The Skeleton - Part 3
We tend to over complicate ministry all the time! I have been guilty for years of over complicating ministry. I have implemented too many programs, calendared too many events, and over complicated too many areas in my life that has resulted in my spiritual health and my family suffering. Why do we do this?
We want to please everyone, so we try and do everything. Someone likes a certain event, even though it wasn’t very effective, so we keep doing it to please people. A church member suggests a certain program and, even though it doesn’t fully line up with our vision, we do it anyways...to please people.
Maybe we keep some programs around, even though they are past their prime, simply because if we canceled the program it would make a few people mad. So we keep doing what we’ve always been doing, why? To please PEOPLE.
The only problem with this is that we are trying to please the wrong person. And, because of that, we over complicate the ministry.
Maybe we have jealousy towards the church down the street and we want to out do them. This often means we have to add more programs. Or we do the exact same programs that church is doing in order to try and mimic their success. We very rarely cancel programs. We just keep doing them while adding new programs to the mix. Then we wonder why we are tired and ineffective. It is because we are competing against ourselves. We are not focused in our purpose and pursuits. We become a Jack of all trades and master of none. And, because of that, we over complicate the ministry.
Some of us struggle with a Messiah complex where we feel like the weight of everyone’s spiritual growth rests on our shoulders. We think we are doing Jesus a favor by giving him some time off. For some reason, we think if we weren’t in the picture then nobody would grow spiritually. We like being needed and, because of that, we over complicate the ministry.
But, what if ministry was simple? Wouldn’t it be more enjoyable and healthier for the church we serve, as well as our family? Let’s try to imagine a day when ministry was simple and easy to gauge; When everyone on our team shared a common vocabulary on what the expectations were. Let’s strip Christianity down to the bare bones and get back to what matters most; making disciples.
Now, imagine having a structure in place to keep you and your team focused; A skeleton in place to help effectively serve the right meal to the right person at the right time. The skeleton below is designed to be the structure of any student ministry. This allows each church to choose which meats (programs) they want on the skeleton. The programs are secondary to the skeleton.
So, here is the skeleton we will spend the rest of our time together talking about.
Student Ministry Skeleton:
One Purpose:
Helping Students Follow Jesus Together
Two Hangouts:
Big Group
Small Group
Three Decisions:
Meet Jesus for the first time
Fall deeper in love with Jesus
Serve Jesus
In the next blog we need to look at the culture we are trying to reach.
Just to recap: Life is hard. People are broken. Ministry is an attempt to help broken people become whole and whole people to become broken for broken people. Pastors are broken too. We overcomplicate ministry because we want to please people. Because of this, we add more programs. Most churches do not have a healthy structure in place to effectively “serve” the programs they have. But as we strip ministry down we see that it is fairly simple. Ultimately, there is one purpose to ministry: helping people follow Jesus together. That’s it!
