'Simplify man'

After hearing Andrew Graham briefly mention a book called Simple Church by Thom Rainer & Eric Geiger, I decided to have a read. I am almost halfway through and thought it would be good to write down some summaries of the chapters. So far it has been a really stimulating and thought provoking read.

Chapter One - The Simple Revolution has Begun

The opening chapter reassures the reader that this book is not about another church model. They then proceed to sell on the idea that simple is in and complex is out. They refer to some popular brand names to back it up - Apple (an ipod has one big button, the 'plug and play', their artwork is simple, they have cultlike followers), Google (the amount of white space screams simplicity) and he goes on to show other companies providing quality services with a high degree of simplicity.

Then comes a pretty big claim - they got 400 evangelical churches to complete a survey seeing how simple their church is.

• Growing and vibrant churches are simple.


• Complex churches flounder in growing disciples of Christ.

The qualify the statement by saying they are not looking to change doctrine or conviction. Or that simple is the new style or 'hip'. Simple churches are actually mimicking the world but doing the opposite as our world is complex. Nor is simplicity desired for pure pragmatic reasons.

They then spend some time theologically justifying 'simple'.

Jesus simplified, e.g. commandments down to the greatest. He offered a simple relationship compared to the Pharisees, 'my yoke is easy and my burden is light'. He decluttered the temple.

The conclusion of chapter one - 'perhaps we are losing ground not despite our overabundance of activity but because of it [...] 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'.

My thoughts:

I love the ideas that are thrown up in the opening chapter. I think churches do tend towards complexity rather than simplicity and if you asked a group of people to write down what our church is about I'm positive you would get a large variety of answers.

Stay tuned for chapter two.....