After I began reading Simple Church, I began to see elements of ministries I have been involved in and am currently in through the examples given. Amazingly, Simple Church brings not only relevant issues pertaining church processes, but give helpful, practical methods which have been proven to work. Every person in Church leadership should read this book as it gives perspective to problems, and affirmation for those who are truly on point.
Ministry will always bring stress, but if you want to: 1) see people spiritually grow and 2) have less stress in meetings and ministry management, buy this book. The point of the book is to teach you how to streamline the discipleship process so it becomes easy for people to take the next step in their growth. This book should be used in every Christian university and seminary.
I liked this book because it challenges the church to rethink its programming mentality. It is so easy to get on a merry go round of activities and burn everybody out and have nothing to show for it when it comes to spiritual growth. I like the emphasis on putting together a discipling process and then sticking with it.
I stumbled upon Simple Church when challenged about a church growth campaign in our local congregation. This book is not about that. It is not another formula. It is not another design. It is simple; Do what Jesus did. Make disciples of Him, not programs. Backed up by good research (for those of us that need to see some solid stuff besides just "a feeling") but speaking also in terms of things we know in our spirit, this book does a great job combining the two. It may not be for everyone, but it certainly challenged me and my team to strive to be simply effective.