The Kingdom of God is experiencing its greatest growth in the most unlikely places today: China, India, the Middle East, etc., while the American Multi-Denominational Institutional Church that we all know and love, that most of us we come, this contraction. Three places in the US where the Kingdom is prospering the most are its correctional facilities, its workplaces and its homes. Hmm. We can’t help but spot a pattern and some common ground: These thriving Kingdom communities consist of people meeting in smaller relational groups that are less recognized and less formal.
Could it be that by complicating the way we “do” the church here in the United States, we have actually DECREASED our effectiveness and our relevance to society?
At Amerca, it’s all about the 3Bs: buildings, budgets, and butts on the bench. Too often, we jettison common sense in pursuit of these three, usually because we know of no 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 resist all attempts at replication.
Most of the “successful” churches in the United States have good facilities, paid staff, websites, PowerPoint presentations, and so on. None of these things are bad in themselves, but do they turn bad when our high material standards rob us of our ability to help those around us who have a REAL need? Let’s be honest: is this all the product of our lust for a bigger, louder, and brighter version of the church, stemming from a mindset that polishing Jesus 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 authentic in relationships, less sustainable (both environmentally and economically), and less able to respond to the REAL needs of people, in and outside the local congregation.
By the way, if your church has a mission and vision statement, drop them; Jesus didn’t have one (unless it was Isaiah 61: 1) and said he came as an example. The best Leader serves as a RESOURCE to help others in an effort to help them achieve THEIR visions of the Kingdom that God has given them. It is very unsatisfying to be part of a congregation whose mission seems to be to fund a minister’s vision.
BUILDINGS
The first thing that comes to mind when we hear the word ‘church’ is a building with steeples, right? That is quite revealing. The Church, the ‘Ekklesia’, mentioned in Acts 19 refers to an enraged mob, as well as the people of the Town Hall. We also know that it refers to God’s people meeting from house to house, occasionally gathering en masse in places like Troas when the apostle Paul came to town.
One of the hallmarks of the Simple or Organic Church is that it meets in non-traditional places. Some simple churches meet in parks, others in homes. Others meet in coffee shops, 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 on a bench).
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, four things are accomplished:
1) Integrate faith with real life, resulting in beautiful things sprouting through the fertilizer.
2) It takes our relationship with God to where we live, work and play, and this makes life behind a mask that much more difficult to remove, resulting in authenticity between us.
3) Eliminate installation cost, reduce overhead, and free up time spent on maintenance. This yields 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 an enormous amount of resources to keep it functional, from electricity to toilet paper. By meeting in non-traditional venues, we significantly lessen the church’s environmental impact and make good use of the resources around us.
MONEY MONEY MONEY!
Jim and Cathy Mellon, live in Killeen, TX, and started their first Church House in 1992. They had a desire to see finances handled differently from 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’s Jim’s recap: “Over the past 17 years we have been able to allocate approximately $ 1 million in construction payments and salaries toward benevolence and missions. We have helped plant over 450 churches in India, influence our community. and save a life through giving benevolence. “
How would the role of the churches change if our expenses were cut in half or, better yet, if they were all eliminated together? What would we do differently? What could we do better? Could we help those in need and pour those resources into the needy and hurting people around us, things we expect more from the government than from the Church?
The next most important aspect of a church budget is payroll (I hope I don’t lose the attention of dozens of ministers). What if all paid ministers and ministry staff got part-time jobs and went to church part-time? What if they quit and get FULL-time jobs where their job was their ministry? (Let a workplace chaplain say that.) I know it’s scary; most pastors do not possess many business skills, especially after many years leading a church.
I contend that the results of removing the financial burden from Church salaries would be positive and here is why:
First, it would reduce the financial burden that paid staff placed on the church budget, while freeing up resources to reach out to our communities, likely contributing to MORE church growth.
Second, it would force staff to interact with the community (also likely to contribute to church growth). One of the saddest aspects of our modern church structure is that the better we become in 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 eliminates the ministry staff of outside evangelism (by the way, we would also eliminate the level of stress experienced by so many miserable ministers who are some of the loneliest, unfairly evaluated and underrated human beings on Earth, playing a role for which there is no biblical example and for which most have never been trained).
By eliminating the financial aspect of ministry, a primary motive in how we “do” the 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 delighted to pool our resources in an effort to help others. I have never seen anything like this in my experiences at the Institutional Church and I am constantly amazed at the amount of money planted by each small group. In contrast, the pastor of a traditional church has a keen eye on budget and attendance, and that determines how they conduct Sunday services. Questions like “Do you like music? Are rich members happy? Is my wife nice enough?” they are always biting into your thoughts, not to mention being drawn 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 larger crowd. Life and ministry are simpler when money is not the motivator.
EXPECTATION
We don’t need to go beyond 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 and 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 soccer 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 polished people. Interestingly, we do everything in our power to attract (and keep) a crowd, declaring success through people counting. When given the option, Jesus got into his boat and left the crowd. What can we learn from this?
The advantage of living a more organic, simpler and smaller model of church is not only in the quality, but also, potentially, in the 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 those required to lead 500 or 1,000, and run what is essentially a small business, is drastically less. This increases the number of potential leaders and therefore increases 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 higher than that obtained by attending a large Sunday gathering. With these smaller groups, relationships with God and people are much more authentic and transparent.
JUST PLACED, IT MAKES SENSE!
Complex things are more likely to break. Simple things last longer and are more easily duplicated.
When it comes to the church and church structure, cutting the fat and simplifying our approach makes sense on many levels. By going back to our biblical foundations and removing all the glitz and glamor, 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 discover what God is doing and then join Him in doing it. God is making a sovereign change and I have a feeling that 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 discovered that there are no superstars in the ranks of the Simple Church. Just ask. Be careful trying to get to exactly what you got out of. Becoming a “mini-Church” is too often the extent to which many turn.
Listen to the Holy Spirit. Jesus wants His Church to return. Give it up now and you will have the best time of your life!