Part 2: "Simple Church" Book Review & App

I'm continuing the review and application from the book Simple Church. For a few days we'll be in the "CLARITY" portion. Last time we talked about defining the process. Today is all about illustrating and measuring the process.

Simple Church
A simple church is a congregation designed around a straight-forward and strategic process that moves people through the stages of spiritual growth.
Clarity ⇒ Movement ⇒ Alignment ⇒ Focus

CLARITY.illustrate

a. Get Visual
i. The simple process is more likely to resonate with each person if it is visual. Recollection increases movement. Vision is always visual.
ii. Get some wise and creative people around a table and come up with one. Be sure your visual illustration has the following components:
1. The illustration should be reflective of your process
2. The illustration should show progression.
3. The illustration should help simplify.
a. If you have to explain a lot of symbols and hidden meanings in your illustration, it is too complicated.

CLARITY.measure

a. 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.
b. We must be able to “strongly agree” with the following statement: “We have a system to measure how people progress through the process.”
c. Process must be measured. If there is no measurement, the people within the organization will not internalize the severity and urgency of it.
d. Churches that measure their process prove its value.
e. To measure your process effectively, you must think differently in two critical ways:
i. Learn to view your members horizontally and not vertically.
In this realm we need to see what percentage of people are in each stage. For instance it's a bad sign if 80% are in small groups, but only 5% are in ministry teams, even if your Sunday worship attendance is strong and even growing - because there is a blockage in the discipleship process.
ii. Measure attendance at each level/stage in your process.
In this realm we are taking regular attendance at all stages of the process, not just Sunday mornings. We want to know how all the programs are doing that represent a step in the discipleship process.