Simple Life – A Review tagged: , , , ,

Simple Life – A Review

Posted by in Church & Missions, IMPACT Features

Simple Life: God, Time, Relationships, Money. Thom S Rainer and Art Rainer. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2009. 324 pp. $19.99

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When I received the book, Simple Life, in the mail, I was a little skeptical.  I felt the journals, devotionals, meditations, etc. from the Purpose-Driven Life did more to promote commercialism and materialism within Evangelical Christianity than to actually get people to live purpose-driven lives.  I wondered as I ran my hand across the dust jacket of this book, “Is the Simple… series just milking the Simple Church concept for more than it’s worth?”

What it’s About
Simple Life is about making life simple.  Too many of us have filled up our time with activities that are wearing us out instead of building us up.  Our relationships suffer.  Our finances get out of control.  We move God to the background of our lives.  For those of you who’ve read Simple Church, this may be ringing a bell.  Simple Life follows the same formula as Simple Church for dealing with the complexities of life as Simple Church:

CLARITY – MOVEMENT -  ALIGNMENT -  FOCUS

CLARITY is simply coming up with a workable plan.
MOVEMENT is getting some action done on the plan.
ALIGNMENT means making some adjustments to the actions and/or the plan.
FOCUS is getting back to the point of the plan and sticking with it.

Contrary to the official title listed at Lifeway.com (the first line of my post), the book follows each topic in the order on the cover: Time, Relationships, Money, God.  Any passerby can scan the cover of the book and come to a pretty good conclusion concerning what the book is about and even nod his head in agreement.

What it Does
Simple Life is not deep.  It would be a violation of the book’s premise if it were.  I’m currently taking an online seminary class and I am reading some pretty complex material (The Doctrine of God by John Frame, for one).  While my textbooks leave more for me to probe, Simple Life leaves more of me to probe.  The Rainer father and son duo include an activity at the end of each chapter designed to make you probe the depths of your heart.  They ask tough questions.  And when they ask the tough questions they usually give one or two examples of how the people in their survey responded—both positive and negative, so they don’t let you off without thinking about your motives.  This is where most of the books I’ve read about getting these four topics in order have failed.  They don’t ask you to assess your heart issues.

Simple Life is a simple book for people looking for what the title implies: a simple life.  You won’t find pull-out calendars designed to help you plot out your week.  You won’t find The Love Dare tucked inside the dust jacket flaps (though you will find quite a bit of praise for it).  You won’t find a budget sheet or a prayer calendar.  Those tools may be necessary as you seek to live out the simple life, but the book serves more as a bridge builder between where you’re at now and the the realistic goals you want for tomorrow.  Metaphorically, this book tells you to set your goal at walking a mile and then adjust it as you see improvement until you can run a marathon.

Criticisms and Praise
You can’t have a good book review without at least a few criticisms.  The biggest one that stands out to me is prayer.  It is barely mentioned until the last section about God.  Once you make it that far you are encouraged to pray that God would draw you closer to Him, that God would enable you to keep your commitments to spend time in the Word, to go to church.  While I agree wholeheartedly with this, I think the whole process of pursuing the simple life (time, relationships, money, and God) should be bathed in prayer, not just the last part.  Does growing closer to my spouse require less of God’s intervention than my growing closer to Him?

I questioned who the authors were writing, too, as I read the book.  Sometimes they used so many Christianese words that I figured they must be writing to Church folk.  Other times they provided a lighthearted apologetic for non-Christians.  They tried to hit everybody with a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  One majorly redeeming quality was the constant affirmation of Christian truths and a two-page gospel presentation towards the end of the book.

Worth Reading?
Is it worth reading?  Yes and no.  If you are already living a simple life, you certainly don’t need to read this book to make you feel better about yourself.  On the other hand, if you have too many activities in your life, you see your finances aren’t being managed well, or you’re pushing God to the background in your life, I’d encourage you to look this book over.  Perhaps the first sentence of the book better identifies who should read it than anything else:  “You’re probably too busy to read this book.”  If that describes you, you may want to give it a try.

One thing I realized is that I don’t need to feel guilty for not being as busy as other people.  I’ve met pastors who feel like they have to be busier than their congregants in order to identify with them and be relevant to them, but pastors are called to live in such a way that people long to follow their example.  A quote from the book really shook me, even though I haven’t been blessed with children as of yet.

Proverbs 22:6 says, “Teach a youth about the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.’  But what if our influence, our training, is wrong?  Will they depart from it?” (25)

If you aren’t living the simple life and find yourself too busy with activities, even good activities, that wear you down, are you willing to see your children follow suit?

Milking Simple Church for More than it’s Worth?
Simple Life is riding on the coat tails of Simple Church and will owe much of its popularity and financial success to the successes of its predecessors.  But on its own, the book provides encouragement to believers and even a testimony to the lost about who a simple life should be focused on: God.  As long as the “Simple_________” movement continues to produce books that not only stand on their own but can contribute something new, I think I’ll keep adding them to my “Favorites” shelf in my library.

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Andrew & HannahAndrew Wencl is a frequent commenter on sbcIMPACT! and currently attends Southern Baptist Theological Seminary through distance learning while working as a Human Resources Specialist for the Department of Defense.  His wife Hannah is a big support to him as he prepares himself for full-time mission work overseas.