Simple Church

I got sidetracked in reading something else, when I get farther along in this book I will return and give my thoughts.

 

Same here. Of what I've read so far, there's some good ideas for any church. I, too, will get back to you later on.

 

Our church is simple and needs some unifying direction, so I have been reading Simple Church. I appreciate that the approach would not really over-extend our church.

I like the three-phase approach and can already see it in our church Sunday Morning Worship -> Sunday School -> serving in ministry (VBS, missions, etc). I just need a good way to illustrate that. Any ideas? I have toyed with using the layout of the church, that we all come in to the worship center, move back to the class rooms, and then on to the basement to serve. Not sure if that works well though.

 

Whats the Biblical foundation for how you are doing it now?

 

So far, what I've read, it's mostly some common sense stuff. I'm not sure we need a whole lot of Biblical foundation for common sense.

Now, I'm not done with the book yet (I read REAL S L O W) (Actually, I have to force myself to read because I just don't enjoy it - I wish I did!), but I really do like what I've read. We're a small, single full-time staff church, so some of it doesn't really apply, but the parts that do make real good sense to me.

 

I haven't read the book yet, but when I hear "Simple Church" the first thing that comes to my mind is "House Church". When you do a search on Google for "Simple Church" you find the same thing.

Here is how Dawn Ministries defines "Simple Church":

Simple Church - The concept of simple church is rooted in Genesis 2&3. It is the belief that God intended Adam and Eve to be the first expression of the church. Two gathered with the Father is a great picture of the first gathering of the household of faith. So, for us, simple church is rooted in the family. Dad and Mom sharing with their children about the joy of a relationship with God. Every home IS the "church" in their community. Rather than viewing church as a meeting, it becomes a way of living life, a lifestyle. Every family becomes an entry point for people they know to come into the Kingdom of God through Christ Jesus our Lord. With every family living out the love, care and compassion of Christ daily, any number of structures can be used to support the work of the ministry.

One of my favorite quotes from Jonathan Edwards comes to mind, "Every Christian family ought to be, as if it were, a little church."

 

The new book, "Simple Church" refers to a church simplifying its programming to focus on the task of discipleship. The gist is that churches get so many things going with no real though to what these things accomplish. Even in a purpose-driven church, programming can get so spread out over the five purposes that it forgets the goal of bringing the "crowd" to the "core."

"Simple Church" gives a method for simplifying things down to the primay objective.

Its a pretty good book, and I wish you guys would finish it so someone can give me a good, easy to visualize illiustration of the process!

 

So, did ya' finish it?

 

pssst

I didn't want ta' read 'nother boring book.

 

PS

So what were the salient points? Were they more than just to say, church needs to be simpler?

 

mmmm .... sounds like a church with small groups and corporate worship services.

Kinda the model I am working with.

Switching a traditional 'church' to a small group based model is challenging. It is not too bad if the people take ownership of the changes coming down the line. But, if they can only say, "That is not the way we are supposed to do church," it will be a 'tough row to hoe'. IMHO

 

The added ministry and service groups in and of themselves are not problematic (trouble), but if a couple of power brokers within the church got their pet groups going, there could be a significant drain of resources.

Stanley (Andy is it?) has a good series on how to keep your focus on what is important for the church and cut the rest.

He makes a couple of comments that I really do not like, but his principles are outstanding.

 

Tot, my most sincere apologies...I meant "guys" as a general term for everyone, not specifically male.

Regarding the book, it is not necessarily a call for a new small group model so there is not specific transition away from tradition involved.

It does present the idea that church programming should be viewed as a process. What is the process a visitor undergoes to become a ministering member of the church? It has the great suggestion of using a visual illustration for the process.

I'm still trying to come up with that illustration.