The Desire for Simplicity - How can the church respond?

[James Nored]

We live in an incredibly complex world. We have gone from the big 3 broadcast channels to hundreds of  cable and satellite channels. 

The amount of digital information in the world doubles every 11 hours--an unfathomable rate (see story). 

The Internet has brought virtually unlimited amounts news, pictures, books, blogs, videos, and social sites. 

And we feel the overwhelming weight of all of this noise. We dread opening our email. There is too much junk email to go through. Too many forwards that are not funny or worth the effort. Too many people who ask questions that require two page answers. Too many people we don't know, with their own agenda, cluttering up our lives.

And the daily choices we have to make--while great in some ways--are overwhelming. Remember the add that highlighted the question at the check out stand, "paper of plastic"? In an overly complex world, even these types of choices can start to overwhelm us.

Our world is longing for simplicity.

For years, consumers responded to having more choices. The more offerings, the greater the appeal to different people. And this is still often the case. But consider the appeal of Google's home page. A single, unadorned text box with no advertising. Simple. No pretense. Nothing else clamoring for our time or attention. Studies have shown that the more you have on your home page, the less people go to it. (Which is one reason I will be reducing the number of choices on MON's home page.)

And despite all of the interest in customization--still a huge desire--it is ironic that the Iphone, with its 100,000 apps, is not able to be customized in its software (see story). People seem not to have minded. In fact, by having a closed system, Apple has eliminated hackers and spammers. Aren't you glad that you don't have to deal with this on your Iphone?

Businesses--often the first to note cultural trends--are responding to our world's desire for simplicity. There are email filtering technologies. Closet organization systems. Simple billing (cell, Internet, and cable on one bill). Simple diets. Simple exercise routines. Simple wills. Sadly, last week I even saw multiple signs for "Simple Divorce" along the highway. 

There is much I want to say and apply to the church on this subject of simplicity. But I don't want to do too much at once. I "simply want to ask:

In seeking to be servants, what areas of people's lives can we--individually and as a church--help simplify? Where do people seem overwhelmed in their time, organization, or choices?

[Darin Hamm]

A good book on this topic is The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz. To your question, for me the best thing we can do is show how clutter is not God's plan for his people.

[Dietrich Gruen]

Another good book in this regard is Simple Church, by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger. It highlights the Simple revolution, and tries to return the church there, illustrating with simple stories how a 4-step procedue (clarity, movement, alignment, focus) is a more effective and efficent process for making disciples. Some of the pushback on this book is that many churches will still want more choices, more tracks to run on. This one church growth book sets forth one idea and applies it over and over until we get it. But this is not a formulaic, overly simplistic approach. To do Simple Church takes hard work. Our church, under a new young pastor, is getting it, and together with the elders on board will be implementing this singluar vision in due time.--Dietrich

[James Nored]

Dietrich, Simple Church is indeed a good and thought-provoking book. I think that church planters in particular ought to look at this book. A key that I will talk about in another post is this. While the staff organized and run, top-down, initiatives in a church perhaps should be limited, the number of member initiated outreach ministries ought to not be limited. We should empower people and encourage them to reach out in ways that God has laid upon their hearts. Some of these ministries may develop into staff sponsored ministries, but many will not.

Certainly, in established churches we should let ministries that are no longer useful or that do not have sufficient passionate workers to die. Have a funeral in this case--talk about how great the ministry was, the number of people that it impacted, etc. This will be meaningful to those who participated. It also allows them to move on to more current and/or effective ministries.

[Dietrich Gruen]

Agreed. I wish we had had a proper funeral for the Stephen Ministry that I co-directed for 8 years, but was allowed to peter-out un ceremoniously. Now it may start up again, two years later, but under staff leadership. Interesting....--Dietrich

James Nored said:

Dietrich, Simple Church is indeed a good and thought-provoking book. I think that church planters in particular ought to look at this book. A key that I will talk about in another post is this. While the staff organized and run, top-down, initiatives in a church perhaps should be limited, the number of member initiated outreach ministries ought to not be limited. We should empower people and encourage them to reach out in ways that God has laid upon their hearts. Some of these ministries may develop into staff sponsored ministries, but many will not.

Certainly, in established churches we should let ministries that are no longer useful or that do not have sufficient passionate workers to die. Have a funeral in this case--talk about how great the ministry was, the number of people that it impacted, etc. This will be meaningful to those who participated. It also allows them to move on to more current and/or effective ministries.