One In Jesus

Thanks to Dell Kimberly for pointing this out!

Stetzer and Geiger now get to their challenging third point: 

3. Simple churches offer less at the church building, thus creating opportunities for missional living.

Uh, guys, we just dropped $4 million on this building. Are you saying that it interfere’s with living for Jesus? You should have seen our old building … now that got in the way! We’re not about to give up our building, with the new coffee service and preschool playground and the great new sound system! Continue reading →

Stetzer and Geiger write,

2. Living a missional life is a part of a simple discipleship process.

Jesus’ famous words, known as the Great Commission, are often quoted yet also misunderstood in many churches. “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded” (Matthew 28:19-20).

Many read, “teaching them everything” in Jesus’ famous command. But Jesus challenges us to teach people to “obey everything.” The end result of discipleship is obedience, not merely information. The test of our ability to disciple people is not how many times we gather people in the warehouse to download more information into their brains. The test of our ability to disciple is how we effectively move people to obey the command of being Christ’s witnesses (Acts 1:8).

Continue reading →

Geiger and Stetzer begin with premise: Being missional and being simple require strategic thinking.

[Missional] leaders do not expect mission to just happen. They prayerfully seek for the best systems and structures that both facilitate and validate effective missional thrust into their communities. It is incumbent upon leaders to think outside the (warehouse) box.

This sounds simple enough, I suppose, but it’s the furthest thing from simple — or easy. Let me explain. Continue reading →

Ed Stetzer and Eric Geiger wrote an article called “Simply Missional” for Neue magazine. They make some great points I thought I’d reflect on in the next few posts.

Background

Stetzer is a Baptist pastor, author of several books, and consultant on church growth and evangelism.

Geiger, of course, wrote the Simple Church, a highly influential book that demonstrated statistically that churches with a simpler format — fewer events per week, more highly focused — grow more than churches with a more traditional “full service” format. Continue reading →