Less is More

Perhaps one of the keys to living well is climbing the mountain that allows one to see that less is more. 

I remember when I was a child how I dreamed of being extremely wealthy. I can still recall a drawing I did in art class.  We were asked to draw a picture of our future home.  You should have seen my picture...The house was huge.  It had a swimming pool that you entered through the back of the house and took a lazy river type ride acres away to the main pool. Yes, this was my dream.  I equated success with one word, "More!"

Funny how God works...a few years later, when I was 14 years old, on a Saturday morning, I knew that I knew that I knew God had called me into ministry.  What?  Wait a minute?  This is not my dream.  What about my dream house, what about my plans, what about my shyness, what about "More"?  God who made me knew me better than I knew myself.  He knew I was made for the kind of less that was so much more!

Twenty four years later, I see more and more the truth that Jesus made clear over and over again is less is more.  For instance, Jesus said, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" Mark 8:36.  And later he said, "Not so with you.  Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be a slave of all.  For even the Son of Man (Jesus) did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Mark 10:43-45.

I am not just learning this personally, but we have been learning this as a church family. 

About six years ago or so, we started to take very seriously the biblical value of being connected in authentic Christian community.  We would put even more time, energy, prayer and focus on our small group ministry.  This past year we have seen almost 70% of those who attend on Sunday morning get involved in a small group.  I know this is why we are seeing and hearing more stories of transformation than we ever have as a church family.  i know this is why we are seeing even more money and service given in being poured out to others.  (Did you know that this past church--year that ended last week--we gave over $155,000 away to serve others in our community, country and world?!) It is because less is more.

Four years ago, we began transitioning our ministry to teens from a big-program-one-youth-pastor model, to a cell group model with multiple adult mentors.  Last year, we went all the way with this model.  The result has been a foundation has been laid to change change the statistic that haunts the modern American church of 75% or more of our church kids graduating their faith when they graduate high school.  Furthermore, we went form about five people investing in our teens each week to around 14, plus we now have three small groups that have caught the vision and are developing simple ways to powerfully invest in teh next generation.  What a powerful and hopeful picture of this we saw as eight Transitions (6th graders) students were honored, challenged and prayed for as they leave behind child hood and enter into the life of our church family in the adult and teen ministry! We may have less teens involved in this style ministry, but the parents who choose to get their teens involved consistently are putting their kids in a position to genuinely be able to own and choose faith in Christ for their future.  Less, once again, is more!

This is even why we have changed our Vacation Bible School format.  Do you remember, a few years ago?  We had over 250 kids participate in our VBS.  "Wow!," we said, "How great?"  But then our director, Robin Wientge, and her team had the courage to ask some hard questions.  What we found was that the majority of those kids were kids from other churches.  For many of the church kids, our VBS was their 5 or 6th for the summer.  In addition, this influx of church kids from other churches robbed us of intentional, personal connection with our own kids.  Therefore, we have now moved to a summer camp model that starts this Sunday at 9:30 AM.  Why? Less kids here that don't need one more VBS allow us to give even more focus on nurturing the faith of our kids and the unchurched friends they invite.  Will we have big numbers to report?  No.  But, if there is anything Jesus is teaching us it is that less is so much more.