Simplifying Simple

Chapter Three - Simple Church: An Extreme Makeover

The guts of this chapter is that there are many churches that need an extreme makeover. Just like in the TV show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' the team sometimes knocks out walls, sometimes add rooms, or just update the colour scheme or even build a whole new house - the same is true for churches, some need tweaking while others need a total redesign. The redesign is one for discipleship to happen.

They then go on to make the case that church leaders are designers; we give people opportunities to encounter the grace of God. We design churches around the process of spiritual growth. We help provide the right environments to facilitate growth.

They then define what a simple church is:

A simple church is a congregation designed around a straightforward and
strategic process that moves people through the stages of spiritual
growth.

An unpacking of the above definition follows for the next few pages.

They go back then to the beginning of their journey towards writing the book and embarking on the simple church projects. A lot of the impetus for the book came from the research they did and the results from a survey done by a few hundred churches. The survey was called the Process Design Survey (PDS). The statistician then assured them that they had found something highly significant coming to this conclusion:

There is a highly significant relationship between a simple church design
and the growth and vitality of a local church ... So here is the practical
language: In general, churches that are vibrant and growing are simple. A simple
church strategy is effective and there are four basic elements, they must all be
present

An expanded definition is then given

A simple church is designed around a straightforward and strategic process that
moves people through the stages of spiritual growth. The leadership and the
church are clear about the process (clarity) and a re committed to executing it.
The process flows logically (movement) and is implemented in each area of the
church (alignment). The church then abandons everything that is not in the
process (focus).

Clarity --> Movement --> Alignment --> Focus

This is the BIG push of the book - these four words are what it means to 'go simple' so to speak. So don't read over there definition too quickly!

Clarity is the ability of the process to be communicated and understood by the people.

Movement is the sequential steps in the process that cause people to move to greater areas of commitment

Alignment is the arrangement of all ministries and staff around the same simple process

Focus is the commitment to abandon everything that falls outside of the simple ministry process.

My thoughts:
I really love these four words and how they work together. I am sold on the simple strategy however I am wary only because the book is written in an American context. Will it have the same results in the north west Suburbs of Sydney? I would dearly love to 'have a crack'. I would love for us to be in the position were the necessary stands out clearly to people, it means eliminating the unnecessary (most of which will be good things!) and sticking to the best. This is a decision that is constantly being made in ministry - all of life is ministry - we need a strategic and biblical way forward as to what we do and what we don't do.

In my own context at Norwest we don't have heaps of clarity, our movement is implicit rather than explicit to people and even to me. We have begun the process of alignment but it is happening slower than what I ever thought. Our focus needs to be way sharper than what it is now. But I will be commending a basic (simple even!) process to people at a newcomers afternoon tea this Sunday - most likely stealing the idea of a house with a big foyer (3 congregations), moving people to the many living rooms (small group network) and then to the kitchen (serving in some capacity). Next post you will see where I have stolen it from as they survey three simple churches.....