When Servants articulated Simplicity as one of its key concepts by which it wanted its members to live and minister, it undoubtedly had in mind the contemporary understanding of simplicity. At heart, this idea had to do with living a simple lifestyle. In the West, this meant scaling down on consumerism and resisting the more blatant forms of living the “must have” culture. The key motto here was: enough is enough. Clearly in the West this is something we still have not learned. Linked to the idea of living a simple lifestyle was the attendant idea that we were finally recognising that the earth and its resources were not infinite. Thus, living more simply had to do with living in a more ecologically responsible way.

Servants undoubtedly would have ticked the box in relation to the above ideas. But for them there was more. For Servants, Simplicity had a missional orientation. The concept had to do with the praxis of incarnational mission amongst Asia’s urban poor. This meant that Servant workers had to identify as much as possible with the people they were seeking to serve. Clearly this meant embracing the concept of Simplicity. In adopting this approach Servant workers were seeking to reflect a downward spirituality. Like Christ, the Servant- King who became the Servant-Saviour, Servant workers seek to walk the road of caring identification as a way of reflecting who God in Christ is and the way of Christ in the world.

But for Servants, this does not exhaust the meaning of Simplicity. In order to live this missional Simplicity there has to be a heart Simplicity. This means an inner disposition and willingness to relinquish much in order to live this way.

This Simplicity is not simply a material reality but also a heart reality. And when we speak of a heart Simplicity, we are entering into the much richer idea of Simplicity in the history of Christian spirituality. In the New Testament, the idea of Simplicity from the Greek haplous (Mt.6:22, Lk.11:34) has to do with having no guile, being single-minded and having purity of heart. It also carries the idea of being childlike. Simply put, it means having an open and yielded attitude to the word of God and the work of the Spirit.

In the outworking of these basic ideas in the Christian church, Simplicity was seen as a virtue. It characterized a person of single intent in the love and service of God and neighbour. It meant a person marked by humility. And for people like Francis de Sales and St. Vincent de Paul, it had to do with truth, purity of intention, humility and no pretense.

From this we can see that Simplicity has to do with the work of God’s grace in our lives, and it is way of life. Thus it is both gift and praxis. It is a heart attitude of attentiveness to God and obedience to the way of Christ. These inner virtues then come to expression in the way one seeks to serve others as God’s missional people. And for Servant workers, this means a life of identification with the poor.

[Charles Ringma is an elder of Servants and Professor of Missions and Evangelism at Regent College. He is the author of ‘Cry Freedom with Voices From the Third World’ and ‘Wash the Feet of the World with Mother Teresa’. He is currently on sabbatical and living in Australia with his wife Rita. He has four children and four grandchildren.]

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