Simply Church

The Rabbit and the Elephant

 
Our new book, "The Rabbit and the Elephant," co-authored with George Barna comes out on June 1st.  It has been a two year labor-of-love to write it.  We are asking that if anyone is planning to buy it, they order from Amazon.com.  Here’s their link to the book: http://bit.ly/DFD3k  This will increase our Amazon sales rank and hopefully make it more likely that others will buy the book.

Here's Tyndale House Publisher's version of what the book is about:

Rabbits, Elephants and Simple Church

If you put two elephants in a room together with plenty of food and water, close the door, and come back in three years, if you’re lucky, you may have one baby elephant. But do the same thing with two rabbits and you’ll get thousands of baby rabbits.

In their new book, The Rabbit and the Elephant: Why Small is the New Big for Today’s Church, simple church planters Tony and Felicity Dale, with acclaimed researcher George Barna, use the rabbit illustration to show the pace at which the Christian faith can (and should) be growing—through a way of life that is explosive and transformational. Through observations supported by the Barna Group research, the Dales document how church all across the world is changing from being event-based to life and relationship-based.

The Rabbit and the Elephant explores the simple church phenomenon and the ideas and experiences behind its concept of every member ministry. You will learn how to incorporate spiritual growth and outreach into every aspect of your life, while discovering the key to 21st century evangelism.

Lifespan of simple churches

A few months ago, Steve Lyzenga (www.house2harvest.com) did a survey on simple church finances for his doctoral dissertation.  I was on the committee and so had the privilege of seeing some of his results.  One of the results in particular surprised me. 

One of the questions he asked was concerning how long the participant's simple church has been in existence.  Popular anecdotal opinion says that the average simple church lasts two years or less.  Steve's results contradict this and don't forget, the churches he surveyed are still going strong.

Steve writes concerning the results of his survey, "Yes, the average age is 5.06 years with a range from 6 months to 40 years. If I remove the one at 40, the average drops to 4.78.  If I remove three more at 30, the average drops to 4.15.  If I remove three more at 20, the average drops to 3.75."

Simple churches last longer than we thought!

Video on Pagan Christianity

A few months ago, our son, Tim, who runs a video production company, produced a spoof ad for Frank Viola's book "Pagan Christianity."  Much to my surprise, a few days ago I checked to see how it was doing, and it has been viewed over 25,000 times.  It is hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hslswIal9u4