The Big Idea

Book Review

Ferguson, Dave. Ferguson, Jon. Bramlett, Eric. The Big Idea. Focus the message- multiply the impact. Zondervan. 2007.
The authors are on staff at Community Christian Church in Chicago. (Lead pastor, co-founder, and creative arts director.)

Comment. Henry.
The motivation for writing this book came from the common problem that most people experience very limited retention of information that is being presented to them in a normal church service. This book seeks to correct that by focusing on one Big Idea that characterizes everything that goes on in a service. It is certainly a sound teaching principle. A helpful resource for church staff leadership.

To communicate effectively with groups of people, avoid information overload and focus on one main idea. A lack of genuine community will result in “Information Isolation”. (34) Such a situation is the result of not loving our neighbor as ourselves. When small groups interact on materials that come out of ‘Big Idea’ sermons community is encouraged in a church. The Big Idea contributes to “creating missional velocity”. (47)

“The Big Idea process transcends generational differences and appeals to all.” (72) The implementing



of the Big Idea happens in stages that will accommodate a church. The first stage is about basics followed by integration and then moving on to a global focus.

The authors walk us through the steps of creating a “one-year big idea plan”. (95) Having created the plan the task of implementing begins. The key players in this process are the lead pastor and the creative arts pastor. This happens over a ten to thirteen week period. The specific teaching in this plan will probably become a ‘teaching team’ effort. Time commitment for planning becomes very disciplined, e.g. “105 minutes a week”. (148)

“The Big Idea is everywhere- from children to students to adults to senior citizens- and we’re very intentional about keeping it that way.” (165)

Three things are addressed in Christ’s ‘great commission’ of Acts 1:8. Take risks, be Spirit led, and reproduce. This is Jesus’ Big Idea. “You can do it!” (194)