Wrestling with the Church--part 4: Keeping It Simple

I'm currently reading an excellent book (at least it's excellent so far) entitled, Simple Church by Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger. The premise of the book is that life is getting to be so complex that people are longing for simple. Look at eloan.com, for example. Their new slogan is: Radically Simple. My wife gets a magazine called Real Simple. The authors point to the "simple" philosophy behind such successes as Southwest Airlines, Google, and iPod, to name a few.

Rainer and Geiger did extensive research and found that vital congregations keep their mission simple--not a lot of programs and clutter but a very simple process for helping people grow as disciples of Jesus. Struggling churches tend to be overwhelmed through being over-programmed. Each program asks for a little bit more time for an already overly busy person and the result is that people surrender and give up.

Keep it simple, keep it significant, and keep it fun is our mantra. Rather than being a program-heavy church, we want to be a mean, lean, movement of people following Jesus on the bold, daring, reckless adventure of bringing grace to the world. We don't need lots of church programming. We're already busy doing what Jesus has called us to do--working, raising families, building friendships and marriages, volunteering in the community. The mission of Grace is to equip and train us to live our lives with intention--seeing our lives as sacred missions and our jobs as sacred callings, touch points between God's grace and the world around us.