Book Review: "Simple Church"

Essential Principles   I. Define your Ministry Process. Ask the right questions! 1. This is much more than a strategy, but it is clarifying what kind of disciple you want to produce. 2. Define how each ministry goes together to produce mature disciples. 3. Develop Simple Discipleship Process. The plan must be to form a strategy that clears the clutter from being unified towards the same goals.   II. 4 Important Characteristics 1. Clarity: Starting with a ministry blueprint. Explain in detail the what the definition and actions of a disciple that the church wants to produce. Clarity is defined as “the ability of the process to be communicated and understood by the people.” 2. Movement: Place your key programs along the process. This is the important “how” of the process. People must see the action steps that must be taken to fulfill the main idea of developing followers of Christ. 3. Alignment: Unite all ministries around the process. The church staff and leaders must be unified and heading in the same direction. All of this is imperative for the mission to become a reality. It is important to keep articulating the process so it becomes a part of the DNA of the church. 4. Focus: Begin to eliminate things outside the process. It is important that churches become wise at saying “no” to things that are good, but to say “yes” to the best things. This is part of the process that can cause conflict due to changes. It is important that churches make decisions based upon focus upon the gospel over tradition.

VII. Strengths 1. Eric Geiger and Thom Rainer did an excellent job of displaying real-time statistics of churches. It was a fresh look at churches who were living out the Simple church principles and some who were not. 2. It is written in a way that gives the reader hope that the church can stay headed in the right direction. 3. It is easy to understand and backed with quality statistics and real life stories. 4. The aspects of defining a disciple rather than just counting attendees. 5. Eric Geiger and Thom Rainer handled the details and the vision with balance.

VIII. Weaknesses 1. It seems that at times the authors can focus more upon the “process” than the Holy Spirit. 2. The research was not as broad as it could have been in different demographics. 3. The examples of secular businesses as comparison for the church. The Early Church would have been more effective to focus upon in detail rather than “Papa Johns.” 4. It is a church model. As much as the authors continue to say it is not a model, it does give four main characteristics to follow and so forth.

Personal Assessment

Simple Church is not about being easy but creating a plan to keep the church focused upon God’s mission of redeeming mankind. The book suggests that church health does not just come from attendance but in a climb towards Christ-likeness through the steps of the church. Although it is never easy, the author gives a clear and compelling look at becoming simple in the process. Simple Church is refreshing looks at the church going back to a focused experience upon helping people grow in their relationship with God.

The first key to the four main principles of Simple church is to clarify. Not just to clarify an idea of discipleship, but to explain in detail what the blueprint is for developing disciples. Simple church says, "To have a simple church, you must design a simple discipleship process.  This process must be clear.  It must move people toward maturity.  It must be integrated fully into your church, and you must get rid of the clutter around it" (26). The church is to explain and make a priority to clarify the goal of discipleship. Illustrate the process visually by a metaphor showing progression. Not only is it important to communicate correctly, the staff should be unified. "People follow leadership, and if leadership is not moving in the same direction, then people are scattered" (169).

A topic that stood out to me was that churches have become cluttered through numerous programs with a vague vision. This quote explains further, "Many of our churches have become cluttered. So cluttered that people have a difficult time encountering the simple and powerful message of Christ. So cluttered that many people are busy doing church instead of being the church." The authors also explained ministry “schizophrenia.” I believe that this book is revolutionary in helping leaders sum up their main mission for the church. The principles of helping people grow in their walk with God must be at the center of all decisions. If a program is moving away from this principle, it needs to be cut. The priority must be the gospel and people growing into a relationship with God.

Lastly, Simple Church is an effective and precise book. It is useful for helping churches and leaders hone in on the importance of a discipleship process. Although this book is not the “Bible” on church strategy, it can be useful in helping build a cohesive and understandable pattern of discipleship in any church. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will continue to use it as a resource in ministry for a lifetime.

The Courage Shortage

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. 1 Corinthian 16:13 

We are in need of men in leadership to be courageous. It is easy to cower in fear over the troubles and problems that face our world, but we are called to be courageous and not to fear.

Courage "is the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. "Physical courage" is courage in the face of physical pain, hardship, death, or threat of death, while "moral courage" is the ability to act rightly in the face of popular opposition, shame, scandal, or discouragement (dictionary)."

How to have courage as a leader:

1. Clarity – We need to be crystal clear on what it means to be a follower of Christ. We need to understand the purpose of knowing why you live your life. Courage knows exactly what truth is and stands firm. It does not mean we are always right, but we desire to live for Christ. Eternity is the focus. Energy is spent towards people coming to know Christ. Energy is exhausted in pouring into other people to help them grow spiritually. A courageous leader realizes that tradition is not as important as God’s Word. Man-made rules do not matter more than God's Word. Clarity leads to wise decisions that build God's church.

2. Confidence in God’s Call - A courageous leader knows their purpose. We trust God despite our circumstances. Although we might disagree with decisions of others, we are obedient to authority. We know that God is working and we desire to fulfill His calling. A courageous leader spends time in the Word. Listening and praying through decisions. A courageous leader will listen to God's call more than what other people say.

3. Character - Courage builds upon character. Small, everyday decisions builds character. Being a courageous leader can be a lonely road. Honesty leads to openness between people and ultimately builds trust. The courageous leader reflects the love of Christ to others in how they act. Are we caring for our wives and children? Do we care more about the church or do we care about our families and our health? If we lose our families and our health, we lose! Character is vitally important in our homes. Character in our homes will pour out in our public lives.

Men, we need to step up and be courageous in clarity, confidence in God's call and character.

One of the ways that men need to be courageous is in how they treat women. Across the globe, pornography and sex-trafficking are on the rise. Recently a team from our church went to Ethiopia to help with rescuing girls out of the sex-trafficking. I recently watched a video from the Resurgence on this issue. Pornography is a huge industry, even more than sports. We need courageous men to be pure in heart. We need men to admit their struggle with it and repent of it. Pornography is Satan's biggest weapon in our time. If men are cowards in their morals, everything else will crumble. But, when men become courageous and stand for Christ, an awakening will occur!

Watch this video:

Jacob's Story from Unearthed on Vimeo.

How to be a Coward

What is a coward? "A person who lacks the courage to do or endure dangerous or unpleasant things," or "Excessively afraid of danger or pain (dictionary)." A coward is someone who lacks courage. We live in a culture that glorifies brutality, pride and selfishness. A real man of God is filled with courage. A courageous man will protect the lives of others. A coward looks only to protect themselves. How to be a coward:

1. Live in confusion. Constantly say, “what is wrong with it?” instead of "what is right with it?" Those who lead with wrong motives are mixed up on what is right or wrong. A coward is unable to find the truth because of fear of the consequences. Decisions are made on emotion and not on truth. A coward spends their day confused.

2. Always Criticize – A coward is always critical of authority. The coward will agree face to face but will go behind your back and talk negatively of you. A coward rebels against authority and mocks their parents. They put down others to uplift themselves. A coward never encourages others. A coward can find problems with everyone else and not themselves. A coward hurts others.

3. Compromise – They will take a shortcut at any cost to get AHEAD. A coward will do whatever it takes to make themselves look right in any situation.

To be courageous we have to go through trials and struggles. In Psalm 56:11 the psalmist writes, “In God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point."  ~C.S. Lewis

We have a decision. Are we going to live in confusion, criticism and compromise? God has called us to not fear and trust in His power. The next blog post, we will look at what it looks like to be courageous!

What are your thoughts?