Minimal Sufficiency

A new term for some perhaps 'minimal sufficiency' is the art of doing as little as possible to effect the greatest transitions in a person's life!

Seems to me that this is the exact opposite of how we Christians want to work and although most of us might laud the words attributed to St Francis of Assisi which call believers to, "Preach the Gospel, using words if we have to." (In the Provocative Church, Graham Tomlin reckons it's unhelpful and theologically misleading as we must have words to do evangelism) We don't take them to heart, not if the number of words I hear are anything to go by!

'More is better' is obviously the mantra Christians are called to, especially when it comes to words and action,  and I am amazed that so many of us will take a thousand words to convey what John 3:16 does so succinctly or to correct as Paul does in Romans when he asked us whether we should continue sinning. Some preaching training I've sat through told us to tell the people what we were going to say, then say it, then tell the listeners what we said - sadly, doing this does not confer efficacy, correctness or value to what has been said.

So here's a little challenge for each of us this week. Pick someone you know is struggling and with as few words as possible and as little interventions from you in their life find out what you need to say to help them find the right path and the answers. Please don't tell them the answers. I am pig-sick of Christians telling people what to do to be 'right' with God, especially as more and more I find that the answer is actually theirs and not God's at all!

Looking like us is not the key to salvation. Abusing others because of their abominations before God is nothing more than another abomination. Excusing and conferring rightness on acts that obviously aren't right is merely dragging others into the pit with you not helping people to find freedom! What we need to learn is how we can communicate enough to bring people into God's presence and let them move on to the next paving slab in this game of Christian hopscotch. Having done this, wait until the need is there before we speak or interfere again. We could be surprised and find that they don't do the things we dread if left to their own journeying with God (and if they do wobble, we're praying and waiting in the wings when needed aren't we?).
 
Encourage disciples to read their Bible rather than just listen to us (I am including myself here in case you thought I thought I was above this!) or find our solutions 'ready made' and easy to have applied for them.

In closing I turn to Charles Haddon Spurgeon's words about us being, "As one beggar showing another where bread is to be found,"

Take them, show them - don't stuff it down their throats!