Church Is Simple. No, Really
Simple Church book review.
Angie Ward
January 1, 2007
Recent commercials for an office-supply store feature an "easy button" that, when pushed, provides a simple solution to an everyday problem. Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger seek to provide an equally simple solution for ministry leaders. Simple Church, which is thicker than the title suggests, makes the case for a simplified approach to ministry based on the discipleship methods of Jesus. Instead of multi-level outreach strategies and programs, Rainer and Geiger propose a leaner process based on four concepts: clarity, movement, alignment, and focus. The book is based on research of over 400 churches classified into two strata. The vibrant/growing strata consisted of churches that had demonstrated at least 5 percent growth in worship attendance for three consecutive years. The non-growing churches, by contrast, had less than one percent growth over the same three-year period. All participating churches completed the Process Design Survey, which measures the simplicity of their ministry structure. The authors' conclusion: "Churches with a simple process for reaching and maturing people are expanding the Kingdom." "People are hungry for simple," they write, pointing to Apple, Google, Southwest Airlines, and other corporations whose success demonstrates that "simple is in." Rainer and Geiger advocate a similar approach to discipleship. They believe too many churches suffer from "ministry schizophrenia," which "occurs when churches and church leaders are not sure who they are" and respond by implementing an array of programs from different church models. The simple church model avoids this by streamlining the discipleship process, which begins with clarity, defined as "the ability of the process to be communicated and understood by the ...
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