"Hey everybody, welcome to the Equipcast, a weekly podcast for the Archdiocese of Omaha. I'm your host, Jim Jansen. Now let's dive into some encouragement and inspiration to equip you to live your faith and to be fruitful in your mission. Let's go. 

Hey everybody, welcome to the Equipcast Coach's Corner, where we break down important topics to equip you and your team for mission, in your family, in your parish, and in your life. My name is Jim Jansen, and today I'm going to talk to you about how less really is more. So there is nothing quite so American as our desire for bigger and better and more and more and more. But that's not always the most effective, and it's certainly not the way of the gospel. Simplicity is powerful, not just in the realm of material stuff, but also in our teaching and our service to the Lord. 

I'm going to break down how less really is more in your family, your parish, and your life. Okay, so your family. The whole point, I think, of our family activities, faith and otherwise, is to develop our minds, our souls, and our bodies, and to draw us to each other and to the Lord. I mean, think about it. 

Everything we're doing should be designed to draw us together and to ultimately draw us to the Lord. And the religious things and the non-religious things, sports, violin, etc., are all supposed to be pointed in that direction. But if we're honest, we have to admit that our activities often overwhelm our bodies, our minds, and our souls. 

So, as you can imagine, there's kind of a strategy here, the obvious one. Let's prune a few things to make space. But what I want to focus on is what happens next. After you prune a few things, and I'm not saying that's easy, but you prune a few things and then you build up the good incrementally. So parents, we might lament the attention span that we and our children have, but one decade of the rosary, said in love, is way better than 20 with resentment. 

Let yourself start small and make the experience of one decade something that's, well, if not memorable and wonderful, at least not something that's hated and resented. You see, the lack of attention isn't fixed by forced lecture. It's fixed by falling in love with truth and choosing it over the noise, even if that falling in love has to happen incrementally. 

If you like this idea, check out the book, The Seven Habits of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley. He has a whole chapter called 'Teach Less for More.' And although it's originally designed for a ministry context, it is perfect for parents who find themselves having to teach their children with less and less time and attention at their disposal. 

Less really is more in your parish. The research of Thomas Bradshaw when he did his doctoral work at the University of Florida yielded this surprisingly fantastic result. As he studied churches and the amount of programming they had and their growth, he found this shocking result that the more programming a church had, the less growth it had. 

I'm going to say that again because you don't believe me. The more programming, the more options, ministries, retreats, choices, small groups, etc. The more programming a church had, the less growth it had, no matter the size. Now, this truth is part of why a clear path of discipleship is so important. For people to grow in our parishes, our parishes have to have a simple and a clear path for growth in the life of discipleship. 

Other programs and ministries might be able to help us on ramps, but the path to growth in our communities of faith has to be simple and clear. I mean, here's the truth that's at the root of this. The dedicated engagement in the life of faith that we look for comes from the experience of growth. Not just involvement in lots of activities. 

People who really dedicate themselves to the life of faith, they're dedicated because they're experiencing growth, not simply because they're busy with lots of stuff. Again, if you like this idea, check out the book, Simple Church. Although not Catholic, I think you'll find the concepts really, really helpful. 
Finally, less is more in your life. The idea that less is more, honestly, it bothers me. I have to say, I've just been deeply influenced by the message of our culture that more is more. I mean, I love serving and connecting with people, but in my more recollected moments, I realize that my desire to do more and more stuff in service of the Lord is often motivated by fear of missing out, or not being enough, or worse yet, a confused notion that my labor is somehow essential to the Lord. 

Now, to be sure, my yes is essential to my salvation, and my work is an expression of that yes, but the Lord doesn't need me. My labor isn't necessary, strictly speaking. He uses it for his glory, but it's not strictly necessary. And when I try to do too much, I lose my love and my joy, and before long, I risk becoming a countersign.

 So I'm going to leave you with a quote from Mother Teresa, which, God bless her, haunts me. She said, 'There's always enough time in the day to do God's will.' I'll say that again. 'There's always enough time in the day to do God's will.' I love it and I hate it. It's so true. But I often find myself swept up in the lie that there isn't enough time. 

That I'm somehow failing to do what God is asking me. And God bless St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who gently reminds us, 'What the Lord wants is our faithfulness. And what he's asking is always possible with his grace.' There's always enough time in the day to do God's will. If you like this concept, or if you, you know, if you're like me and you don't like it, but you know you need to like it, check out the book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, by John Mark Comer. 

By far my most number one recommended book over the last five years. Uh, there are very few books outside of the scriptures. And maybe a Christmas carol. Very few books that I've read more than once. And I think I'm on my fourth or fifth reading of this book. It's called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, and it is fantastic. 


All right, let me pray for you. Lord, I ask you to grant us again a deeper love for you. Um, you never call anybody to follow you without also calling them to become a fisher of men. You never fail to provide us, uh, the daily bread we need, even when that bread is time and energy, uh, wisdom and strength. So Lord, we offer you all of our comings and goings. 

We ask you to be present to us, to grant us peace in our labors, in our service. Our family lives, Lord, all of our comings and goings, we give them to you. Amen. All right. What are your thoughts? I would love to hear how you like or don't like the idea that less is more. You can respond back in the chat at equip.archomaha.org. Again check out the chat at equip.archomaha.org. Thanks for listening to The Equip Cast. We hope this episode has inspired you to live your faith and equip you to be fruitful in your mission. Stay connected with us by going to equip.archomaha.org. God bless and see you next time.