The Simple Church and Clarity

As promised, although a little late in coming, a continuation of my thoughts from Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger's book, Simple Church.

The original discussion began here as an overview, and today I want to look at why it is important for the church to be clear.

Clarity is the first step in the process to a Simple Church. "Clarity is the ability of the process to be communicated and understood by the people...If you want your process to be clear, you must define it, illustrate it, discuss it, and measure it." pg. 111.

It is important for us, pastors, to me clear. This is a responsibility entirely on our shoulders. If people don't understand the processes, we can't say, "What's their problem!". The problem is ours, as leaders.

When we communicate clearly, we can't do so with empty and lifeless words. We need to let our words paint a picture. They need to illustrate, and we need to have visual illustrations as well. We all know that we live in a visual culture. But it is important that we not only communicate to a person's ear but also their eye.

Also, clarity will demand that we communicate frequently. Andy Stanley says that vision leaks. I agree, communication is not "one and done". So it is important that the leadership and the church constantly and creatively communicate the process.

The process for a Simple Church needs to be woven into the DNA and fabric of the church. One example is that it become the template of every discussion in the church. An example would be that staff meeting discussions would be organized by the process. Too often the staff meeting becomes a forum to merely discuss the most urgent thing or simply a checklist of stuff to accomplish. But when the staff meeting is organized around the process, it drives the process into the discussion and it releases the meeting from becoming time spent on simply the tyranny of the urgent.

What are your thoughts on how to communicate more clearly?

Next post, The Simple Church and Movement.