Vital Friends: The People You Can’t Afford to Live Without

Author: Tom Rath
Publisher: Gallup Press, 2006

Friendship is the most fundamental of all human needs. Jesus said, “Greater love has not man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13). The words, “friend” and “friendship,” have lost some of their meaning today, however. If you were to ask ten people to define “friend” or even “best friend,” you’d get ten different answers. Yet, everyone acknowledges the importance of friends.

But, do we know just how vital friends really are?

I was intrigued by the title of this book, “Vital Friends” because the word vital carries the idea of something this is essential, indispensable, or something you cannot live without. Based on decades of research, this author explores the basic characteristics of friendships that add value to relationships, and then organizes them into eight descriptive categories.

With the purchase of the book, you are given access to a web-based assessment tool that helps you identify the distinct roles that your friends play in your life on a daily basis. The measurement-based language helps you describe and build upon what is right in your interpersonal relationships. The assessment takes about five minutes per friend. When the assessment is completed, you are provided a report that lists the top three vital roles that each friend plays in your life. With this information, you will be able to focus attention on the roles these friends play, and identify the opportunities for true growth in your relationships.

A great book! This is an amazing assessment tool that can help us recognize the positive potential in our friendships!

Reviewed by:
Dr. Larry S. Doyle, Director of Missions
Piedmont Baptist Association
Greensboro, NC.

The Acts 1:8 Challenge-Empowering the Church to be on Mission

By Nate Adams

Acts 1:8 provides a biblical paradigm for how the Spirit-filled, Spirit-led New Testament church is to fulfill God's mission on earth until Jesus returns. This study will help believers understand Jesus' Acts 1:8 challenge and discover biblical principles the New Testament churches used to reach their mission fields. The local church, as a worldwide mission center, can formulate a comprehensive mission strategy that simultaneously reaches out to its community (Jerusalem), state or region (Judea), continent (Samaria), and world (ends of the earth).

The church is the body of Jesus Christ, and its assignment is to continue Jesus' work. Jesus' disciples were discovering that entering the kingdom of God begins with a personal relationship with Jesus, the King. Furthermore, Jesus' disciples would soon learn that their mission would be to invite individuals from every people group in the entire world to become subjects of the kingdom Jesus came to establish- the kingdom of God. God is moving throughout history and all over the world with the missionary purpose of seeking and saving the lost, forming for Himself one people from all people groups who would faithfully trust and worship Him. The mission for which God established the church finds its roots in the very nature of God Himself. Because people are the crowning touch of God's creation, we have a special role in reflecting His glory.

Worshiping God means acknowledging His great worth. Worship is something we do with our entire beings and our entire lives. We were designed to worship God for now and eternity. God wanted the many godless peoples to be drawn to the one godly people. Jesus is the center of history and the center of God's redemptive plan. When Israel stumbled in its assignment to be on mission with Him, God raised up the church, a new kind of nation united not by race or ethnicity but by God's Spirit. Because today's church has the incredible resource of Spirit-filled Christians, its influence can spread throughout history and all over the world as people come to faith in Christ. Without the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through us, we are more like the striving and often failing nation of Israel than the empowered, radiant church of Jesus.

The Great Commission is given to every follower of Jesus, not just to pastors, missionaries, or full-time Christian workers. New Testament churches had a radiating influence on the community, distant parts of the world, and many places in between. Instead of retreating within their walls until they could grow stronger or get more organized, the churches urgently and systematically shared the good news everywhere. From its beginning, when the church is turned inside out, the world is turned upside down. It is easy for a church to become nearsighted if it focuses only on the activities and programs inside its walls. Every church is challenged to maintain God's vision of the relationships He desires for the individuals and peoples who do not know Him. A missionary is simply someone who, in response to God's call and gifting, leaves his or her comfort zone and crosses cultural, geographical, or other barriers to proclaim the gospel and live out a Christian witness in obedience to the Great Commission.

Our effectiveness in reaching our own ends of the earth- and our own Samaria, Judea, and Jerusalem- completely depends on the power of the Holy Spirit. Because the Great Commission is a supernatural task of supernatural proportions, it requires supernatural power. Sensitivity and obedience to the Holy Spirit are essential and are far more important than our plans. Redeeming the lost peoples of the world is God's mission, and we simply join Him in that mission. God calls Christian to the world in ways that are both incidental and intentional. An important vehicle in God's plan for delivering the gospel to the ends of the earth is the normal traffic of believers' lives. The local church is to be a launching pad for missionaries and mission trips. The Holy Spirit works in the lives of local church members, teaching them their mission purpose and calling out faithful witnesses for missionary service.

The scattering of witnesses from the Jerusalem church shows us that a local church's missionary purpose can be fulfilled wherever witnesses go. The sending of witnesses from the Antioch church shows us that a church's missionary purpose can be fulfilled when witnesses go wherever. God's mission to the world includes all people groups. Every people group deserves the opportunity to hear, understand and respond to the Gospel in their own language and cultural context. The word nations is best understood as ethnolinguistic people groups. Virtually every country, regardless of geographic boundaries, includes multiple groups, families, or clans who share a common identity. Factors such as language, race, religion, heritage, and socioeconomics help define a distinct people group or its subgroups. When the gospel is successfully planted, new churches grow and multiply.

The priorities the Holy Spirit gave the New Testament witnesses are still the priorities of today's missionary endeavors: proclaim the gospel message, make disciples of those who believe, and organize the disciples into a healthy local church that joins you on mission. Taking the gospel to the world is costly. The reality of missions, especially at the ends of the earth, is that spanning distances, spanning cultural barriers, and overcoming opposition to the gospel all take time, and time costs money. A church's mission giving is similar to an individual's tithe: it acknowledges that all wealth and blessing come from God and that the consumption of those blessings should not precede their sacrificial dedication to the purposes of God's worldwide redemptive plan.

Many kingdoms oppose God's kingdom, but God has sovereign authority over all. Like the early witnesses, today's churches are wise to consider the reality of earthly authorities as they carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. But they can do so with the same confidence displayed in the apostles' prayer, knowing that God's mission will prevail regardless of opposition and seeking boldness and power rather than relief or escape. Many people groups today have little or no access to the gospel because churches have not yet sufficiently overcome barriers to the good news. Whether a church sends missionaries from its own body or supports those who have been called from other church bodies, it can partner with those missionaries in reaching specific people groups.

Churches with a heart for reaching the ends of the earth frequently provide training in evangelism, church-planting principles, and the missionary use of education and technology. Today's churches must always remember that the mission is God's and that the Holy Spirit's power and direction are indispensable to the missions task. Each church has the responsibility and joy to discern where the Holy Spirit is calling it to join Him in reaching the ends of the earth. All of Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria did not have to be evangelized before the Holy Spirit scattered and deliberately sent witnesses abroad. Today, as in the New Testament, a church's ends of the earth, Samaria, Judea, and Jerusalem are to be reached simultaneously. International missions give us the broadest view of the world's lostness and of God's heart for all peoples everywhere. As the ends of the earth show us the breadth of lostness in the world, Samaria shows us the depth of lostness that characterizes our own North American culture.

Jews labeled anyone they perceived to be a dissident against the Jewish religious establishment as a Samaritan. Just as being accused of demon-possession was the worst spiritual judgment, being called a Samaritan was the worst racial slur. The Samaritans needed acceptance, legitimacy, and a relationship with God that did not depend on race, national origin, or family heritage. Penetrating a diverse continent or country with the gospel requires a loving understanding of its people and history. There are population segments in or near our homeland with which we rarely come in contact unless we make a point of doing so. Jesus was informed. He was ready to contextualize His message within the history and prevalent culture of the land. Jesus was interested in the people He met there, acknowledging that their culture was unique and different from His. He was insightful into their deep spiritual needs. He entered the culture for the sake of its inhabitants.

Those who go on mission to Samaria today must be ready to penetrate the hard shell of prevailing religious or secular culture and to apply the gospel to lost people's deep spiritual thirst. The unchanging gospel speaks to diverse cultures and generations through new leaders and new methods in new churches. The Holy Spirit intended the good news to be on every believer's lips, and some- like Philip- would see powerful results in places where apostles and even church leaders were not yet in place. The fact that the Holy Spirit did not manifest Himself until Peter and John arrived confirmed the acceptance of the preciously outcast Samaritans to oversee the doctrinal purity of the early churches; teaching and practice. It quickly became clear, however, that the number of converts and congregations in Samaria would exceed the number of the apostles or evangelists available to lead them.

As important as it was for the Jewish Christian missionaries to understand the Samarian culture in which they proclaimed the gospel, it was also important for them to develop church leaders within that culture to lead its many new churches. Informed churches pray God's power into God's mission. As churches invested their leaders, their prayers, and their resources beyond their walls, new about the progress of the mission guided their plans for future missions efforts. Missions education encourages missions cooperation. Negative cultural influences require both scriptural proclamation and spiritual confrontation. Pagan, secular, and demonic influences within a culture can enslave and addict people. Churches must confront the culture's sinful pressures with scriptural truth. God calls Christians to personalize the gospel for the diverse peoples in and near their homeland. Marketplace ministries and bivocational pathways into fields such as education, law, medicine, and media can provide strategic inroads for everyday witnesses that professional clergy and established churches may not encounter. Today's churches are often most effective in reaching their Samarians when they forfeit home-court advantage and creatively take the gospel into a new culture, whether that culture is ethnic, socioeconomic, religious, geographic, or all of these.

People are sometimes more committed to protecting the status quo and their own rationalized beliefs than accepting truth that would necessitate change. Whether through the legalistic Judaism of the first century or the cultural Christianity or false religions of today, sinful humankind has always tended to distort sincere faith into self-serving religion. The Judea mission field, both in ancient and modern times, presents its own unique challenges. While the mission to Samaria is often a mission across culture, the mission to Judea is often a mission within the same culture. God calls Christians to penetrate surrounding regions and their predominant religions with the true gospel. The early churches' missionaries and evangelists in Samaria remind us that the call to reach diverse peoples is often a call to strategize- to go out of our way and think differently. An up-close view of the Judea mission field shows us the call to strengthen a region's churches so that they not only withstand the world's pressures and persecution but also rescue people from the false assurances of empty religion and secular society.

Those depending on works-based religion rather than a grace-based relationship don't understand the gospel. One responsibility of first-century churches in the culture of their Judea mission field was to strongly proclaim that the new covenant Jesus made possible is a covenant of grace, not position or performance. A great challenge that was common to the culture of the Judea mission field was the barrier of presumed familiarity that people have with the gospel. Churches and individual Christians who are on mission in Judea must relentlessly clarify that a redemptive relationship with Jesus, not a religion of works, brings a right relationship with God. Regional support and cooperation strengthen new churches for multiplication. Judea's common culture and religion also created bridges to the gospel. With few barriers of language, culture, or religious history and tradition, the early disciples could easily get straight to the point with a Judean Jew. The result was a network of growing, multiplying churches that were bold enough to proclaim the gospel of grace throughout their region and strong enough to endure the resulting persecution and hardship.


Mission-minded churches mobilize to meet human needs in the name of Christ. The growing network of churches spreading throughout Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth was increasingly diverse and widespread yet remarkably unified. The churches readily exchanged resources, leaders, and letters. Their sensitivity to one another's needs revealed the new love the Holy Spirit had placed in their hearts. That love equipped them to add benevolent ministry to their evangelistic mission.

Opposition from religious systems and leaders should be expected and met with spiritual resolve. The early churches understood that to be effective in the Judea mission field was to be savvy about the religious and governmental forces that influence a region and that have political interest in the spiritual decisions of the people. Unbelievers in our own Judea today may view Christianity as another legalistic religion rather than a life-giving relationship with God. The surface similarities between Christians and those who live in their Judea make the spiritual differences more critical if today's disciples are to be effective witnesses. Many people in our Judea mission field possess only a cultural Christianity. The Judea mission field certainly needs pioneers and evangelists, but as a region becomes populated with cooperating churches, the need to coordinate strategies, equip leaders, exhort one another with sound doctrine, and mobilize existing churches for the missions task also becomes important. Without cooperation and coordination, individual churches have great difficulty reaching beyond their immediate community. Timely, compassionate ministry can earn credibility to share the gospel with people whose pain has opened their hearts. And churches that are prepared to minister and share with those who are hurting can transform times of pain and need into opportunities for eternal life change. A church that seeks to influence lives with the gospel will inevitably begin to influence education, media, law, government, and other arenas with new moral, ethical, and spiritual standards.

Although Jerusalem is our closest mission field, reaching it for Christ requires as much intentionality as the mission fields of Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. Our Jerusalem mission field is filled with many people who, for a variety of reasons, might never attend our church. Still we must reach out to them, not to populate our fellowship halls but to populate the kingdom of God. Part of our Jerusalem mission is to cooperate with other churches to reach people. In many cases, in fact, our Jerusalem mission may even involve starting a new church that can reach people whom existing churches cannot. Churches that are content to keep their practices within their walls without "imposing their beliefs" on society or secular culture can expect a fairly comfortable existence. But when churches take the life-changing gospel into the culture, they find the Holy Spirit ready to work through them in miraculous ways that even the gospel's opponents cannot deny. God calls Christians to establish a lasting Christlike influence in their local communities. The Jerusalem church might be more accurately described as an association of churches that met "from house to house" (Acts 2:46), probably organized around language or neighborhood location.

Evangelism- sharing the good news- should be a primary activity in every mission field. But so should church planting, discipleship, ministry to physical and emotional needs, leadership development, and other mission activities. Reaching a community trains a church to reach the world. Disciples sacrifice for the sake of new believers and new churches. Working together under the Holy Spirit's leadership, they were able to saturate their community with the gospel and to start new churches. Participating in God's mission is a local, life commitment. In the Jerusalem mission field of the first century, disciples shared and sacrificed for one another and for the sake of the mission. They neither insulated themselves from unbelievers nor reserved their witness for certain locations and times of the year. The 1st-century witnesses did not compartmentalize their lives, separating their church, Christian activities, and believing friends from the lost world around them. Many Christians need help to understand and obey Jesus' Acts 1:8 challenge.

The term cocooning describes our growing tendency to stay in the comfort of our homes, enjoying our families, possessions, and comfort rather than socializing in public settings. Sadly, that same tendency can exist in local churches. Growing comfortable within the walls of the church is always a threat to the spread of the gospel. The Jerusalem mission field beckons believers to leave their comfort zones and reach out with the good news of Jesus Christ. Church leaders must challenge members to authentic missions involvement under the Holy Spirit's authority. A church that is intent on reaching its Jerusalem focuses on people who may never enter the church building. It is active in the schools, apartment complexes, shopping malls, and neighborhoods. Such a church knows that missions is local as well as remote and that barriers such as language, culture, economic status, and age can be as imposing as barriers like oceans or mountains. Whatever a church's Jerusalem mission field looks like, a large percentage of the inhabitants do not know Jesus as Savior and Lord and do not have a relevant church within reach.

Churches in a Jerusalem mission field must have leaders- not just career missionaries but also pastors and key lay leaders from local churches- who recognize the lostness around them. To be cooperative and intentional in reaching the Jerusalem mission field, churches must train leaders and other witnesses for all of the churches' mission fields. When an existing church sacrifices time, people, money, and other resources to establish a new congregation, God blesses its kingdom-minded generosity. Helping all church members understand and obey their all to be witnesses is a critical task. No more critical need exists today than for believers to awaken to the same calling and power that will spill them from the comfort of their churches into the streets of their Jerusalem and, ultimately, their world.

And every local church should be a worldwide mission's center that equips its witnesses to fulfill God's call. No matter how many important activities take place within the church walls, a church's primary, most urgent mission is beyond those walls. The first step toward reflecting the biblical model of an on-mission New Testament church is to recognize that you and your church belong at the forefront of God's mission to the world. Each church needs a vision of its unique ends of the earth, Samaria, Judea, and Jerusalem and a strategy for joining God's activity in each field. It is communicated through spiritual leaders who seek God's direction. The primary vision and commitment should come from the pastor and flow to other staff and leaders. A church must also identify gifted, called, Spirit-led missions leaders who can serve as a team to help the church develop strategies and plans for reaching its unique mission fields. It must also implement that vision in creative, practical ways that will capture the imagination and involvement of every church member. Bring missions awareness and interaction to the entire church body, train members for service, and connect them to missionaries and mission needs.

A church's obedience to God's mission is linked to its understanding of that mission. Ask God for a kingdom perspective and a worldwide vision as you intercede for Christian workers and unevangelized peoples. Reading about the sacrificial giving of New Testament churches is both humbling and inspiring. Every dollar invested in Jesus' Acts 1:8 challenge is money well spent. Giving faithfully, generously, and sacrificially allows churches to have an impact on each Acts 1:8 mission field. Enable a growing number of members to directly participate in short-term, long-term, and marketplace opportunities to minister and spread the gospel beyond your church walls. Involve an increasing number of members in intentional, culturally relevant evangelism. Provide opportunities for members to hear and respond to God's call to vocational missions service. Participate in church planting and facilitate church-planting movements.

An Executive Book Summary Prepared by

Thomas L. Law, III, DoM
Tarrant Baptist Association
Ft. Worth, TX

(For More Book Summaries by Dr. Law,
Go to www.tarrantbaptist.org)

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

By Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger

We have concluded that church leaders need to simplify. Ironically people are hungry for simple because the world has become much more complex. Churches with a simple process for reaching and maturing people are expanding the kingdom. We are not suggesting that the simple approach to ministry is a change in doctrine or conviction. We are not saying that churches should become simple because it is in style or culturally hip. Precisely because things are so hectic and out of control people respond to simple. We also are not saying that churches should have a simple process just for pragmatic reasons. We are also not claiming that a simple church design is easy. 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. Perhaps we are losing ground not despite our overabundance of activity but because of it.

Ministry schizophrenia occurs when churches and church leaders are not sure who they are. It occurs most often when churches attempt to blend multiple church models into one. When ministry philosophies collide, schizophrenia happens. To have a simple church, leaders must ensure that everything their church does fits together to produce life change. Simple church leaders are designers. They design opportunities for spiritual growth. Complex church leaders are programmers. They run ministry programs. Church leaders who are designers are focused on the end result, the overall picture. They are as concerned with what happens between the programs as with the programs themselves. They have designed a simple process that moves people through stages of spiritual growth. Without a point of crisis, it is difficult to change. Problems are always bigger when everyone is tired. If the goal is to keep certain things going, the church is in trouble. The end result must always be about people. Programs should only be tools. Recruiting talented staff with different ministry philosophies or approaches is a foundation for frustration and disaster.

The church must pour out God’s grace to the world so that people may grow in His grace. Many churches need an extreme makeover. And the intended result of such a makeover must be the intersection of people with God’s grace. Some churches need some tweaking, while others need to redesign completely. Church leaders must craft opportunities where people will encounter the grace of God. Simple church leaders excel in designing a ministry process that leads to spiritual growth and vitality. They design a simple process and abandon everything else. They rely on their simple process to create the environments conducive to spiritual growth. 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 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. Before the process can be clear to the people in the church, it must first be clear to the leaders. A lack of clarity ultimately leads to confusion and complexity because there is no coherent direction. Movement is the sequential steps in the process that cause people to move to greater areas of commitment. Movement is about flow. Movement is the most difficult simple church element to understand. Assimilation effectiveness is more important than programmatic effectiveness. Alignment is the arrangement of all ministries and staff around the same simple process. Alignment ensures the entire church body is moving in the direction, and in the same manner. In a church that lacks alignment, everyone is competing for the same space, resources, volunteers, and time on the calendar. All churches naturally drift away from alignment. Without alignment, complexity is certain. Focus is the commitment to abandon everything that falls outside of the simple ministry process. Focus is the most difficult element to implement. Focus is the element that gives power and energy to clarity, movement, and alignment. In many churches the original tools for life change have created too much clutter. Instead of uniting, they divide focus. The programs have become ends in themselves.

Hell will not be able to hold back the church. Jesus says he is going to unleash a movement that will be so powerful and intense that it will be unstoppable. This movement is alive and growing. Ministry naturally drifts toward complexity, complexity just happens. Unfortunately, “complexity dilutes your potential for impact.” The church is designed to move people to greater levels of commitment and relationships. All steps must take people somewhere. They must not be ends in themselves. Less really is more.

Build lives. That is what ministry is all about. It is what you and your church are called to do. You are called to partner with God in a great building project. You are to build the spiritual house by bring people into a relationship with God. And you are to build the lives of individuals by helping them progress in the faith. To build the lives of people effectively, you need a clear ministry process. There is a highly significant relationship between church vitality and the clarity of the process. If you want your process to be clear, you must define it, illustrate it, discuss it, and measure it. You must also constantly monitor the understanding of your people in regard to your process. Defining your ministry process is extremely important. Without definition, people are clueless about how the church is designed to bring people toward spiritual maturity. If the process is not clearly defined so that everyone is speaking the same language, there is confusion and frustration. If there is not one clearly defined how, people construct multiple interpretations on the direction of the church.

Defining the process is formulating a strategy. Church leaders must define more than the purpose (the what); they must also define the process (the how). The process is more important than the purpose of a company because it is the process that makes everything work. People within a church must know the process because they are integral to fulfilling it. A clearly defined process encourages people to progress through it because they know the expectation. Determine what kind of disciple you wish to produce in your church. Narrow this list down as much as possible. After you conclude what you desire people in your church or ministry to be, describe this in process terms. In other words, describe your purpose in sequential order.
Your programs say what is important to you; therefore you must define how each program is used to produce the kinds of disciples God has called you to make. The programs must specifically be defined how they will be used to move people through the process of spiritual transformation. If you want your church members to see your simple process clearly, you must illustrate it. The simple process is more likely to resonate with each person if it is visual. People are more likely to remember it. People will not live out something they cannot remember. If they can attach the process to something that is etched in their minds, they are more likely to embrace it. The illustration should be reflective of your process. The illustration should help simplify. For people to take your ministry process seriously, it has to be measured. For people to internalize the simple how in your church, you have to evaluate it. The cliché is true: what gets evaluated, gets done. Measurement also helps leaders know if people are progressing through the process. Learn to view your numbers horizontally and not vertically. Measure attendance at each level/stage in your process.

For the simple process to become woven into the identity of the church, it must be discussed frequently. For the simple process to become a part of the culture of the church, it first must be woven into the leadership culture. If the hearts of the leaders do not beat passionately for it, the people will miss it. View everything through the lens of your simple process. By using your ministry process language frequently, you will establish a new vocabulary at your church. Test the leaders on it. Brainstorm new ways to communicate it. When the process starts to feel old, brainstorm fresh ways to communicate it. When people understand the process, they are able to embrace it personally. They are also able to bring others through it. As a leader, you must increase the level of process understanding in your church. Articulate the process corporately. You must also discuss the process interpersonally with other people. The most important way you help people understand the defined ministry process is through your personal behavior-living and doing what you are asking people to live and do. Take people on a journey with you. If you get in the boat, the ministry process will come alive.

Our churches should be filled with people who are becoming more like Christ. Becoming more loving and joyful. God desires to transform the people in Your church into His image. And He wants to do so with ever-increasing glory. Congested churches and stagnant believers are the antithesis of God’s plan. There is a significant relationship between the vitality of a local church and movement of the church’s ministry process. If you want your process to move people, your programming must be strategic and sequential. You must also intentionally move people, offer a clear next step, and provide a class for new members. Simple church leaders view programs as tools to place people in the pathway of God’s morphing. Placing your programs along your process is an extension of the clarity element. It is matching your programs with the simple process God has given your church. Choose one program for each phase of your process. Multiple programs for each phase of the process divide attention and energy. Design each program for a specific aspect of the process. Be sure that program effectively engages people in that aspect of the process. Place the programs in sequential order. Sequential programming produces movement. Order the sequence of your programs to reflect your process. The order of the programming must flow from the order of the process.

Designate a clear entry-point to your process. Identify the next levels of programming. The commitment should increase with each level of programming. The challenge is moving people through the process. Intentionally moving people through your ministry process is vital. Without movement, programs are an end to themselves. As you seek to move people from one program to another, think in terms of short-term steps. The steps should not be new programs. They should be short-term opportunities that expose people to an aspect of the process that they have not yet experienced. People move because someone else brings them through the process. Since relationships are so vital, set up relational connections between the programs. It is the handoffs that count. Movement is what happens in between the programs. Movement is how someone is handed off from one program to another. Relationships, not information, bridge the process. Capitalize on the power of relationships. View the present program as a bridge to the next program in the process. People stick to a church when they get involved in a small group. Just as children need nurture and attention during their formative years, so do new believers. Offering a clear next step for new believers is essential.

New believers are often the most vocal missionaries a church has. They still know lost people. They have a fire in them that many older believers lose. New believers are the greatest resource your church has to influence the community. “New Christians who immediately became active in a small group are five times more likely to remain in the church five years later than those who were active in worship services alone.” Discipleship of new believers does not just happen. It must be intentional. Simple churches are purposeful in their treatment of new members. It is critical that you use some type of new member training to move new people effectively into the life of the church. Typically at new member groups or classes, the beliefs, practices, and direction of the church are discussed. People get a chance to understand exactly what they are joining. They hear the heartbeat of your church. Great dialogue occurs, and people walk away with a deeper connection to your church. We have observed that simple church leaders use their new member training to teach their process and ask for commitment. Challenge your potential members to bring others through the ministry process.

Unity is powerful. And the impact is great. Such is the essence of alignment. It is not enough to unite the church around the same what (purpose), but they also must be aligned on the same how (process). Without alignment, complexity is assured. If you want to maximize everyone’s energy, you must recruit on the process, offer accountability, implement the same process everywhere, unite leaders around the process, and ensure that new ministries fit. The right players are vital. Without the right leaders, the church will never be aligned. People follow leadership, and if leadership is not moving in the same direction, the people are scattered. It is vital that you recruit and hire people based in part to their commitment to your ministry process. It is critical that you hire and place leaders in key positions who are deeply committed to your simple ministry process. They must be committed not only to ministry but also to how your church does ministry. Churches that bring people on the team who are committed to their simple process are enjoying the power of alignment. Everyone’s energy is moving in the same direction. Churches need leaders who are deeply committed to a core belief system. Theological alignment among leaders in the same church is important. While theological alignment is critical, so is philosophical alignment. If not, the church will move in a multiplicity of directions, driven by varying ministry philosophies. You should reference your simple ministry process as you higher and recruit. Use it to evaluate if potential leaders are a good fit with the direction of your ministry. You should recruit people who are not just accepting of your simple ministry process, but are deeply committed to it.

First, recruit on process. Second, offer accountability to leadership. One important aspect of leadership is accountability. It is especially critical to alignment. Without accountability, people naturally drift away from the declared ministry process. Church leaders must avoid the two extremes of micromanagement and neglect. Micromanagement stifles creativity and hampers shared leadership. Neglect fosters complacency and leads to fragmented team. Leaders should outline the simple process but then allow ministry leaders to implement with freedom and creativity. At the beginning of each year, sit down with each staff member to discuss his or her ministry action plan. From these considerations each staff member sets five to seven measurable goals for the new ministry year. The staff member also outlines how these goals will be accomplished. Each staff member presents his goals to the entire staff. A church that is committed to alignment implements the same process everywhere. Integrating the same process in each ministry department makes a profound impact. Understanding is increased. Unity is promoted. Families experience the same process. When a local body of Christ is not united in the same direction, the body is ineffective. The simple ministry process provides a framework for leaders in the church to rally around. There is a clear direction, and each person has a place to plug into it.

Unity is best expressed in the midst of diversity. Using your simple process as a unifying factor brings philosophical alignment. When people commit not only to the doctrinal beliefs of a church but also to the simple and strategic process, the energy of everyone is unleashed. The process of the church should become a point of agreement where people understand how ministry is accomplished. In order to keep leaders focused on the simple ministry process, you must remind them of the process and highlight their contributions to it. Show people how their seemingly small act of service is part of the big picture God is painting in your church. You must ensure that new ministries clearly fit into the overall design. The most challenging aspect of alignment is pulling existing ministries and existing staff in the same direction, especially if they have been moving in opposite directions. It is much easier to align new people and new ministries to the overall direction. If they do not fit, you simple do not allow them to begin. It is vital that you make sure new ministries fit into the simple process before they begin. Afterwards it is too late. Simple church leaders ensure it is a viable part of the simple ministry process. They ensure that the leaders of the new ministry understand how the ministry is part of the big picture. Ministry expansions are new ministries that are geared toward a specific age group or life stage. Ministry additions are new ministries that fulfill a specific function within the simple process.

There is an epidemic of fast-food spirituality among believers today. Many churches have become like fast-food establishments. A new idea emerges, and the menu is expanded. And we keep getting more and more unhealthy. The appropriate response: Stay focused on your simple process. Say no to everything else. This factor is the most difficult simple church element to implement and practice. It means saying no a lot. Saying no must be done with God’s wisdom and timing. Staying focused is essential to being simple, and a church cannot stay focused without saying no. After you have designed a simple church process with clarity, movement, and alignment, you are not done. There will be a constant temptation to abandon simplicity, to lose focus, to become cluttered. In our study, churches that are single-minded when it comes to their ministry process were far more likely to be a vibrant and growing church. You must eliminate nonessential programs, limit adding more programs, reduce special events, and ensure the process is easy to communicate and simple to understand. Many churches are littered with clutter. We do not believe it is impossible for a church to become simple. But it is difficult. It requires an absolute focus on the ministry process. Since elimination is a matter of stewardship, it is a spiritual issue. Eliminating programs, as God leads, is choosing to be wise stewards of the time and resources He has given.

Our observation is that simple churches exhibit excellence to a greater degree than complex churches. It is not that leaders of complex churches lack a commitment to excellence. They simply cannot provide it with the number of programs they oversee. Eliminate nonessential programs and then limit adding new ones. In general, vibrant churches funnel needs and emphases through their existing programs. While the comparison churches are program-centered, the vibrant churches are process-centered. The discipline to use existing programs allows leaders to provide constant promotion of the process and the programs within it. Simple church leaders have come to realize that less is more. Less programs mean more focus on the programs offered.

While we are advocating that you use existing programs, we are not suggesting that you never begin something new. New options are necessary, and new options are not new programs. A new option is just an expansion of your present programming, and this is a big difference. Giving new options helps engage people who are not involved. It also frees up space, multiples ministry, and provides energy. After you have designed your simple ministry process, all of your programming focus should go to executing the process. In general, simple churches are so focused on their ministry process that there is little time for extra events. If special events are always publicized in a church, the essential programs that move people through the process are not properly emphasized. Moreover, the events compete with the essential programs for the time of the people. Reducing special event is a challenge. Some special events can be beneficial to the church if they are used strategically. Funnel the event into an existing program. In some situations, combing the special event with an existing program is more effective. If the event cannot be funneled into or combined with an existing program, then it must be placed strategically along the simple process.

It is vital that your process be easy to communicate. If you want people to understand why you are so passionate about your ministry process, you must be able to communicate it with ease. If you desire for people to agree with the single-minded focus of your church, your process must be easily articulated. Your process must not only be simple on your side of the communication equation, but it also must be simple for the hearer to grasp. Understand leads to focus and commitment. Making your process understandable requires simple language and brevity.
McDonalds is influencing future generations. Churches are not. While the impact of McDonalds is spreading, the impact of the church is shrinking. In fact, most churches are spiritually stagnant and declining numerically. And this decline is in the midst of an increasing population. The church, as a whole, is doing more and more. And the church, as a whole, is making less and less of a difference. The kingdom is not about chatter. It is about action. Change or die. Thos are the choices. The majority of churches choose not to change. They would rather die. Tragically, in most churches, the pain of change is greater than the pain of ineffectiveness. In fact, the longer your church has been complex, the more difficult the transition will be. On one hand, you must move to simple as fast as you can. So much depends on it. On the other hand, you must move to simple slowly. You have the heart of a shepherd, and you care for the people in your church. Allow God to give you wisdom and grant you favor. Get on God’s timetable. Move to simple as God leads. Use wisdom and compassion in becoming a simple church. Here is the bottom line: Get there as fast as you can but not faster.

Complexity is often synonymous with mediocrity. First design a simple ministry process for your church-on paper. During this step, you are simply exploring what a process for discipleship would look like at your church. Use this step to create an environment receptive to change. Do not make the mistake of beginning with your existing programs. Begin with a blank sheet of paper. Involve others in the discussion. Narrow your definition of discipleship down to a few key points. Now it is time to discuss how it happens. After you have chosen a few key aspects of discipleship, place them in sequential order. The first step in the process should be the first level of commitment. Spend time discussing and preaching your process. The clearer this process for spiritual transformation is to people in your church, the easier the next transition steps will be. Choose one church-wide program for each phase of your simple process. The purpose of the program should coincide with the particular part of the process. You may have some programs left over, meaning they do not fit into your process. At this point the complexity becomes obvious. You will want to be sure each program in your process is designed to meet that specific aspect of discipleship effectively. Here is where the resistance to change happens. When you tweak a program, you are tweaking tradition. Now you must align each ministry around the same process. The more you involve other leaders in the design of the simple process, the easier it will be to unite them around it. Begin to eliminate things outside the process (focus). OK, this is where the change REALLY is felt. You must use wisdom.

An Executive Book Summary prepared by

Thomas L. Law, III, DoM
Tarrant Baptist Association
Ft. Worth, TX

(For More Book Summaries by Dr. Law

Go to: www.tarrantbaptist.org)