"Simple Church" Book Review & App (Part 1)

Today I begin reviewing the book Simple Church and applying the process to my life and ministry. You should know ahead of time that this book absolutely rocked me to the core, and I can't wait to apply it.

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.define

We must be able to “strongly agree” with the following statement: “We have a clearly defined process for moving a person from salvation to spiritual maturity to significant ministry.”

How is your how? Do you have a process that is clearly defined? Following are three concepts to wrestle with as you begin to define a ministry process:

1. Determine what kind of disciple you wish to produce in your church. What do you want the people to be.
I'm starting NON-SIMPLE on purpose, so I can narrow it down, but here are words and phrases that I associate with disciples: lovers of God, committed, courageous, filled with Holy Spirit power, filled with compassion and love for people, deep rooted in truth, active in ministry, wise and creative in reaching and serving the world.

2. Describe your purpose as a process. 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.
Hmmm...how about: Followers of Christ, Connected to People, Rooted in Truth, Immersed in Culture
The greatest two commandments are to love God and love people. I added "rooted in truth" because we live in a humanistic/hedonistic culture that believes you can do those two things any way you like - there must be deep rooted truth associated with HOW we love God and love people. "Immersed in Culture" is an expression of movement and involvement with those around us...with an end goal of making disciples. Maybe it goes without saying that if you truly love someone you are active in their lives, but I think too many people say they love people, but refuse get close to them, serve them, and actually get involved with them. And then there are people who "serve the world", but never share Jesus or make disciples, so verbally communicating this seems difficult for me in one phrase.

3. Decide how each weekly program is part of the process. The programs must specifically be defined how they will be used to move people through the process of spiritual transformation.
Followers of Christ: Sunday Worship Experience
Connected to People: Small Groups
Rooted in Truth: An online Community of Deeper Bible Study
Immersed in Culture: Ministry Teams

that's it for today...this is all very rough draft-ish, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.