Simple Church: Returning to God's Process for Making Disciples

Well, it would be awfully ironic if the book wasn't easy to understand. Fortunately, the authors do with the book exactly what they are calling leaders to do with their churches. They outline a simple structure for streamlining churches and letting loose the baggage that slows churches down. The process is...simple (sorry to repeat). Churches should seek clarity, alignment, movement, and focus. Clarity is the singleness of purpose, stated in a single phrase. Movement is making sure there is a process of spiritual development that runs through the ministries of the church that fulfills the purpose. Alignment is the process of making sure that all the ministries of the church cannel people through a similar movement to fulfill the purpose. And focus is the challenging process of saying "no" to everything that distracts the church from its purpose. The authors have decided on this clear process as a saving grace to churches, repeat it fluidly, and walk the reader through all four steps. The theory is based on a study of a number of churches that were considered thriving and many that were not. The authors say that their data shows highly significant difference between thriving churches that simplified and complex churches that did not. The only part of this book, or the genre, that ought to give the reader pause is that the authors presume that ministry requires a strategic process through which people are funneled on the way to spiritual growth. While that is the reality of modern, institutional church management, it seems to overrule the fluid and organic (if not disorganized) ministry of Jesus and the disciples while co-opting their names. This is not a major critique of the book, just the observation that business management principles are governing the church whose founder had very little to say about business management. Nonetheless, for those of us who find ourselves dealing with the necessities of management, this book is an essential read. It's well-written, accessible, and offers the bird's eye view that a lot of churches miss.

Author Thom Rainer returns us to Acts 2-disciple-making, encouraging all church leaders to get back to the basics. Evangelical theology of community needs this reminder. We tend to run too quickly in far too many directions. Rainer entices us to focus. Disciple-making is God's plan. "The Simple Church" offers a simple but not simplicstic way to follow that plan. Reading it reminds me of the classic works by Bill Hull: "Disciple-making Pastor," "Disciple-making Church," and "Jesus Christ, Disciple-maker." Hull and Rainer both map out a workable plan for moving a church community toward spiritual maturity. The relational aspects of the process must be fleshed out by each individual leadership team and local congregation to ensure that the process does not take precedence over the people (avoiding the task over/versus people issue). Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Spiritual Friends, and Soul Physicians.

Some books come along that join the conversation at exactly the right moment. This is one of those rare books that emerges at the exact moment the wave is cresting. If you put the ideas of this book together with The 7 Practices of Effective Ministry and The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive you will have the ideas and the language that could lead to a really wild ride. Where the 7 Practices talks about Clarifying the Win; Thinking Steps, Not Programs; and Narrowing the Focus...Simple Church gives us Clarity, Movement, Alignment and Focus. Together, these two books render a wonderful blend of ideas that run along like members of a relay team. What I'm finding most helpful about Simple Church is the introduction of a simple, four word metaphor that will define a new conversation on your team. You'll find yourself not only underlining and marking it up but running down the hall to share the same one-liners that I found. Caution: Don't read this unless you're able to give it some time. You won't be able to put it down.

This book takes Andy Stanley's concept of the simple church, applies research, broadens the scope, and comes out with something that is new, fresh, and relevant to the evangelical church of the 21st century. If you are a student of church growth theory, halt all conversations until you have had a chance to work through this book. This may be the wave of the future. However, someone now needs to enter the conversation with a health dose of theology and see how pragmatism and theology mix, but that is the subject for another study.

For any congregation struggling with strategic planning, this book will be a God-send! Until reading this title, all books dealing with strategic church planning were hard-to-understand, hard-to-follow, and even harder to communicate to others. Rainer and Geiger now finally have made church strategic planning simple. In less than 250 pages, the authors have presented an extreme makeover process to take a congregation from a bloated, burnt-out organization to a streamlined, sleek spiritual body. The steps described here are simple, but far from easy and painless. For any pastor or church leader who is planning strategically, this book is a must-read!