Dave Browning, Deliberate Simplicity: How the Church Does More by Doing Less. Leadership Network Innovation Series. Zondervan, 2009.
Referenced in: Strategies for Congregational Renewal – Simple, Minimalist
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
This is an updated version of a Browning’s 2006 version by the same title. It is based on his experience with Christ the King Community Church of Bellingham, Washington. It is similar in genre to Rainer and Geiger, Simple Church.
Browning strikes against the “bane of complexity” in modern church development, arguing that people are not wired for it naturally. (23) He quotes research that says we get bogged down when we have too many “open circuits,” and that the principles of success is “less is more.” Just as parents do better by not over-stimulating but by capitalizing on the strongest connections, and websites like Google work hard to have only a few words on screen, and warehouse retailer Costco intentionally offers fewer choices in larger packaging, and Trader Joe’s offers an average 2,500 items compared to the supermarket average of 25,000, so he says churches should become less complicated. Yet, “many churches today are over-featured and unnecessarily complex.” He continues,
Each epoch of church history has introduced its own layers of complexity. The medieval church introduced hierarchical control, the reformed church introduced theological correctness, the corporate church introduced programmatic complexity. It doesn’t really matter how we got here. We got here. To the extent that today’s church has become political, institutional, or programmatic, we are making it more complicated than it needs to be. (31)
By contrast, he proposes a minimalist approach, which means the “smallest possible amount or least in extent.” (37) This should not be confused with a “simplistic” or laissez-faire model. “We are not espousing simplicity because we haven’t yet figured out how to be complicated. We are simple by design.” And it is not easy. “Simplicity requires a lot of prayer, thought, hard work, and discipline. The paradox of simplicity has been called Meyers Law: It is a simple task to make things complex, but a complex task to make them simple.” (32) Browning is careful to say that deliberate means carefully thought out and done intentionally. “A deliberate church thinks through the outcomes it wants to achieve, lets form follow function, and takes responsibility for results.” (22) “Simplicity describes the manner in which the Deliberately Simple church intends to carry out its mission: simply.” (22) The main ideas of Browning’s model are conveyed in the principle: less is more, and more is better. It is outlined in six sections:
The first three explain how less is more:
- Minimality: Keep it simple
- Intentionality: Keep it missional
- Reality: Keep it real
The last three expand on how more is better:
- Multility: Keep it cellular
- Velocity: Keep it moving
- Scalability: Keep it expanding
He discusses each of these principles in depth, with plenty of stories and discussion points to help readers translate the principles into their own contexts.
From the Publisher
Less is more. And more is better. This is the new equation for church development, a new equation with eternal results. Rejecting the ‘bigger is better’ model of the complex, corporate megachurch, church innovator Dave Browning embraced deliberate simplicity. The result was Christ the King Community Church, International (CTK), an expanding multisite community church that Outreach magazine named among America’s Fastest Growing Churches and America’s Most Innovative Churches. Members of the CTK network in a number of cities, countries, and continents are empowered for maximum impact by Browning’s ‘less is more’ approach. In Deliberate Simplicity, Browning discusses the six elements of this streamlined model:
- Minimality: Keep it simple
- Intentionality: Keep it missional
- Reality: Keep it real
- Multility: Keep it cellular
- Velocity: Keep it moving
- Scalability: Keep it expanding
As part of the Leadership Network Innovation Series, Deliberate Simplicity is a guide for church leaders seeking new strategies for more effective ministry.
About the Author
Dave Browning is the founding pastor of Christ the King Community Church, International (CTK), an eight-year-old nondenominational church with locations in twelve states and seven countries. He is a graduate of Denver Baptist Bible College (BA), Northwest Baptist Seminary (MDiv), and has completed the course work for his doctorate of ministry through Northwest Graduate School. Dave lives in Burlington, Washington, with his wife and three children. Christ the King is one of the twenty-five most innovative churches in America on a recent Outreach magazine ranking.
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