Simple Church Synchronicity

Adopting a simple church philosophy is the easy part. Making it work with your already existing ministry systems is the challenging part. Unless you are a church planter with no currently existing ministries to deal with, you must consider this factor if you hope to adopt a simple church model at your church.

(“Simple Church” is a reference to the book by Thom Rainier & Eric Geiger, Simple Church.)

Here is a recent discussion about applying Simple Church concepts to your announcements:

Simple Church Advocate: we don’t do any announcements unless they relate to our two core distinctives

Listener: “What about your men’s and women’s ministries? What do you do when they want to announce a new Bible study or a men’s retreat?”

Simple Church Advocate: “I ask them what the purpose is. If they say, ‘The purpose is because we’ve done it every year for the last 10 years,’ then it’s denied.

Listener: “Why would you do that?”

Simple Church Advocate: “We don’t think it is fair to our newcomers and seekers to distract and confuse them with too many messages and options. If we provide 10 different options during announcements, what are we saying about the discipleship ministries we believe will give them the most help spiritually?”

Listener: “Sounds like you are going to organize yourself simply out of existence!”


So, who is right in this exchange? It presents the challenges of synchronizing the Simple Church principle of Focus (Clarity, Movement, Alignment, Focus) with any church which already has programs in existence.

What is the best way to handle this dilemma? Is it a free-for-all for anybody who wants to promote their ministry event? How do you decide which ministries to promote or not promote, or (the unheard of), cancel a ministry that has been in existence for years?

Just a thought….

Dr. Bill