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How Multiplying Your Ministry Can Simplify Your Ministry

The motto here at SYM and SJH is ‘simplifying your ministry and saving you time’. And to that end, we’ve committed ourselves to providing you resources to do just that. As helpful as I hope these resources are, I think the best way to simplify your ministry is by doing something that we really can’t help you with: The best way to simplify is to multiply!

I realize the idea of multiplying your ministry by equipping others is nothing new, but I’m still surprised at how often youth workers fall into one of two traps:

1) I’ll recruit others, but I still want to be the man’

2) I’ll recruit others, but I still want to make all the decisions

The first mentality indicates a desire to hold onto the glory and the second indicates a desire to hold onto the power. Both of these are traps that set you and your ministry up for all sorts of complications which is anything but simplifying!

When you multiply you simplify your ministry because as the leader you get freed up to do all the stuff that you really want to do but just can’t fit into your schedule. Sure, you give up some glory and credit, but you are freed up to dream new dreams and set new courses for your ministry. Plus, you get the hidden glory’ of setting others up as the heroes of your ministry. Yes, multiplying means allowing others to make some of the decisions, but it frees you up to give more time to the big decisions that you’ve been putting off.

Here are a few other ways multiplying serves to simplify:

Multiple Gifts: When you multiply by giving ministry away, you’ll be surprised at the giftedness of others. Lots of my volunteers are gifted completely differently than I am and it’s wonderful to see those gifts in action in our jr. high ministry.

Multiple Personalities: I don’t mean multiple personalities in the same volunteer, but multiple volunteers with one unique personality each! What a blessing it is to have a team with a variety of leaders who are extraverts, introverts and everything in between.

Multiple Resources: I only bring so much to the table, which is why I want a really big table with lots of people sitting at it! If I can’t do it, someone on my volunteer team can. If I don’t own it, one of my leaders does. If I can’t think of a solution, one of them will.

Ministry will never be easy, but it’s really pretty simple especially if you multiply.