Is simple church being taken out of context?

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

While I applaud this generation of youth ministers in the rediscovery of simplifying and streamlining their ministries, there is a troubling trend afoot. Here is how I see simple church being misinterpreted or misapplied.
1. Simple is not an excuse for doing nothing.
2. Simple is often applied as an alternative to burn-out when the real solution is to apply biblical equipping of the saints.
3. Relabeling your ministry as SIMPLE does not make it more effective.
4. Applying Simple Youth Ministry to an ineffective strategy will accomplish nothing.
5. Doing simple Youth Ministry can accidentally lead to doing less than God has called you to do.
6. Simple is not the same as efficient.
7. Simple is not the same as professional.
Collaborate, streamline, work smarter not harder but please don’t be that misguided trend follower that applies someone else’s plan to a totally different ministry setting due to a lack of training or energy to discover an effective strategy for your situation.
No doubt this generation of student pastors have a difficult challenge in finding ways to reach an increasingly busy, distracted and bored generation of students. Applying some of the principals for simplifying under the less-is-more strategy may be a positive move.