainer @EricGeiger #simplechurch #simplechurchrevolution
“Like Jose Diaz, church leaders are called to free prisoners” p. 25. @ThomRainer @EricGeiger #simplechurch #simplechurchrevolution
“A plagiarized biblical vision is always a good thing” p. 39. @ThomRainer @EricGeiger #simplechurch #simplechurchrevolution
“The church always has the ball. There are no defenders on the squad. This is good news. Victory is guaranteed.”p. 85 @ThomRainer @EricGeiger #simplechurch #simplechurchrevolution
“Leadership is like the third grade: it means repeating the significant things” -Max Depree @ThomRainer @EricGeiger #simplechurch #simplechurchrevolution p. 131.
“Fast food is not healthy...say no to fast food...fast-food spirituality is not healthy.” p. 199-200 @ThomRainer @EricGeiger #simplechurch #simplechurchrevolution
“As a church leader, you partner with God to build the lives of people” p. 202 @ThomRainer @EricGeiger #simplechurch #simplechurchrevolution
“People are incapable of focusing on something they do not understand” p. 223 @ThomRainer @EricGeiger #simplechurch #simplechurchrevolution
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