The Simple Church

One of my Christmas presents from Emily was the book The Simple Church by Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger. I just finished it yesterday. I thought it was great. I found myself thinking about ideas of how to apply it in real life in some imaginary church setting that I might find myself in some time in the next year.

The basic premise of the book is that most churches try to do too much and don't have a clear process for how to become a mature disciple of Christ. Individual programs clutter up the calender and compete for time money and energy but don't necessarily work together or lead people to greater maturity. The result is a lack of excellence and spiritual stagnation while every one works harder and gets more stressed trying to maintain (and even add to) an overwhelming list of disconnected church programs.

Rainer and Geiger propose that every church should come up with a simple process for making disciples characterized by clarity, movement, alignment and focus. Clarity means that it is clear to the leadership and the people of the church how the church works and what the process for growth is. Movement means that the process is sequential with a clear next step as people proceed through each stage of growing maturity. Alignment means that the same process is adhered to throughout all aspects of the church ministry. Focus means that only programs that are crucial to helping people move through the process are maintained, everything else is eliminated so that the church can focus on the process.

Rainer and Geiger make a great case for this model and back it up with some impressive research. It's a little simplistic (which I guess makes sense) but I think it is an important rethinking of the way churches tend to approach ministry. I would highly recommend this book to anyone involved in leading a church. It's a quick and easy read and I'd be happy to loan you my copy (just ask me).