Product Description: The simple revolution has begun. From the design of the iPod to the uncluttered Google home page, simple ideas are changing the world.
Simple Church clearly calls for Christians to return to the simple gospel-sharing methods of Jesus. No bells or whistles required, so to speak.
Based on case studies of four hundred American churches, authors Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger prove that the process for making disciples has quite often become too complex. Simple churches are thriving, and they are doing so by taking these four ideas to heart: Clarity. Movement. Alignment. Focus.
Each idea is examined here, simply showing why it is time to simplify.
One of the church leaders I read this book with said `I have not read a book this poorly written in a long time.' I have to agree. It was painful. As a physical scientist I found the `scientific method' a little suspect. It was highly redundant. Quite simply, this should have been a pamphlet.
I had a couple concerns about the ideas as well. By simplifying everything you run the risk of homogenizing and reducing things to a lowest common denominator Christianity. We need to understand the nuance of niche, especially in large churches. Oversimplification runs the risk of annihilating the `micro-habitats' that makes a large church doable for some.
So why would I give a book I have so maligned 3.3 *'s. The truth is, I almost gave it 4. While it should have been a pamphlet, it would have been a really good pamphlet. After all of the critiques both in form and idea, there is still a powerful message here that I support. Despite my critiques I am encouraged (almost without reservation) that my church is implementing these ideas. There are 3 assertions that the authors make that I whole heartedly embrace and, that I think are responsible for legitimate correlation in their data.
1. Unified Description of a Clear Process: There is no substitute for a clearly and frequently articulated vision. I agree with the authors that this can not be stressed enough.
2. Rejecting Inner-Organizational Competition: The church sets a uniform vision and pursues it together. The youth ministry and the women's ministry aren't competing for resources. They are for each other. More fundamentally, you limit the number of programs so that the Church does not keep its people from forming meaningful relationships outside of the church.
3. 'Shooting Your Dogs': We are too afraid to discontinue ineffective programs or ministries because it will hurt someone's feelings. By limiting the number of programs you offer the people of God to actually have lives with family and the world. Get them out of the church.
So I actually really resonated with many of the author's themes, but I recomend skimming.
Simple Church A great book, every Christian should take the time to read Simple Church.Full of imformation to help any Church body that wants to grow, and the book will help them through the process with simple steps.
Great reminder This simple book was a great reminder to me to focus on the essentials of church and cut out some of the clutter. Could have done without all the charts in the book :)
"Simple Church" is simply great! Simple Church: Returning to God's Process for Making Disciples Rainer and Geiger do their homework, reach strong conclusions, and express them with utmost clarity and simplicity. I have been working through this book with the leaders in my church and there is a level of excitement about it that surprises even me! We are coming up with a simple process for the fundamental task of God's mission, namely "making disciples", that will unify and solidify the entire ministry of our local church for years to come.
Not sure I would pay the full price for this again.... This book is as skewed. The statistics are skewed and the survey findings are not able to be generalized to the overall population. There was no random sampling, and so the findings were significant because they surveyed significant churches and failing church.... several times the data in the form of graphs show something totally different than what they state their findings are, which makes the skewing even more evident than usual, if they had let the data say what the data says, and not force the data to try and say what they want it to say their findings probably would be not substantial and would not need to have a book written.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
