Let’s simplify the Church
The Kingdom of God is experiencing its greatest growth in the most unlikely places today: China, India, the Middle East, etc., while the American Multidenominational Institutional Church we all know and love – where most of us come from – is shrinking. . Three places in the US where the Kingdom conducts the most are its correctional facilities, its workplaces, and its homes. Hmm. We can’t help but spot a pattern and some commonalities: These thriving Kingdom communities consist of people coming together in smaller relational groups that are less recognized and less formal.
Could it be that by complicating the way we “do” church here in the United States, we have actually LOWERED our effectiveness and our relevance to society?
In America, it’s all about the 3Bs: buildings, budgets, and butts in the banks. Too often, we throw common sense to the wind in search of these three, usually because we don’t know any other way; it’s in the DNA. We will spend perhaps millions on a building, creating an initial attraction. Although some will stay after that initial visit, most churches rarely multiply; one hundred rarely becomes two hundred which rarely becomes four hundred, etc. Although there may be exceptions, the fact that there are so few “success” stories should make us resistant to all attempts at replication.
Most “successful” churches in the US have good facilities, paid staff, websites, PowerPoint presentations, etc. None of these things are bad in and of themselves, but do they become bad when our high material standards rob us of our ability to help those around us who are in REAL need? Let’s be honest: Is this all a product of our lust for a bigger, louder, shinier version of the church, stemming from a mindset that by polishing Jesus we would make him more palatable to the modern masses?
I think so.
As we strive to achieve our church’s mission and our pastor’s vision, the fantasy church has become impossible to duplicate, less relationally authentic, less sustainable (both environmentally and financially), and less able to respond to REAL needs. of people, inside and outside the local congregation.
By the way, if your church has a mission and vision statement, throw it out; Jesus did not have one (unless it was Isaiah 61:1) and said that he came as an example. The best leader serves as a RESOURCE to help others in an effort to help them achieve THEIR God-given Kingdom visions. It is very unsatisfying to be part of a congregation whose mission seems to be funding a minister’s vision.
BUILDINGS
The first thing that comes to mind when we hear the word ‘church’ is a building with a bell tower, right? That is quite revealing. The Church – the ‘Ekklesia’ – mentioned in Acts 19 Refers to an angry mob as well as the people of the City Council. We also know that it refers to the people of God who met from house to house, occasionally gathering en masse in places like Troas when the apostle Paul came to the city.
One of the characteristics of the Simple or Organic Church is that it meets in non-traditional places. Some Simple Churches meet in parks, others in homes. Still others gather in cafeterias, restaurants, and conference rooms, and, yes, even in buildings with steeples (we are never NOT the Church and we are ALL always the Body of Christ, even when sitting in a pew).
The simplest form of Simple Church, of course, is a husband and wife who love their King, pray together, raise their children in a godly way, laugh, love, work together, and share what they have with others.
By meeting in less formal places, you accomplish four things:
1) Integrate faith with real life, resulting in beautiful things sprouting through fertilizer.
2) It moves our relationship with God to where we live, work and play, and this makes life behind a mask that much harder to remove, resulting in authenticity with others.
3) Eliminates the cost of installation, reduces overhead and frees up time spent on maintenance. This produces the obvious benefits of more time and money.
4) Makes good use of existing facilities rather than building or occupying separate facilities. Every facility we maintain requires a large amount of resources to keep it running, from electricity to toilet paper. By meeting in non-traditional locations, we significantly lessen the environmental impact of the church and make good use of the resources around us.
MONEY MONEY MONEY!
Jim and Cathy Mellon live in Killeen, TX and started their first house church in 1992. They wanted finances to be handled differently than the traditional church of which they were a part. That House Church grew over the years to become a network of six churches.
What happened to your finances? Here is Jim’s summary: “Over the last 17 years, we have been able to direct approximately one million dollars of construction payments and salaries towards benevolence and missions. We have helped plant more than 450 churches in India, influence in our community and save a life through giving benevolence.
How would the role of churches change if our expenses were cut in half, or better yet, eliminated altogether? What would we do differently? What could we do better? Would we be able to help those in need and from those resources to the needy and hurting people around us, things that we have come to expect more from the government than from the Church?
The next most important aspect of a church budget is payroll (I hope I haven’t lost the attention of dozens of ministers). What would happen if all the paid ministers and ministry staff got part-time jobs and worked part-time at the church? What if they quit and got FULL time jobs where their job was their ministry? (Let a workplace chaplain tell you.) I know it’s scary; most pastors do not possess many marketable skills, especially after many years at the helm of a church.
I maintain that the results of removing the financial burden from The Church’s salaries would be positive and here is why:
First, it would lessen the financial burden that paid staff puts on the church budget while freeing up resources to reach out to our communities, which would likely contribute even MORE to church growth.
Second, it would force staff to interact with the community (also likely to increase church growth). One of the saddest aspects of our modern church structure is that the better we get at ministry, the more time we are likely to spend inside church buildings. This, in turn, causes us to be disconnected from the people and realities of the community around us and almost completely alienates ministerial staff from outside evangelism (by the way, we would also eliminate the stress level experienced by so many miserable ministers who are some loneliest, unfairly evaluated and underappreciated humans on Earth, performing a role for which there is no example in Scripture and for which most have never been trained).
By removing the financial aspect of the ministry, a major motive in the way we “do” church would suddenly change and resources would be freed up to do the work Jesus calls us to.
Our Simple Church network in my hometown is thrilled to pool our resources in an effort to help others. I have never seen anything like this in my experiences with the Institutional Church and am constantly amazed at the amount of money planted by each small group. By contrast, the pastor of a traditional church has a keen eye on budget and attendance, and that shapes the way he conducts Sunday services. Questions like “Do they like the music? Are the rich members happy? Is my wife nice enough?” they’re always gnawing at your thoughts, not to mention being pushed in many directions at once as CEO of the spiritual corporation we call ‘church’. As far as Simple Church is concerned, such thoughts never cross our minds and we make no concessions to attract a bigger crowd. Life and ministry are simpler when money is not the motivator.
HOPING FOR
We don’t need to look any further than Jesus to see the value of a small group. On multiple occasions, he left large crowds in preference to small groups or solitude.
However, for whatever reason, we have preferred larger, more complicated, concert-style gatherings to smaller groups where relationships are the norm, not the exception. If a smaller, more relationship-based church has thrived in countries with fewer resources, then why do we insist on a more complicated and crowded model just because we can attract a larger crowd? Rock bands and football teams can do the same. I can’t imagine Jesus organizing such large gatherings at the expense of smaller, less formal groups led by less refined people. Weirdly, we do everything in our power to draw (and keep) a crowd, declaring success through head count. Given the choice, Jesus got into his boat and left the crowd. What can we learn from this?
The advantage of living a smaller, simpler, more organic model of church is not only in quality, but also, potentially, in quantity.
First, it takes less training to be a simple, organic church leader. The skill set required to lead a group of 10 people compared to leading 500 or 1000, and running what is essentially a small business, is drastically less. This increases the number of potential leaders, thus increasing the total number of potential churches that could be planted.
Second, the quality of the relationship that develops in a small group of people is much greater than that which arises from attending a large Sunday gathering. With these smaller groups, relationships with God and people are much more authentic and transparent.
IN A FEW WORDS, IT MAKES SENSE!
Complex things have a higher chance of breaking. Simple things last longer and are more easily duplicated.
When it comes to the church and church structure, reducing excess and simplifying our approach makes sense on many levels. By going back to our Biblical foundations and stripping away all the glitz and glamour, we position ourselves to be in line with what God is doing.
It has been said that the best thing to do in ministry is to find out what God is doing and then join Him in doing it. God is making a sovereign change and I have a feeling He knows what he is doing. Let’s do it with him.
If you are interested in embarking on this journey, there is a lot of help available. I found out that there are no superstars in the ranks of Simple Church. Just ask. Beware of trying to get to exactly what he thought he was gone from. Becoming a “mini-Church” is too often the extent to which many convert.
Listen to the Holy Spirit. Jesus wants to take back the Church from him. Surrender now and you will have the time of your life!
