“The Big Idea,” put together by Dave Ferguson and the guys up at Community Christian in Chicago, specifically addresses an issue that I feel is draining the potential effectiveness of many modern churches – scatterbrainedness (or multitasking, if you prefer a more optimistic moniker)! That’s basically the idea that you can be all things to all people all the time, and we all know how THAT all works…
The Big Idea takes things in the exact opposite direction. There’s one primary concept – one. That one concept drives the weekend. In Dave’s perfect world, every element of the worship service would support the Big Idea – music, visuals, handouts, even announcements. As a former teacher, I wholeheartedly agree with Dave’s approach. Teaching “sticks” much better if you get the core concept across first – and sticks WAY better if you are able to come at that concept in a bunch of different ways.
The book also contains some very useful sections on supporting the big idea through advance planning, meeting structures, evaluation and multi-site integration – but back to the big idea of the book… One of the primary reasons that I really resonate with the big idea approach is that it’s centered on what the congregation is interacting with, rather than what we are trying to push at them. People’s worlds are cluttered up enough without us trying to throw ten different things at them in a service! OK, off the soapbox and on to a rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars.
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