CNLP 758 | Does Simple Church Still Work? Eric Geiger on What Scales and Why Older Church Leaders Need to Die to Themselves
The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast
Carey Nieuwhof
4.8 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 7 October 2025
⏱️ 78 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nearly twenty years after releasing his groundbreaking book Simple Church, Eric Geiger reflects on why complexity still doesn’t scale, how complexity subtly creeps in as you grow, and what he’s learned since he started leading Mariners Church.
He also shares the great things that happen when older church leaders choose to set aside their own agendas and die to their egos so the next generation can thrive.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Art of Leadership Network. |
| 0:03.0 | Guess what? |
| 0:03.6 | You're looking at a guy who read it and implemented things almost immediately. |
| 0:09.2 | First of all, I want to thank you for the mass exit out of our church when I shut down a lot of ministries. |
| 0:13.2 | No, I take no responsibility. |
| 0:15.0 | I take full responsibility. |
| 0:15.5 | I learned how to lead change a lot better after that. |
| 0:21.9 | Welcome to the Keri Newhoff Leadership Podcast. |
| 0:24.2 | It's Carrie here. |
| 0:24.9 | I hope our time together helps you thrive in life and leadership. |
| 0:27.8 | Man, I had fun talking to Eric Geiger. |
| 0:30.8 | Does Simple Church still work? |
| 0:32.1 | It's a great question. |
| 0:33.1 | That book, you've been around a minute, or maybe you picked it up in the ensuing years, |
| 0:38.7 | was transformative for me. We talk about that as well as transitioning into one of the largest churches in the country |
| 0:44.4 | as the successor to a very influential pastor. I mean, about 160,000 churches are going to change |
| 0:51.6 | leadership in the next decade. That's a big deal. And we also |
| 0:55.0 | talk about why older church leaders need to die to themselves in the midst of transition. |
| 1:00.3 | That was a really good note. So I think you're going to enjoy it. Hey, huge shout out to Rick on Spotify. |
| 1:05.7 | Rick, you wrote, Carrie, thanks for this revival series. Your questions on this episode were so on point in helping us understand what God is doing among different churches. I truly believe what's going on is not a denominational thing, but a body of Christ thing. Couldn't agree more. Thank you so much, Rick. We read all of your reviews. And I want to thank you for everybody who leaves a rating or review, maybe shares this with your staff or your team. |
| 1:28.1 | I know you're busy. I love being on the road because you guys always tell me, man, I have a long drive and so I listen to the podcast. Yes, this is long form. That's where you get the good stuff, right? If you miss the revival series, I released in August, you can just slip back and check it out. that's a nice thing about a podcast feed, right? |
| 1:43.4 | Just go back to the August episodes. |
... |
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