I am reading a book entitled "Simple Church" by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger. The content of the book is to help churches move beyond mission statements to real mission. I must admit I have had trouble gaining clarity on this subject and have read everything there is about processes, purpose statements, vision statements. All of them had something to say but nothing had convicted me yet. I think that the point the Lord has been explaining to me is not to go over board on trying to contrive a tag line that will draw people to church but to simply return to a simplistic approach to it.
In the book they say that 500 churched were interviewed to reveal the stats given. The churches that were vibrant and growing, regardless of size, had a short and simple purpose and implemented these four common denominators.
- Clarity - Clarity is the ability of the process to be communicated and understood by the people…clarity involves certainty, and it eliminates confusion.
- Movement - Movement is the sequential steps in the process that cause people to move to greater areas of commitment. Movement is about flow. It is about assimilation. Movement is what causes a person to go to the next step…Movement is what happens in between programs.
- Alignment - Alignment is the arrangement of all ministries and staff around the same simple process. Alignment to the process means that all ministry departments submit and attach themselves to the same overarching process.
- Focus - Focus is the commitment to abandon everything that falls outside of the simple ministry process. Focus most often means saying “no.” Focus requires saying “yes” to the best and “no” to everything else. While movement is the most difficult simple church element to understand, focus is also the most difficult element to implement.
