Dear Small Church Pastor,
In the first installment for K.I.S.S., I suggested you include the members of your congregation as ministry partners in order to simplify your life. I pray you are encouraging your membership as they develop the gifts and talents resident in your congregation in order to accomplish that aspect of keeping ministry simple.
Allow me to make a second recommendation toward achieving a more simple life for yourself and your congregation. When preparing sermons or Bible lessons, focus on Jesus. Focus on who Jesus is, what he has accomplished, what he taught his original disciples, and what he promised to do for, in and through them. Focus on the gospel message and how to live out the teachings of Christ. You will find that centering your message on the good news that there is forgiveness through faith in Jesus will simplify your ministry.
Satan will try to get you sidetracked from this central message. Remember he is the source of confusion, division and strife. Satan will try to get you involved in arguments over controversial doctrinal points. He will attempt to bring factional “us versus them” thinking into your congregation, and, if he can, he will use you to create unintended factions within your attenders through what seems to be innocent questions.
Always remember Satan is a deceiver, a manipulator and a thief, and he wants nothing more than to steal, kill and destroy the works you and your congregation are doing for the kingdom of God. In order to achieve his insidious purposes, he works through people to bring up “What do you think about…” kinds of questions. He uses, “I heard…,” “I’m confused about…,” or “My friend/uncle/brother/neighbor/etc. says….”
It’s during these seemingly innocent times that your spiritual enemy is working to complicate your life and ministry by getting you to “major on the minors” in life. To combat these deceptions, I encourage you to always use scriptures in answering any question that might be a controversial subject. My normal response to any doctrinal issue that arises is, “Let’s see what the Bible says about this.” Always remember that the Bible holds the truth about any situation that arises in life. What I think about a situation does not matter when it comes to what the Bible actually says. Taken in its proper context, scripture always has the correct answer to any question, even the ones the devil tries to use to complicate ministry.
When those controversial subjects arise, and they will arise eventually, attempt to steer the conversation back to the simplicity of the gospel. If that fails, allow the Holy Spirit the opportunity to speak through scriptures to those who are posing the questions. Remember Paul’s advice to his protégé Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:20 to “…avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.” KJV (“Avoid godless, foolish discussions with those who oppose you with their so-called knowledge.” NLT)
Allow me to give an example of this concept for maintaining simplicity in ministry. A missionary we know operates in a country where the population is over 99% non-Christian. He never compares Christianity to that national faith, nor does he debate the ideology of the other faith’s founder to that of Jesus. He only talks about Jesus and his teachings. His ministry is very successful, reaching over 9 million people monthly through various media avenues. That success is influenced by the fact that he keeps his ministry focused on Jesus only.
Focus on the simplicity of the good news about Jesus as much as is possible in every facet of your ministry. If some divisive topic rears its head, go to scripture for guidance and rely on the Holy Spirit to deal with those topics as only he can by moving in the hearts and minds of those involved. Remember: KISS.
Sincerely,
A Small Church Pastor