Simple Church Co-author Highlights Keys To Effective Discipleship Process
| Additional Resource:
LifeWay President and 'Simple Church' co-author Thom Rainer discusses the book during an Inside LifeWay podcast. Click here to listen. |
CRESTWOOD, Ky., 4/3/07 -- Emphasizing that simple isn’t the same thing as easy, Eric Geiger invited church leaders last week to explore the "Simple Church" process for discipleship and church growth.
Geiger, executive pastor of Christ Fellowship in Miami, is co-author of Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples with LifeWay Christian Resources President Thom S. Rainer. Simple Church is published by LifeWay’s B&H Publishing Group.
Geiger led a Simple Church Seminar March 20 at Crestwood Baptist Church in Oldham County, Ky. The one-day event, hosted by the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s church development team, attracted more than 250 participants.
While affirming the Simple Church process, Geiger warned church leaders, "Going to simple isn’t easy. Simple and easy are different. Simple is streamlined and focused; easy is effortless."
The Simple Church process is not about "just giving some programs new names," he pointed out. "A simple church is a congregation designed around a straightforward and strategic process that moves people through the stages of spiritual growth."
Geiger noted that he and Rainer began their research by identifying every Southern Baptist church that had grown 10 percent for three consecutive years. After finding only 116 such churches among Southern Baptists’ 43,000 congregations, he said, "We actually had to lower the expectations of what a vibrant church would be."
Focusing on churches with at least 5 percent growth per year for three years in a row, Geiger said they identified 417 such churches for the first phase of their research.
Noting that a simple church "isn’t just haphazardly thrown together," he added, "It is actually thought out. It is designed around a process that actually moves people somewhere - from point A in their spiritual journey to point B in their spiritual journey."
Four elements of designing an effective discipleship process in a local church are clarity, movement, alignment and focus, Geiger explained.
Describing clarity as the most important step in the process, he said, "Until you really have nailed down the clarity element, until you know the process God has given you, you don’t know what to eliminate" in order to achieve simplicity.
"For this really to be owned by you and make a difference in your church, it’s going to have to be a spiritual journey for you" as a church leader, Geiger noted. "If you can’t preach it, it’s not your process, it’s not your vision. Until it’s burned into your heart, don’t preach it."
Movement is designed to help people move to increased levels of spiritual commitment and ministry while alignment involves organizing all ministries and staff around a unified process.
"The process doesn’t produce disciples; God does that," Geiger emphasized. "Only God produces spiritual transformation."
Noting that "unity reflects the nature of God," he said, "You can’t get any closer than the Father, Son and Holy Spirit."
In many churches, "disunity most often festers over differences of philosophy and approaches to ministry," Geiger said, adding that churches that intentionally rally around a Simple Church process are "choosing to create unity where disunity most often festers."
Describing focus as the most difficult step to implement, Geiger said, "Focus is saying no to things that fall outside of your process."
Declaring that "less really is more," Geiger encouraged church leaders to "lead with courage, wisdom and compassion … to make a difference for the Kingdom of God."
For media inquiries, please contact:
Micah Carter – (615) 251.2307 or
Brooklyn Noel Lowery – (615) 251.2797
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