Simple Church

The book Simple Church greatly impacted how I pastor Creekside Bible Church. The book offers data showing that when churches make clear a simple discipleship process and focus on doing a few things well (rather than trying to do a lot of things), they are better for it (primarily in numerical growth). Admittedly, I had a predisposition towards liking the contents of this book. I am an avid/outspoken fan of Apple products. Apple has become one of the most successful companies in the world by making things simple for customers and by being simple as a company – focusing on making a few products great rather than making a lot of products mediocre. Apple is so connected to simplicity that one of their most iconic advertising campaigns declared, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Due to my love of Apple, a book that preached a simple model for church was right up my ally and I bought in wholeheartedly.

In my two years as the pastor of Creekside, I have worked to make it simple. We make clear to people that we want them to fulfill their scriptural obligations to the church through four simple actions: believe, gather, connect, and serve. This is illustrated through the language of stepping stones (Simple Church points to the importance of illustrating the discipleship process). We don’t do much of anything that doesn’t support these four aspects of the church; we work hard on excelling doing activities that support these actions. Seemingly, this has worked well for our church.

Before I make the big transition, let me state that I am still a fan of striving to simplify church. I would counsel all churches to be as simple as possible in their approach to programing. That said, I see several problems with viewing church too simplistically.

Discipleship isn’t as simple as showing up at a church program…

Outlining a simple approach to discipleship is not inherently bad. In fact, it is good for people at my church, or any church, to know some key steps to spiritual growth.

However, when we make discipleship too simple we run the risk of stymying discipleship. If someone equates closeness to God with only believing in Jesus, going to church, showing up at a small group, and offering some time to make the church better (our steps in different words), they might never recognize that there are a myriad of other important factors in our relationship with God. This could lead someone to thinking that they are living the perfect Christian life when in actuality their lives are full of sin and lack Christian virtue. Someone could fulfill the above list and still be a horrible spouse. Someone could fulfill the above list and be a jerk that nobody likes. Someone could fulfill the above list and not be a Christian (save believing in Jesus)! We do a disservice to people if we make them think that being a growing Christian is only about believing in Jesus and showing up at the church’s programs.

We believe that if someone does the above-stated actions then they are well on their way to fulfilling their biblically given duties at church. But, we know that church responsibility is only part of the Christian life. Thus, we try to keep in our people’s minds seven signs of a disciple that are listed in the Bible. These signs cannot be seen through simple eyes without being trampled by dishonesty or legalism because of their generalized nature:

1. Recognition of sin.
2. Love of God and others.
3. The Fruits of the Spirit.
4. Avoidance of sin.
5. A life demonstrated by an overall morality.
6. Following the Holy Spirit’s leading.
7. Obeying the decrees made in the Bible.

God equips people for specific ministries…

[bra_blockquote align=’right’]Leaders of churches ought to think long and hard before dismissing the gifts of a person in their church because it doesn’t fit into their simple model.[/bra_blockquote]To make church simple without deviation is to squelch what God might do in the church. The Bible tells us that God has equipped each believer for works of service. Leaders of churches ought to think long and hard before dismissing the gifts of a person in their church because it doesn’t fit into their simple model.

Just this morning I had a conversation with someone at Creekside in which they demonstrated a passion for ministering to veterans. He has a military background and gifts that would be valuable in this type of service. I think it would be wrong if, in an effort to be simple, I told him that his passion couldn’t be acted upon at our church because it didn’t strictly fit into our model.

This doesn’t mean that every time a person has a passion a new ministry is created at our church. I have not intent to launch a formalized ministry to veterans tomorrow. However, if two or three others say the same thing to me or another leader in the church and they have complimentary skills and gifts to the man I have mentioned, it would be wrong for us to dismiss it because it makes us less simple; it would be right and good for us to prayerfully consider if God is leading us to do some type of ministry to veterans. I think simple is great, but not at the expense of being obedient to the direction and leading of God.

At Creekside we strive not to miss the Holy Spirit’s leading when it comes to ministry. Thus, as we train people to be servants of the church, we examine and file their gifts, skills, passions, and experiences. At Saddleback Church they have a similar process. The main difference between their approach and ours is that we try to see how God is moving corporately instead of only individually. Admittedly, this is much easier when you aren’t one of the largest churches in America.

Church as family…

Think about the last Thanksgiving dinner you had with your family. Was it simple? Was your grandma trying to get you to recite the families traditional reading while your uncle was trying to watch the Cowboys game and you were complaining that you were starving because the food wasn’t ready? Maybe that was just my last Thanksgiving dinner, but many experience something similar. Families are not simple. They are messy.

The reason that families aren’t simple is probably beyond my scope of knowledge. But, let me just offer one thought: Families are messy because they love and stay together despite the differences, problems, and difficulties of individuals. When someone can’t stand the people they work with, they quit. When friends hurt us, we can make new ones. When our families fail us, something innately tells us to keep loving, keep helping, keep serving, keep going…

The Bible describes church as family. If you have been around the church long enough then you know that just as in a biological families, there are plenty of difficult people in churches. But, when we treat church as that which it is, a family, we must keep going. This will inevitably be messy, no matter how many programs are stripped away.

Furthermore, if we are truly going to be unified in a way that produces mutual discipleship, it can’t be simple. There are too many opinions, personalities, and thoughts for deep relationships to always be simple. If a church is too simple, they probably aren’t accomplishing much of anything![bra_blockquote align=’right’]Rarely have I left a conversation in which I confronted someone about sin thinking, “That was simple.”[/bra_blockquote]Rarely have I left a conversation in which I confronted someone about sin thinking, “That was simple.” People’s lives are messy and thus, church cannot always be simple.

I love my iPhone for it’s simplicity. I love the church despite it’s complexity.