Simple Church, Sustainable Church

As a “traditional-turned-organic” pastor, I am part of a growing number of people leaving paid church positions and traditional structures to pursue a different lifestyle of ministry. Like many others, I looked around at my ministry life and said, “this isn’t working.” The version of church that I had pursued brought more questions than answers, and left me wondering if there was a better way. Fortunately, God knows what He’s doing.

There is a shift happening the world over toward a simpler, more sustainable expression of church that returns us to the Biblical foundations that we started with. This shift is not condemning our past or discounting the effectiveness of prior efforts. It’s not about where we’ve been – it’s about where we are going and how God is getting us there. (To learn more about Simple Church, watch the documentary "What is Simple Church" by clicking here)

When we look at the expansion of the Kingdom of God in places like China , India , the Middle East , inside of prisons, etc… we can’t help but see a pattern and commonalities: people forced to meet in smaller relational groups that are less recognized and less formal. Could it be that by complicating how we “do” church here in the United States we have actually decreased our effectiveness? Have we planned God right out of the equation and stopped listening to Him in order to pursue our own version of victory?

Our modern rubric for church success is building, budgets, and butts. In many cases we’ve thrown common-sense to the wind in pursuit of these goals.

As per standard, churches here have nice facilities, sound-systems, paid staff, a 5-year plan, nice computers, websites, bulletins, video projectors, PowerPoint, a decent weekly service, and some type of advertising. None of these things are evil at face value, but what is the opportunity cost of such luxuries? Does it become evil when our high material standards rob from our ability to help those around us who are in need? Did Jesus tell us to function this way? Or, is it a product of our lust for a bigger, louder, and brighter version of church, thinking that polishing Jesus would make Him more likable?

The cost of this humanistic malignance is that church is now more difficult to replicate, less relationally authentic, less sustainable (both environmentally and economically), and less able to respond to common sense needs. As church leaders, we looked at these massive churches with tremendous influence and, like Veruca Salt at Charlie’s factory, said “Daddy, I want one…and I want it now.”

Because of current economic realties, this inflated version of church that we’ve come to know and love is barely feasible to maintain, and nearly impossible to launch or plant. It’s as if God has pushed the reset button in these three areas (buildings, budgets, and butts) and the paradigm is shifting before our eyes. And in the coming paradigm, things are more…simple.

Buildings

The modern assumption is that church is a building. Don’t believe me? Take your hands and lace your fingers together so the digits are on the inside and say these words… “Here is the church, here is the steeple, open the doors and see all the people.” Need I say more? This almost outlines the shifts that are happening.

One of the hallmarks of simple or organic church is that it meets in non-traditional locations. My simple church meets in the park. Others meet in homes. Still others meet in coffee shops, pubs, or food courts (which are just as Holy as any strip mall church, former grocery store, or theatre). By meeting in these less formal places, several things are accomplished.

First, it integrates faith and real life, including all the messiness. It moves our relationship with God into where we live, work, and play, and this makes living two separate lives much more difficult to pull off. Authenticity is the product.

Second, it removes the cost of the facility, reduces overhead expenses, and frees up the time spent on upkeep. This produces the obvious benefits of more time and money.

Third, it makes good use of existing facilities as opposed to building or occupying separate facilities. Each facility we maintain requires a tremendous amount of resources to keep it functional, ranging from electricity to toilet paper. By meeting in non-traditional places we significantly decrease the church’s environmental impact, and we make good use of the resources around us.

Money

As a former traditional church pastor, my first order of business after the weekend service was to check the offering. I would bet that most pastors are in the same boat. It’s just the reality of having a church with a thirsty budget.

However, how would the function of churches change if our expenses were cut in half, or removed all together? What would we do differently? Would we able to help those in need and pour those resources into the communities around us? But how could we cut the budget beyond removing the facility?

The next largest aspect of a church’s budget is payroll, but how could we mess with the pastor’s rice bowl?

What would happen if all paid pastors and ministry staff got part time jobs and went half-time at the church? I contend that the results would be positive and here’s why. It would lessen the financial burden the paid staff put on the church budget and free up resources to reach our communities (which would probably cause church growth). Second, it would force the staff to interact with the community (again, bringing in new faces). One of the saddest aspects of our modern church structure is that the better you get at ministry, the more time you spend inside a church building. This, in turn, causes us to be disconnected from the people and realities in the community around us and almost completely removes the pastor and staff from outside evangelism.

By removing the financial carrot in ministry, a major motive in how we “do” church would change and resources would be freed up to do the work Jesus calls us to. As a traditional church pastor, I had a keen eye on the budget and attendance, and that shaped how we conducted Sunday services. Now, as a simple church leader, it rarely crosses my mind and I don’t make compromises in order to attract a larger crowd. Life and ministry are just simpler when money isn’t a motivator.

Attendance

We don’t need to go any further than Jesus to see the value of a small group. On multiple occasions, He left large crowds in preference to small groups or solitude.

Yet for some reason, we have preferred larger, more complicated, concert-like gatherings to smaller groups where relationships are the norm, not the exception. If smaller, more relationally-based church has thrived in countries with fewer resources, then why do we insist on a more complicated, populous model just because we can draw a larger crowd? The Rolling Stones draw large crowds. The Super-Bowl draws a large crowd. I have a hard time believing that Jesus would organize such a meeting at the expense of smaller, less formal groups led by less polished people. Strangely, we do everything in our power to draw (and keep) a crowd, declaring success through a head count. Given the choice, Jesus got in His boat and left the crowd. What can we learn from this?

The advantage of living out a more organic, simpler, smaller model of church is not only in quality, but also, potentially, in quantity. First, there is less training needed to be a leader of a simple, organic church. The skill set required to lead a group of 10 people compared to those needed to lead 500 or 1000, and run what is essentially a small business, are drastically less. This increases the number of potential leaders, therefore increasing the total quantity of potential churches that could be planted. Second, the quality of relationship that develops in a small group of people is much higher than what comes from attending a large Sunday gathering. With these smaller groups, relationships with God and people are much more authentic and transparent.

Going Simple Makes Sense

Occam’s Razor is a mathematical theory that translates into many walks of life, including church. Put in plain terms, it states that the simplest solution is usually the best.

When it comes to church and church structure, cutting away the excess and simplifying our approach makes sense on many levels. By returning to our Biblical foundations and decreasing the sparkle we position ourselves to be in line with what God is doing.

It’s been said that the best thing to do in ministry is to find out what God is doing and then join Him in doing it. God is making the shift and I have a hunch He knows what He’s doing. Let’s do it with Him.

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Scott Linklater, and his wife Hillary, are the leaders of Expectation Church Network, a network of simple churches in The Foursquare Church based in Las Vegas . As a simple church network, they have used their additional time and resources to reach 95,000+ people from every corner of the globe with the Gospel on the Las Vegas strip. In addition, Scott works with The Foursquare Church in coaching church planters, owns a small media company, writes books, and works part-time at a hardware store. To contact Scott or be his friend on Facebook, use the email address scottlinklater@hotmail.com.

To find out more about simple church, visit www.whatissimplechurch.com.

To find out more about evangelism on the Las Vegas strip, visit www.jesusinvegas.com.