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The Rabbit and the Elephant: Why Small Is the New Big for Today's Church
If you put two elephants in a room together and close the door, in 22 months you may get one baby elephant. But two rabbits together for the same amount of time will result in thousands of baby rabbits! In The Rabbit and the Elephant , “micro church” planters Tony and Felicity Dale use the “rabbit” illustration to show the pace at which the Christian faith can (and should) be growing—through evangelism that is explosive and transformational. The Rabbit and the Elephant contains the key to 21st century evangelism—taking the gospel to where the pain and the people are.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 3, 2018
An excellent book on the small church movement. And a great reminder that one of the most common attributes of the Church throughout history has been rather small gatherings of believers in a home. The authors use the analogy of the Catholic Church and the Reformers when critics come their way. I understand the analogy, the way we practice our Church services is not perfect and can be open for change. However, I didn't think the authors addressed the issue of Church leadership as seen in Scripture thoroughly. Those that have been followers of Jesus for one week might need a little more time under the guidance of believers that have been in the faith a while before starting a new church. That seems like good stewardship, and good discipleship. Yes the Holy Spirit is the One to whom the credit should go, but that doesn't mean that we remove all human agency. Having said that, I definitely recommend the book.
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November 28, 2023This book shares about how house churches were formed. The idea is that everyone has something to share.
It gives examples of caring for individuals that lead to movements of people being saved and starting their own church at home. It talks about things that potentially shouldn’t be done.
It gives examples of caring for individuals that lead to movements of people being saved and starting their own church at home. It talks about things that potentially shouldn’t be done.
July 31, 2014
I’ve got to admit before you get into this review that I picked this book from the cue on Tyndale’s free books for review website because the Dales were using George Barna’s information. I won’t make the same mistake twice! Small is Big is not my favorite book. I completely disagree with their theology, they come from a European charismatic position, but there are a few gold nuggets.
The house church movement is the focus of the book. Apparently Tony & Felicity Dale are in some “leadership” position in the house church movement. They moved to America from London during the 80’s and were thinking along the same lines as several other people who were interested in making the way we do church more liquid. They were looking for an answer as to how to get people to come to Jesus when it hit them: our main focus shouldn’t be to get people into the buildings so we can talk to them there, we should take Jesus to people wherever they are. I like this idea. We have become so concerned with bringing people to church that we have forgotten the necessity of taking Jesus to people who won’t come to the church building. They tell the story about meeting a group of bikers, starting a relationship with them and eventually converting them all because they met in a diner instead of a church building.
Simple church, what the Dales call house churches, are all about everyone taking a part in the worship. They get the idea from I Cor. 14.26 where Paul instructs each worshipper to be ready to play a part in the worship service. Again this is something we’ve left out. We come, sing some songs, listen to the lesson and pray, but are we really tuned into what’s going on? They believe the Holy Spirit has enabled each one with a special prophesy so they make room for that by letting everyone take part. Their reasoning is wrong, but the motivation of wanting everyone to be plugged into the worship is right.
They have a slogan for their Simple Church Movement: No empire buildings, (meaning there’s no headquarters), no control (meaning there is no central theology or control of any kind i.e. who starts a house church, when they start), and no glory (meaning they don’t take credit for how much the movement has grown). A common fear among traditional churches or “legacy churches” is that people can not be trusted to teach the right things. Either thru indifference or ignorance heresy will come into the church and set up residence. The Dales believe that the Holy Spirit helps the person setting up the house church and He won’t allow them to hurt the church. I disagree there. Several people throughout history have hurt the church in huge ways! Think back to the Gnostics who thought Jesus only came in the spirit instead of the flesh, Origen who thought everyone went to Heaven regardless of their lifestyle or belief system, and the pre-Lutheran Catholics who sold indulgences to people to get their loved ones out of Purgatory. Now we’re only up to the 16th century! Think of how many people have hurt the church since then! The Dales do make a good point about our resistance to house churches though. People not being able to be trusted is the same argument the Catholics used about having the Bible in the vernacular. The fact is giving people responsibility not only helps take the load off you as the leader, but it also helps mature their faith. Some will fail under the pressure, but some will rise to meet the occasion. How sad that we might never give some of the best future leaders of the church the opportunity to lead because we were afraid they would teach something that wasn’t true. Teach them. Disciple them. Then give them responsiblity and watch them exceed your expectations!
I think I’ve mentioned before that I didn’t like Small is Big. I disagree fundamentally with their theology and that means other things that funnel from their theology are also skewed for me. There are a few ideas in here that are worth your time, but it’s not worth what you’re going to pay for it. I thought about giving it away here, but decided against it. I don’t want to further their thoughts. If you want it you can find it at McKay’s Used Books.
The house church movement is the focus of the book. Apparently Tony & Felicity Dale are in some “leadership” position in the house church movement. They moved to America from London during the 80’s and were thinking along the same lines as several other people who were interested in making the way we do church more liquid. They were looking for an answer as to how to get people to come to Jesus when it hit them: our main focus shouldn’t be to get people into the buildings so we can talk to them there, we should take Jesus to people wherever they are. I like this idea. We have become so concerned with bringing people to church that we have forgotten the necessity of taking Jesus to people who won’t come to the church building. They tell the story about meeting a group of bikers, starting a relationship with them and eventually converting them all because they met in a diner instead of a church building.
Simple church, what the Dales call house churches, are all about everyone taking a part in the worship. They get the idea from I Cor. 14.26 where Paul instructs each worshipper to be ready to play a part in the worship service. Again this is something we’ve left out. We come, sing some songs, listen to the lesson and pray, but are we really tuned into what’s going on? They believe the Holy Spirit has enabled each one with a special prophesy so they make room for that by letting everyone take part. Their reasoning is wrong, but the motivation of wanting everyone to be plugged into the worship is right.
They have a slogan for their Simple Church Movement: No empire buildings, (meaning there’s no headquarters), no control (meaning there is no central theology or control of any kind i.e. who starts a house church, when they start), and no glory (meaning they don’t take credit for how much the movement has grown). A common fear among traditional churches or “legacy churches” is that people can not be trusted to teach the right things. Either thru indifference or ignorance heresy will come into the church and set up residence. The Dales believe that the Holy Spirit helps the person setting up the house church and He won’t allow them to hurt the church. I disagree there. Several people throughout history have hurt the church in huge ways! Think back to the Gnostics who thought Jesus only came in the spirit instead of the flesh, Origen who thought everyone went to Heaven regardless of their lifestyle or belief system, and the pre-Lutheran Catholics who sold indulgences to people to get their loved ones out of Purgatory. Now we’re only up to the 16th century! Think of how many people have hurt the church since then! The Dales do make a good point about our resistance to house churches though. People not being able to be trusted is the same argument the Catholics used about having the Bible in the vernacular. The fact is giving people responsibility not only helps take the load off you as the leader, but it also helps mature their faith. Some will fail under the pressure, but some will rise to meet the occasion. How sad that we might never give some of the best future leaders of the church the opportunity to lead because we were afraid they would teach something that wasn’t true. Teach them. Disciple them. Then give them responsiblity and watch them exceed your expectations!
I think I’ve mentioned before that I didn’t like Small is Big. I disagree fundamentally with their theology and that means other things that funnel from their theology are also skewed for me. There are a few ideas in here that are worth your time, but it’s not worth what you’re going to pay for it. I thought about giving it away here, but decided against it. I don’t want to further their thoughts. If you want it you can find it at McKay’s Used Books.
May 20, 2012
Barna and the Dales from yet another Direction
Anyone familar with the revolution taking place in the local church scene is aware that George Barna has been writing and researching this phenomenon for the past several years. In addition to his own independent writing and research, Barna has been partnering with various proponents and leaders within the organic and simple church community to jointly write books on related themes.
In this joint effort with Tony and Felicity Dale, transplanted simple church planters from England now in the United States, Barna works with them to present a book that is both reinforcing of some of his past work and observations and yet also presents a more practical view of how simple churches are planted and grow.
Much of this book is a simple recounting of the Dale's experiences in planting small home based churches over the past 20 years in the US since their arrival in 1987. Prior to that, they recount the events surrounding similar churches in London connected within the medical community that they moved within at the time.
Parallels are drawn from Church history to reinforce many of the points made and the Dale's more charismatic evangelical perspective come through strongly too. From this is drawn one of the major premises of the book, namely that "A shift with the potential impact of the Reformation is happening in the Western church today. And this time it is occuring as the church - instead of the Bible - is being put back in the hands of ordinary people." (p. 23). Add to this an analysis of western culture which has traditionally valued program based large organizations as opposed to the smaller family like congregations of the growing simple/organic church movement and the introductory chapters of the book quickly move to a more practical recounting of what this movement looks like from the practical and demonstrable experience of the Dales.
A full scope of topics then ensues addressing issues such as leadership, discipleship, fellowship, finances, diversity, the absence of hierarchy and many of the other questions that would normally arise both from skeptics and those not familiar with the model presented.
All in all, this reviewer found the book to be very practical and a nice contrast and follow-up to some of the other works of Barna which have been more technical and statistics based or tied more into an ecclesiastical deconstruction of today's institutional churches.
Make no mistake however, many reading this book will be shaken to their core as they ask the fundamental questions about things that until recently have gone unquestioned by many. If any more evidence of the power of this message and model is needed, one need only be reminded that over 1,000,000 people will leave institutional churches this year. Many may well find themselves in the small, quickly spreading simple and organic type churches that this book outlines.
5 stars. A very timely and powerful book.
Bart Breen
Anyone familar with the revolution taking place in the local church scene is aware that George Barna has been writing and researching this phenomenon for the past several years. In addition to his own independent writing and research, Barna has been partnering with various proponents and leaders within the organic and simple church community to jointly write books on related themes.
In this joint effort with Tony and Felicity Dale, transplanted simple church planters from England now in the United States, Barna works with them to present a book that is both reinforcing of some of his past work and observations and yet also presents a more practical view of how simple churches are planted and grow.
Much of this book is a simple recounting of the Dale's experiences in planting small home based churches over the past 20 years in the US since their arrival in 1987. Prior to that, they recount the events surrounding similar churches in London connected within the medical community that they moved within at the time.
Parallels are drawn from Church history to reinforce many of the points made and the Dale's more charismatic evangelical perspective come through strongly too. From this is drawn one of the major premises of the book, namely that "A shift with the potential impact of the Reformation is happening in the Western church today. And this time it is occuring as the church - instead of the Bible - is being put back in the hands of ordinary people." (p. 23). Add to this an analysis of western culture which has traditionally valued program based large organizations as opposed to the smaller family like congregations of the growing simple/organic church movement and the introductory chapters of the book quickly move to a more practical recounting of what this movement looks like from the practical and demonstrable experience of the Dales.
A full scope of topics then ensues addressing issues such as leadership, discipleship, fellowship, finances, diversity, the absence of hierarchy and many of the other questions that would normally arise both from skeptics and those not familiar with the model presented.
All in all, this reviewer found the book to be very practical and a nice contrast and follow-up to some of the other works of Barna which have been more technical and statistics based or tied more into an ecclesiastical deconstruction of today's institutional churches.
Make no mistake however, many reading this book will be shaken to their core as they ask the fundamental questions about things that until recently have gone unquestioned by many. If any more evidence of the power of this message and model is needed, one need only be reminded that over 1,000,000 people will leave institutional churches this year. Many may well find themselves in the small, quickly spreading simple and organic type churches that this book outlines.
5 stars. A very timely and powerful book.
Bart Breen
January 18, 2010
“If you put two elephants in a room together and close the door, if you’re lucky, in three years you may have one baby elephant. But when you put two rabbits together for the same amount of time…”
Thus begins a key analogy for evangelism and church planting movements (CPMs) depicted in this latest book by church planters, Tony & Felicity Dale and renowned research dude, George Barna. The first half of the book lays foundations for CPM found in scripture, history and modern day movements. The latter half are very nearly topic-by-topic duplication of the Harvest Multiplication and Missions Strategy Coordinator training courses running worldwide right now: Prayer, What Defines a Church, What Makes for Ease of Reproducibility and Mulitiplication, Luke 10 Principles, Abundant Seed Sowing methods, Making Disciples and Leaders, the Impact and Use of Finances, and Challenges and Pitfalls to Movements – keys identified by missions leaders and field church planters as key to seeing the Great Commission spread the most rapidly to the most number of people within any society, ethnic or language group – both Western and non-Western contexts.
The Rabbit and the Elephant is suitable for those hungering for churches that are relationship- rather than event-based, for anyone wanting to spruce up their outreach skills, and for those needing fresh vision for what church was in the New Testament and what it can still become today.
Thus begins a key analogy for evangelism and church planting movements (CPMs) depicted in this latest book by church planters, Tony & Felicity Dale and renowned research dude, George Barna. The first half of the book lays foundations for CPM found in scripture, history and modern day movements. The latter half are very nearly topic-by-topic duplication of the Harvest Multiplication and Missions Strategy Coordinator training courses running worldwide right now: Prayer, What Defines a Church, What Makes for Ease of Reproducibility and Mulitiplication, Luke 10 Principles, Abundant Seed Sowing methods, Making Disciples and Leaders, the Impact and Use of Finances, and Challenges and Pitfalls to Movements – keys identified by missions leaders and field church planters as key to seeing the Great Commission spread the most rapidly to the most number of people within any society, ethnic or language group – both Western and non-Western contexts.
The Rabbit and the Elephant is suitable for those hungering for churches that are relationship- rather than event-based, for anyone wanting to spruce up their outreach skills, and for those needing fresh vision for what church was in the New Testament and what it can still become today.
December 31, 2024
Found this book on my shelf. Originally, I read it 2011, and concluded it was a book to help make new disciples in a church.
Details:
The first few pages, through page 36; definition and purpose of a small church.
John 15: without Him we can do nothing .
Pg 66: common element - prayer.
Pg 74: Living Stones - die to ourselves, die to our own preferences, be like Christ.
Pg 80: Keep Simple- Acts 2:42 framework.
Hungry learners, food/fellowship, prayer.
Pg 91: nature of Christian gatherings based on I Corinthians 11 - 14.
Missions - mostly for new/non-believers.
Pg 133-134: great thing about small churches: no reason to continue when all is done.
Pg 157: Jesus’ job to build the church, our job to make disciples. Matthew 16:18; 28:29.
Book worth studying to help and encourage a small church.
Details:
The first few pages, through page 36; definition and purpose of a small church.
John 15: without Him we can do nothing .
Pg 66: common element - prayer.
Pg 74: Living Stones - die to ourselves, die to our own preferences, be like Christ.
Pg 80: Keep Simple- Acts 2:42 framework.
Hungry learners, food/fellowship, prayer.
Pg 91: nature of Christian gatherings based on I Corinthians 11 - 14.
Missions - mostly for new/non-believers.
Pg 133-134: great thing about small churches: no reason to continue when all is done.
Pg 157: Jesus’ job to build the church, our job to make disciples. Matthew 16:18; 28:29.
Book worth studying to help and encourage a small church.
December 8, 2013
Just read this over the weekend. Easy read. Short chapters with a broad coverage of lots of topics pertaining to doing simple church. I think this would be good for someone just becoming interested in simple/organic church concepts. It has a very positive encouraging "you can do it" tone. The best parts were the stories from real churches living it out in real life. I really liked their humble approach. The idea of no empire building, no celebrities, no control was refreshing. I will be sharing this book with others who are curious about simple church. For those already familiar, you'll want something that goes a bit deeper (like Hirsch's "The Forgotten Ways".
October 27, 2010
Describes the growing house church movement worldwide, including many heart-warming stories of unchurched people becoming Christians. I love the simplicity of a movement where ministry is expected from the beginning and no group gets bigger than 20 or 30 people. The title refers to reproduction of churches being more like rabbits than elephants. These people are very evangelical. But they truly depend on the guidance of the Holy Spirit for the content of their meetings as well as for how to spread the Good News.
May 31, 2013
A very non-institutional approach to church. So, not surprisingly, I really liked it. I have little doubt that hierarchal, institutional forms of the church in the U.S. are going to continue to shrink. The question is whether the informal, "flat" leadership churches described in this book will continue to grow and become an important alternative - or, whether this movement will succumb to the fragmentation and fringe foci that are its special temptations.
November 4, 2011
This book is short and sweet. Its primarily a bunch of stories of people doing "simple church". i thought it was put forth in a very humble way and it has some good warnings for those who are venturing our in the house-church movement. I would highly recommend it.
March 3, 2015
This is a new way of thinking and doing church. It basically goes back to the basic first century church that meets in the home or other places. Great idea for a new outreach or starting a church in a different culture. A refreshing read!
September 21, 2009
Simply simple. Simply doable.
October 21, 2013
Interesting...but I still don't know how the simple church differs from small group.
June 7, 2019
Amazing book! We give this book away on a consistent basis. What really is church and how do we better reflect the book of Acts - today!
October 19, 2012
A great read on 'simple church'.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews