It is rare that I finish a book about church or theology written in contemporary times and wish that it had just one more chapter or more! But that was just the case when I finished The Rabbit and the Elephant, Why Small is the New Big for Today’s Church (June 2009, Tyndale House Publishers) by Tony & Felicity Dale and George Barna.
In their new book, The Rabbit and the Elephant, Why Small is the New Big for Today’s Church the Dale’s and Barna use the following illustration of the reproductive natures of rabbits and elephants as a metaphor for church today.
If you put two elephants in a room together and close the door, if you’re lucky, in three years you may have one baby elephant. But when you put two rabbits together for the same amount of time, you’ll get thousands of baby rabbits.
They argue that our faith should be like the rabbits — growing through a way of life that is explosive and transformational. With many stories and illustrations from their own lives and adventures as church planters, along with the stories of many others from around the world also planting churches, the book explores the simple church phenomenon and the ideas and experiences behind its concept of “every member ministry.” With ample textured examples and exploration of the ideas, The Rabbit and the Elephant is designed to equip you with incorporating spiritual growth and outreach into every aspect of their lives, while discovering the key to 21st Century Evangelism.
Broken into succinct (and sometimes all-too-brief chapters) such as Drenched in Prayer, A Radical (Church) Life, Marching to the Spirit’s Drumbeat The Rabbit and the Elephant the message of rabbit like multiplication and church planting is told is a conversational and easy to follow way.
I would recommend The Rabbit and the Elephant, Why Small is the New Big for Today’s Church for anyone who has read any Frank Viola, Neil Cole, Alan Hirsch or Mike Frost and is wondering what simple church is. While not pushing house church. This goes along way at showing that church and Christianity is about a radical change in our lives, from our lifestyle to understanding the gospel — and learning to step outside the doors of the (relative safety?) of traditional, or legacy church and reach the world.
The Rabbit and the Elephant, Why Small is the New Big for Today’s Church has been a great companion for the journey I have been on to start an organic church among the homeless and marginalized here in Croydon. I have learnt from their lessons (I hope) and pray that the movement will be as successful here.
Tony and Felicity Dale are well known authors and “micro-church” planters originally from the UK where they trained as physicians. George Barna is also a well known author of several books and papers that research faith and life in USAmerica. Together they have crafted a simple yet elegant book, that belies the size of it’s pages.
The first chapter as a PDF can be downloaded here.
Here’s Wolfgang Simson talking about Rabbits and Elephants.
