"Church" is Broken?

In an interesting blog post, Kevin D. Hendricks opines that "Christmas is Broken". While I'm not quite as down on contemporary Christmas celebrations as he, I certainly am sympathetic to the sentiment and think he has a lot of good things to say, especially about how people are "reimagining Christmas".

What really resonated was the closing lines of the post:

...Just like Christmas, I think church is often broken. And the best way to remedy that problem is just like many are doing with Christmas--reimagine it and come up with new traditions that manage to get back to those original good ideas.

Churches need to find new ways to connect with jaded people. We need new ways to communicate the greatest story ever told. If your church isn't changing your neighborhood, maybe it's time reimagine church.

Well said!

Simple Church

Finally finished Simple Church by Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger and I would highly recommend it! The first four chapters flew by and were stuffed with great information and illustrations. The rest of the book was a bit less engaging - developing the concepts introduced in the first few chapters - but very well done, nonetheless.

The main idea is that a church’s strategy – their gospel-sharing, disciple-making method - should be a simple process. Programs should be used to move people along in this process. Complexity dilutes focus and should be avoided, even if it means having fewer programs. Simply put: Do a few things and do them well.

All church leaders should read this, and especially church planters. A church plant has a real advantage in that we are able to implement major structural principles without having to change established programs or traditions.

The concepts are not completely revolutionary – several are drawn from the excellent and even more highly recommended Seven Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley, Reggie Joiner, and Lane Jones. Nevertheless, this book distills these concepts and presents them in a clear, easily accessible (you could even say “simple”) manner.