Simple Church
Chapter Two
P. 29-41
We’ve analyzed our structural challenges—parking, room placement, office alignment, etc. Let’s take the time to discuss our culture through the lens of two different case studies.
FIRST CHURCH AND CROSS CHURCH INTRO
Read 33
FIRST CHURCH DETAILS
• Statements
o Many, all different, big church influenced, no clear connection
• Pastoral Interview
o Uneasy with activity that does not produce spiritual fruit (floundering?)
o He has goal in mind but no clear understanding of how the church is set up to reach the goal.
• Leadership Interview
o No singular purpose. Many views on the primary focus.
o No clear “what.”
• “If the what of First Church is not even clear, the how won’t even be on the radar.”
CROSS CHURCH DETAILS
• Statements
o Only one statement
o Adapted for each age group but with the same primary thrust
o “Loving God, loving people, serving the world.”
o Is this really in the church’s DNA?
• Pastoral Interview
o Consistency with the three part theme
o The purpose is the process; the process fulfills the purpose
o Combined the what with the how.
o History of how they got where they did
o Read mid page 38 to top of 40 (end of section)
• Leadership Interview
o It is discussed often
o It is the DNA of the church
o Members as asked to do three things each week that relate to each element of the purpose
Worship, small group, service
• Connect with Christ, Christ’s community, Christ’s cause
• A place for worship, a place to grow, a place to serve.
o Process and programs are in partnership
o Selected and focused on only the best programs for each part of the process. All else was put aside.
o Weekly programs became sequential so people could move through the process by moving through one program to the next.
We discussed some of the parallels between these two case studies and WCPC. It was said that we have a foot in both stories.
With First Church
Many programs
Open back door
Many statements but nothing holding them together
Differing views of what kind of church we are (mission, worship, disciplemaking, etc)
No one focus. People are not guided to one thing (Ash Wednesday as example)
With Cross Church
Have a settled and basic mission
Have three part statement of what is needed
Theirs: Love God, Love others, Serve the world
Ours:
• Connected to Christ, Christ’s Community, and Christ’s Cause
• A place to worship, a place to grow, a place to serve
• Worship, small group, “mission”
Next week, rest of Chapter Two.
Simple Church
Review Chapter 2, Start Chapter 3
Review
• Programming
o Discussed the best ones for the purpose and focused on them.
o Or did not know which one was the primary
o When program becomes the focus the mission is lost in the busyness.
• Staff and calendar meetings
• Evaluating effectiveness: Numbers. Vertical versus Horizontal
• Announcements. Loaded with information or connecting to the next step.
Chapter 3
Clarity – Movement – Alignment – Focus
1 Peter 4:10. Managers of the grace we have received.
Extreme Makeover Home Edition has a Designing Team. Churches need one too.
Design the church around spiritual growth. They need to both design and implement.
Rely on the simple process to create the environment conducive to growth.
DEFINITION (60, 67, 68)
A simple church is a congregation designed around a straight-forward 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).
• Designed.
o It is intentional
• Around
o It has a focus
• Straight-Forward and Strategic.
o Easy to grasp
o Stable, not changing often
o Rejects unconnected programs
o Tied to the purpose or vision of the church
• Moves people logically
• Through the stages of spiritual growth
• Goal is lives changed by the Spirit and formed into Christ’s image.
The Flow: Clarity – Movement – Alignment – Focus
Clarity
The ability of the process to be communicated and understood by the people. It adds certainty and reduces confusion. Clarity and simplicity are partners. People need to understand it before they can commit to it. Begin with the leaders.
Movement
Sequential steps in the process that allow people to move to greater areas of commitment. This is a hard one to understand. It is what happens between the programs. It is the handoff so that the person is not cut loose to drift. They move from one level of commitment to the other. Simple churches pay attention to the handoff. Movement requires that each program be placed in sequential order along the ministry process.
Alignment
Arranging of staff and ministries around the same simple process.
I feel like I have offered a blueprint title with no drawing underneath.
Move from a loose federation of ministries to an aligned ministry focus.
Most churches drift away from alignment and into complexity.
Focus
The commitment to abandon everything that falls outside of the simple ministry process.
The compelling “Yes”
This gives power and energy to clarity, movement, and alignment.
Lack of focus leads to clutter and scattering.
Where are we in the flow right now?
What are our bronze snakes (sacred cows)?
Will need to sacrifice sacred cows (Hezekiah and the bronze snake from Moses)
To make the necessary stand out you have to get rid of the unnecessary.
Phil 1:9-10.
SUGGESTED PROCESS AND FLOW
A time for worship Connect to Christ
A place to grow Connect to Christ’s Community
A place to serve Connect to Christ’s Cause
Peachtree called this Worship + 2
NEXT WEEK
Will briefly skim Chapter 4: Three Simple Stories
Cover chapters 5 and 6 (Clarity and Movement)
Chapter 4
Three Simple Stories
(An overview of Simple Church)
About Gates:
The church does not have gates. It is always on the offense; it always has the ball
Even an inept team will win, eventually, if they always have the ball.
The question is: what will be the margin of victory?
How badly damaged will the defensive gates be?
The gates of Hell are a defensive thing.
Three Stories
Immanuel Baptist Church: Transition to Simple in Bible Belt. P. 86ff
Smaller, rural, community.
Connect, Grow, Serve
Results:
• Increased Morale. People understand how to do it and not just that they need to do it.
• Urgency felt in the need to move people into spiritual maturity and ministry rather than just seeing them converted
• Spiritual Growth. Knowing where they are and where they need to go has helped people become proactive in their own spiritual growth, ministry involvement, and personal outreach.
• Conversions and baptisms have increased
• Financial Stewardship has improved due to removing unnecessary programs and in helping people catch a vision for and come on board with the process.
• Unity has strengthened.
Everyone uses the same terminology
Congregation hears the same thing all the time.
Christ Fellowship: Transition to Simple in multicultural church p. 92ff
Committed to having one statement
• Connect to God, others, ministry, and the lost (Intimate relationship with God; community with others; serving; influencing nonbelievers.)
• The process has taken center stage in all things.
The programs are all tools that help people move through the process
• Connect to God—Worship
• To others—small groups
• To ministry—service opportunities
• To the lost—no specific program but a relational lifestyle.
People are challenged to do three things every week: worship, group, and serve in ministry
• In worship they promote groups and connect group study to the worship theme.
• In all places people are challenged to test drive a ministry for one “serving session.”
Alignment:
Every ministry offers the same three things: Connect to God, others, ministry
Every ministry strives to move people through that process
Faithful Focus:
Eliminated programs that did not connect to the process or goal.
Every ministry knows why re are doing these “programs”
Northpoint: Started as Simple Church p. 99ff
Andy Stanley is founding pastor
Andy speaks on “How I Cheated the Church” (gave time to his family)
Process
• “Foyer to the Kitchen” process (Note that this church is in the south where visiting protocol is still part of the culture.)
• They strongly believe that life change happens best in relationship so everything designed to move people toward and into the kitchen.
• Foyer to the Kitchen is a progressively increasingly level of commitment and relationship.
Three Steps: Foyer to Living Room to Kitchen.
• Foyer = worship service. This is a seeker friendly environment.
• Living Room = Group Link. Not weekly but regular
• Kitchen = Small Groups.
• Kitchen Movement. New groups are always started. You are not expected to stay in the same group for decades.
They resist the word “program” and instead use the words steps or environments.
People are challenged to bring others with them through this process.
No environment is to be long term
All steps lead to another
Alignment:
• The goal of each department is to move people into the kitchen.
• Every ministry has a foyer, living room, and kitchen.
Focus:
• They do not have a Christian School, midweek services, men or women’s ministry, children’s choir, adult Sunday school, holiday pageants or a recreational ministry.
• Everything done with excellence because they can focus on only a few things.
SUMMARY
All three churches have a different worship styles, communities, congregations, and governments. The one thing they hold in common in a simple process.
Three things common to all these churches
• Every ministry uses the same terms / vocabulary with the same meaning. This helps communicate to the entire congregation.
• Universal alignment. Every ministry duplicates the process within itself and works for the common goal.
• Faithful focus. Whatever does not assist the process is not embraced.
Closing Comments
• Grace is crucial. It’s not required that someone “do” this to be a member. Yet we will emphasize it as we gently encourage all to participate.
• Transitioning to Simple Church is not easy. People can be hurt that something they found meaningful has been changed or stopped. Change can also carry accusation (They must have changed this because the way it was done was “wrong”). How can you move to simplicity without causing unnecessary hurt?
• We need to lead through change and not force it.
• When groups spin off new groups they add to their experience and growth. While they have their place, long term stable groups are not the standard for spiritual health and growth.
• It is so important that a Simple Church not to become in-grown or inwardly focused. It would be wise to set up some kind of automatic check to keep asking the question, “Are we reaching out as intentionally and effectively as we can?”
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