Dave Ferguson, Jon Ferguson, Eric Bramlett, The Big Idea: Aligning the Ministries of Your Church through Creative Collaboration (Leadership Network Innovation Series). Zondervan, 2007.
Referenced in: Approaches to Church Renewal – Simple, Minimalist
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
The premise of this book is that churches often suffer from “idea overload.” We are bombarding people with “too many competing ideas, and the result is a church with more information and less clarity than perhaps ever before.” (19) This reflects the overall information overload of the culture in general. Our ability to collect information has grown, but our capacity for processing it has not kept up. To counter this, the authors gleen from the work of brand consultants Bill Schley and Carl Nichols who suggest that companies should “redefine their products in terms of a single, mesmerizing ‘Dominant Selling Idea’” and reveal it “in an easy, everyday way that cements a brand as top dog in the hearts and minds of consumers without resorting to puffery and shallow glitz.”
The solution, they suggest, is not more information, but transformation, as people live out a carefully selected list of simply communicated ideas. They propose a method whereby a team of teachers conveys one idea every week to the larger worship assemblies, which is then discussed in families and small groups. The church is equipped to use these meetings to creatively collaborate on how to act on these ideas missionally in their communities. The teaching/preaching team plans which ideas to present one year in advance, and then organizes the church schedule to carry through (see chapters 6 and 7). The book presents the philosophy and details of implementation in ways that are useful both by contemporary churches and church plants as well as traditional and smaller congregations.
This method certainly has much to commend – simplicity, clarity, streamlined planning, flexibility, missional implentation, etc. On the other hand, it lends itself more to topical preaching (vs. expositional), and may lack the theological coherence and integration some may prefer. But the authors do a fairly good job safeguarding against becoming overly simplistic. This is one of a growing number of “simple, minimalist” methods of congregational renewal.
From the Publisher
Community Christian Church embraced the Big Idea and everything changed. They decided to avoid the common mistake of bombarding people with so many ‘little ideas’ that they suffered overload. They also recognized that leaders often don’t insist that the truth be lived out to accomplish Jesus’ mission. Why? Because people’s heads are swimming with too many little ideas, far more than they can ever apply.
The Big Idea can help you creatively present one laser-focused theme each week to be discussed in families and small groups.
The Big Idea shows how to engage in a process of creative collaboration that brings people together and maximizes missional impact.
The Big Idea can energize a church staff and bring alignment and focus to many diverse church ministries.
This book shows how the Big Idea has helped Community Christian Church better accomplish the Jesus mission and reach thousands of people in nine locations and launch a church planting network with partner churches across the country.
This book is part of the Leadership Network Innovation Series.
The Leadership Network Innovation Series presents real-life case studies and insights from leading practitioners and pioneering churches that are successfully navigating the ever-changing streams of spiritual renewal in today’s culture. Each book in this series will feature ministry stories about churches who are doing authentic ministry in innovative and healthy ways and will equip you to do the same.
About the Authors
Dave Ferguson is a spiritual entrepreneur and the lead pastor of Community Christian Church, an innovative multi-site missional church with eleven locations in Chicago. Dave is the movement leader for NewThing, an international network of reproducing churches. He is also the coauthor of The Big Idea. Check out the latest from Dave on his blog (www.daveferguson.org) or follow his everyday adventures on twitter @daveferguson.
Jon Ferguson is the cofounding pastor of Community Christian Church – a multi-site church in the Chicago Metro Area. He serves as teaching pastor and leads the Strategic Team of staff champions for adult, student, children’s, and creative arts ministries across all CCC locations. Jon is the cofounder and movement architect of NewThing, whose mission is ‘to be a catalyst for a movement of reproducing churches.’ He also serves on the boards of the Exponential Network and Stadia East and is an adjunct professor at Wheaton College Graduate School in the Evangelism and Leadership Department. Jon previously coauthored The Big Idea with Dave.
Eric Bramlett is the Creative Arts Director for Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL, and has been since 1996. Eric’s background is in the professional theatre, with degrees in acting and directing. CCC represents Eric’s first ministry experience, and he hopes to be at CCC for a long, long time. He is responsible for overseeing all large-group experiences from intensive artistic vision through production, and anything else he can think of overseeing. Eric has continued to be involved in the Chicago Theatre scene, most notably as an Artistic Associate for Porchlight Music Theatre Chicago, a theatre company he has been involved with since its inception in 1995. Eric loves his wife Kristi and their three kids, Sadie, Dillon and Anna.
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