I lead a university campus mission. I am seeking to honour Jesus’ call to “make disciples of all nations” (Mat 28:19). Like Paul, I aim to “become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some” (1 Cor 9:22). So here’s a question I have been puzzling over: why did my campus ministry, of which 120 students consider themselves a part, only witness two people come to Christ in the last eighteen months?
Don’t get me wrong, every genuine conversion is a miraculous work of God. But I suspect that number is soft. I suspect that if our team of staff and students could be more compelling in speaking the gospel and better at training and including others in that work, then we could see more than a 2% evangelistic growth rate. I also suspect that there must be things we could change, not about the gospel (for that would be a disaster!), but about our style, our structures, our systems that would lead to more successful evangelism.
But then I think to myself: “But I just don’t know what those things are!” So let me explain why I find myself drawn to the idea of strategically doing less.
Why It’s Sometimes Strategic to Do Less
I don’t want to be lazy, but when my calendar is full, how else can I find some time for the kind of creativity and wisdom required to rethink our evangelism? We need time to pray, to think, to plan and then to implement. My team takes their work seriously and so they are already at capacity. What choice do I have except to demand some things be left undone?
Moreover, if we can’t say “no” to something we are doing, isn’t that implying that everything that we’re doing is not just good, but utterly necessary? And if we’re not refreshed when we finally have significant changes to make, where will the energy for implementation come from? It would be foolish to go into battle if we’re not ready for it.
How to Strategically Do Less
There are many options for what activities could be cut back. Here are some options for our campus ministry:
- rotating a through 150 sermons in our Bible Talks, only writing new sermons for special occasions;
- similarly cycling through four years’ worth of Bible study material, or buying good off-the-shelf studies;
- cutting training courses to only the essentials (such as evangelism and small group leadership), or perhaps not even offering courses at all, but just training on the job;
- making our conferences less intellectually demanding on staff and reusing material more often;
- limiting senior staff time in 1–1 discipleship to only student leaders, or simply limiting number of 1–1 discipleship appointments.
Managing Anxiety
Considering these kinds of changes raises anxiety in myself and my team. We fear becoming, or being seen as, “Bible light” and we worry about shirking our responsibility to proclaim Christ faithfully to the individual students in our group. We fear losing our teaching edge because the material is not as fresh to our minds as that which has just been prepared. We fear the consequences of not doing enough of the activities that our supporters and or supervisors envisage us doing.
Such anxieties need to be named and addressed for the sake of our ministry and for the health and success of our team. Aspects of these fears that are valid need to be mitigated so that we stay true to Christ and his mission. Aspects of these fears that are not valid need to be soothed so that the team’s own anxiety will not hinder our success.
Whenever change occurs, something known is lost for an unknown outcome and the possibility of failure is real—that’s scary. Thankfully we have a God who beckons us to cast our anxieties on him because he cares for us (1 Pet 5:7) and who generously provides wisdom when we ask (Jas 1:5). Hence the need for lots of prayer and discussion so that we find a way toward prayerful confidence and a willingness to risk something good for the sake of something better.
What’s Next?
This kind of “doing less” could leave our keener Christian students at a loose end. “I’ve done the training courses, what’s next?” they might ask. Actually, I’d love students to ask me that more often. I’d like to nurture a generation of young adults eager to serve who keep asking, “What’s next?”
Could your ministry benefit from a season of strategically, prayerfully, “doing less” so that you can, in the long term, work more effectively for the promotion of the gospel of Jesus?
