Back in April, I was asked by Tyndale House Publishers to do a review of their upcoming book, “The Rabbit and The Elephant.” As a church planter, and someone interested creating self-replicating groups, I was intrigued by the synopsis of the book which reads as follows.
If you put two elephants in a room together and close the door, in 22 months you may get one baby elephant. But two rabbits together for the same amount of time will result in thousands of baby rabbits! In The Rabbit and the Elephant, “micro church” planters Tony and Felicity Dale use the “rabbit” illustration to show the pace at which the Christian faith can (and should) be growing—through evangelism that is explosive and transformational. The Rabbit and the Elephant contains the key to 21st century evangelism—taking the gospel to where the pain and the people are.
This book tells the story of Tony and Felicity Dale’s journey toward Simple Church. With occasional input from coauthor and researcher, George Barna (see my interview with Barna here). The authors use the rabbit and the elephant analogy to say that smaller church is much easier to reproduce than a larger and more complex church. The Dales see themselves as fulfilling a specific call from God and as forerunners to a reformation that will be as big as Tyndale’s reformation (24). The Dale’s vision for Church is promoted through their magazine, conferences, and two websites www.simplechurch.com and www.house2house.com.
1. Jesus ministered in homes, and much of the Gospel narratives takes place in homes…2. New Testament Christians primarily met in small group or home settings…3. It is difficult to obey the commands of the New Testament in groups that are too large…4. Jesus entrusted his ministry to ordinary untrained men…5. Most aspects of ministry are better in a small setting…6. Simple churches multiply more quickly…7. Simple churches allow all the members of Jesus’ body to be fully functioning…
Please do not think this is a criticism of individual legacy churches. We personally owe a lot to the legacy churches of our formative years, and we are thrilled that two of our four adult children are seeking God with all their hearts at wonderful legacy churches. We believe that God continues and will continue to use legacy churches in remarkable ways (31).
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Joe,
I’m planning to read and review this book as well. Are you going to write more about it?
-Alan
I look forward to your review Alan. I did plan on writing more in this post, but my teaching job at a local High School, ministry, family and Doctoral studies really just overwhelm me right now.
I do hope to, at minimum, to reference some of the book in future posts.
A group of 10 that doubles every 18 months will reach 1000 people in 10 years and the world in less than 44.
Josh
Helping Groups Double
http://www.joshhunt.com