Simple Church: Returning to God's Process for Making Disciples (Hardcover)

by Thom S. Rainer (Author), Eric Geiger (Author)
Key Phrases: simple ministry process, comparison church leaders, simple church leaders, Cross Church, First Church, Pastor Rush (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The simple revolution has begun. From the design of the iPod to the uncluttered Google home page, simple ideas are changing the world.

Simple Church clearly calls for Christians to return to the simple gospel-sharing methods of Jesus. No bells or whistles required, so to speak.

Based on case studies of four hundred American churches, authors Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger prove that the process for making disciples has quite often become too complex. Simple churches are thriving, and they are doing so by taking these four ideas to heart: Clarity. Movement. Alignment. Focus.

Each idea is examined here, simply showing why it is time to simplify.

About the Author

Thom S. Rainer is president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, one of the largest Christian resource companies in the world. He is also a best-selling author and leading expert in the field of church research. Rainer and his wife, Nellie Jo, have three grown sons and live in Nashville, Tennessee.

Eric Geiger serves as executive pastor of Christ Fellowship, a large and growing multicultural church comprised of more than seventy nationalities near Miami, Florida. He and his wife, Kaye, have one daughter, Eden.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: B&H Books (June 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805443908
• ISBN-13: 978-0805443905
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (92 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #998 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

77 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Concise and practical, September 7, 2007

By	J. Miller (LA, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Well, it would be awfully ironic if the book wasn't easy to understand. Fortunately, the authors do with the book exactly what they are calling leaders to do with their churches. They outline a simple structure for streamlining churches and letting loose the baggage that slows churches down.

The process is...simple (sorry to repeat). Churches should seek clarity, alignment, movement, and focus. Clarity is the singleness of purpose, stated in a single phrase. Movement is making sure there is a process of spiritual development that runs through the ministries of the church that fulfills the purpose. Alignment is the process of making sure that all the ministries of the church cannel people through a similar movement to fulfill the purpose. And focus is the challenging process of saying "no" to everything that distracts the church from its purpose. The authors have decided on this clear process as a saving grace to churches, repeat it fluidly, and walk the reader through all four steps.

The theory is based on a study of a number of churches that were considered thriving and many that were not. The authors say that their data shows highly significant difference between thriving churches that simplified and complex churches that did not.

The only part of this book, or the genre, that ought to give the reader pause is that the authors presume that ministry requires a strategic process through which people are funneled on the way to spiritual growth. While that is the reality of modern, institutional church management, it seems to overrule the fluid and organic (if not disorganized) ministry of Jesus and the disciples while co-opting their names. This is not a major critique of the book, just the observation that business management principles are governing the church whose founder had very little to say about business management.

Nonetheless, for those of us who find ourselves dealing with the necessities of management, this book is an essential read. It's well-written, accessible, and offers the bird's eye view that a lot of churches miss.

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Perspective on an Important Topic, May 19, 2007

By	Kevin Pilot (San Clemente, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Evangelical ecclesiology and theology of community has been wanting for a long time and this book offers a great perspective on one of the biggest problems of the local church (and modern society in general), complexity. We simply want too much. Our lives are complicated and full and so is the life of the church.

Rainer and Geiger raise a good point, we have become mediocre at many things and not skilled at a few as a church. The book begins with the story of a pastor who is trying to be everything to everyone and is scrambling from meeting to meeting try to be a model for everyone else in the church. Later the authors contrast two churchs, one that is program based and one that is simple. One is about trying to be all things to all people and the other about making disciples. The simple church is more geared toward having the people within the church grow in Christ rather than having the church grow in numbers. A good thesis.

Overall, I found the book refreshing and having a good perspective but some nagging questions remained after I read it. First, it seems to make church a kind of process, a disciple factory of sorts where the job of the leadership of the church is to process Christians from the point of being saved to maturity. Second, it doesn't really define how this process is done, it take a kind of "build it and they will come" approach common in evangelical church planning. Third, church in the NT seems to be a creation of God , a family that is already formed with intimate connections through relationship (as Bonhoeffer said, "we don't create church, we simply acknowledge it). This book doesn't really address that aspect of the body.

I still find myself recommending this book but encouraging readers not to stop here. Classics such Bonoeffer's Life Together and current books like Randy Frazee's The Connecting Church are worth reading. Also, I like Julie Gorman's Community That is Christian, especially her focus on small group development.

In short, I don't know if doing church simply is enough but it's certainly a good start.

107 of 116 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Church Strategic Planning Made SIMPLE!, June 29, 2006

By	David R. Bess (Charleston, WV) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

For any congregation struggling with strategic planning, this book will be a God-send! Until reading this title, all books dealing with strategic church planning were hard-to-understand, hard-to-follow, and even harder to communicate to others. Rainer and Geiger now finally have made church strategic planning simple. In less than 250 pages, the authors have presented an extreme makeover process to take a congregation from a bloated, burnt-out organization to a streamlined, sleek spiritual body.

The steps described here are simple, but far from easy and painless.

For any pastor or church leader who is planning strategically, this book is a must-read!