If you are responsible for a ministry at your local church such as a youth group or children’s church you may be feeling pressured to have a large team.  After all more hand on deck means that a lot more ministry can be done, doesn’t it?

Not necessarily. My experience tells me that often the reverse is true.

When I first started as a children’s minister it was kind of expected that we would need a large team of leaders to run the children’s church.  On the surface this seemed true. But once you dug a little deeper it became clear that most of the work was being carried by a handful of people. Over a few short years we went through the hard yacka and sometimes painful experience of whittling down our team to its bare essentials. What we ended up with was a fairly tight unit that each week achieved enormous things.

I’m not saying we weren’t stretched or that a few more people wouldn’t have been appreciated.  We always wanted more people! What I am saying is that with the right ‘stock’ of a small band of leaders you can achieve a lot. Think of David in the Old Testament and his band of mighty men (2 Samuel 23). They routed armies against the odds. If you were there at that time you’d think David and his men were well outgunned and really needed to do a bit more of a recruitment drive.  David’s reputation clearly needed rehabilitating; shouldn’t they have hired some PR expert to win back favour from those who sat on the fence while Saul pursued his life?

Why less can be best

Often it can be expected that lots of people should be involved in our ministry because we are ‘one body with many parts’ (Romans 12).  So if you do teach the kids church using drama for example, you’ll be tempted and sometimes expected, to have a cast of thousands.  Or you’ll think you need lots of people to do it well or that everyone must be given an opportunity to serve in all ways. But this can be a bum-steer. We are many parts so that means a hand doesn’t need to be a foot. It means the eye should see and the nose be encouraged to smell. So your leaders, big or small in number and maturity should be encouraged to pursue their God given strengths. With the body you have, shake that booty.

Why more can be wasteful

Working with your limits means that you are forced to make the best use of the resources you have.  Rather than being unfocussed with the luxury of too many options you have to forge a solution without waste. You have to be resourceful, compromise and think in different ways of approaching your challenges. Think of Steve jobs: he wasn’t successful because he started with loads of options and unlimited resources. He forged one of the biggest companies in the world with a few circuit boards, a clever mate and an old garage.

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My live gospel shows for kids and families called, Anton’s Anticswas forged out of these very principles.  I love the freedom brought through the limitations being a ‘one man band’. I have to be extremely disciplined in my writing and resourceful to maximise the impact each character can bring to the show. Every time I write a script I keep asking myself, how can it be simpler? How can I achieve more and more impact with less?

You can always add smoke and mirrors, bubbles and gimmicks later, but the essence has to be simple.  With your ministry, worry about the smoke and mirrors later. Forge that tight unit around you and the smoke and mirrors will follow.

For more info about Anton's Antics live shows go to www.antonsantics.com