More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
March 16 - March 22, 2019
Many of our churches have become cluttered. So cluttered that people have a difficult time encountering the simple and powerful message of Christ. So cluttered that many people are busy doing church instead of being the church.
He committed to ministry to make disciples, and he has become a program manager.
To have a simple church, leaders must ensure that everything their church does fits together to produce life change. They must design a simple process that pulls everything together, a simple process that moves people toward spiritual maturity.
Simple church leaders are designers. They design opportunities for spiritual growth. Complex church leaders are programmers. They run ministry programs.
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.
People are accustomed to defending and justifying the existence of their particular program. The programs are ends in themselves. They are not used as tools to move people toward spiritual maturity.
A simple church is a congregation designed around a straightforward and strategic process that moves people through the stages of spiritual growth.
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 are committed to executing it. The process flows logically (movement) and is implemented in each area of the church (alignment). The church abandons everything that is not in the process (focus).
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.
if you want the necessary to stand out, you have to get rid of the unnecessary.
The irony is that we have actually grown numerically and spiritually by doing fewer programs and special events, choosing instead to focus our attention on moving people with various levels of commitment to deeper levels of commitment.
It is not enough only to talk about the vision or ministry process from the pulpit. The simple process must be shared at dinner tables and meetings. When people see that it is not just a “sermon thing,” it means more. People pay greater attention when they can see your heart off the stage.
Congested churches and stagnant believers are the anti-thesis of God’s plan.
According to our research, it is critical that you use some type of new member training to move new people effectively into the life of the church.
Church leaders must avoid the two extremes of micro-management and neglect. Micromanagement stifles creativity and hampers shared leadership. Neglect fosters complacency and leads to a fragmented team.
If mission giving is the totality of the church’s mission engagement, the church has outsourced mission to those they pay to do it in order for their mission’s conscience to be satisfied.
The proclivity of leaders to look for another church model is a sign of the church’s shallowness and not its maturity.
