An Introduction to Christian Minimalism

The Millennial generation, of which I am part, helped popularize the concept of minimalism. It is often stereotyped, touted, ridiculed, and sometimes – I’m happy to say – embraced as a method to ‘find freedom’ and live a life of fulfillment and happiness.

Yet minimalism is not a new philosophy. Christianity has a long association with minimalism. Our heritage includes many saints and scholars, pastors and lay-persons, missionaries and monastics who adhered to what we would today call minimalism.

What is the connection? What is Christian Minimalism? Do we need it today? How do we practice it?

What Is Christian Minimalism?

On the surface, Christian minimalism today often looks very similar to its secular neighbor. Minimalism is a beautiful philosophy. It is the belief – and lifestyle – that values less but better.[1] This is expressed in many ways. It is not limited to a particular demographic, specific lifestyle, or single aesthetic appearance. Similarly, Christian minimalists are varied and diverse, yet they adhere to the principles of minimalism.

What makes Christian minimalism different is its faith-based foundation. Modern culture touts minimalism as a philosophy that increases happiness and helps you focus on what you enjoy. This is certainly true. Yet as a Christian, those are only side reasons to embrace minimalism. The most important reason is Christian faith.

The Faith-Based Reason for Minimalism

Modern Consumerism Has an Erosive Effect

Just as oxygen and water turn iron to rust, so consumerism erodes our deepest values and beliefs. We profess that our possessions are temporary, and we claim that we are just ‘stewarding it’ for a while, but all too often, we aren’t being honest. We are deeply attached to our stuff.

This is a heart issue, but consumerism exacerbates the problem. Many Christians want to live out their faith more genuinely, but they don’t know how to escape the clutches of material items. Once we have it, we feel like we need it. How could we ever let it go? Minimalism is one method that helps solve the problem.

Christ’s Teaching on Possessions Lends Itself to Minimalism

Our Savior had powerful words on possessions. When someone asked Jesus to mediate a family inheritance squabble, Jesus declined. He reminded the embarrassed petitioner to “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”[2]

From there, Jesus told his followers to “not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.”[3] The point here is simple: don’t focus on your physical possessions. God will take care of those things if you serve him.

Jesus’ teaching doesn’t require every Christian to be a minimalist, but it does challenge our assumptions about wealth, poverty, and possessions. It aligns perfectly with minimalist ideas.

Christians are Strangers and Exiles on Earth

Christians believe that they are ‘strangers and exiles on the earth.’ This pale blue dot is not our ultimate home but a way-point in our journey to heaven. These are easy words to say, but how do we live it out?

It’s a great story that a pastor friend of mine once shared. It goes something like this: An American traveler was in the Middle East, and he heard about a very famous Rabbi. He decided to visit the man, and he found the Rabbi’s home. He was invited into the house, but as the traveler looked around, he was surprised by the sparse accommodations – there was a small cot, a table with some books, and hardly anything else. “Where is all your stuff?” he asked the Rabbi. Could it be that he was in the wrong house? “Where is all your stuff?” the Rabbi asked him. The American traveler was confused. “This isn’t my home,” he said. “I’m just passing through here.” “So am I,” said the Rabbi. This earth wasn’t his home. He was just passing through. Like the Rabbi, Christians believe the words of the Hebrew Bible when it says, “I am a sojourner on the earth.”[4]

Our Faith Teaches Us to Focus on the Most Important

The great Christian missionary and apostle, Paul, described his philosophy like this – “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord… one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”[5]

What does this sound like? Focus. Purpose. Direction. The apostle lived a life of poverty, without many physical possessions, even though he was once an affluent religious leader. His belief in Jesus transformed his outlook on life. No longer did he pursue affluence: he was focused on something bigger. He may not have called it minimalism, but it sounds like that to me.

Another Christian missionary, Hudson Taylor, began to live as a minimalist after studying the Bible. He realized that he was called to live in preparation as a servant awaiting the return of his Master. “The effect of this blessed hope,” he explained, “was a thoroughly practical one. It led me to look carefully through my little library to see if there were any books there that were not needed or likely to be of further service, and to examine my small wardrobe, to be quite sure that it contained nothing that I should be sorry to give an account of should the Master come at once. The result was that the library was considerably diminished, to the benefit of some poor neighbors, and to the far greater benefit of my own soul, and that I found I had articles of clothing also which might be put to better advantage in other directions.”

Hudson Taylor’s life was never the same. He felt less connection to his possessions, which allowed him to focus on the most important things. He advised that “I believe we are all in danger of accumulating – it may be from thoughtlessness, or from pressure of occupation – things which would be useful to others, while not needed by ourselves, and the retention of which entails loss of blessing. If the whole resources of the Church of God were well utilized, how much more might be accomplished! How many poor might be fed and naked clothed, and to how many of those as yet unreached the Gospel might be carried!”

Practical Minimalism

As I’ve said, the Bible doesn’t require every Christian to be a minimalist, but it does provide clear teaching on possessions – teaching that aligns perfectly with the philosophy of minimalism. While the flower of Christian minimalism may look similar to its secular counterpart, it has a very different root system.

At its core, minimalism focuses on the idea that ‘less’ is often ‘better.’ Just having more doesn’t make us more alive, or better people. Of course, implementing this idea is easier said than done. Since so many others have tackled the problem of how to live out minimalism, I’m not going to repeat what they’ve said. You can find some wonderful how-to descriptions here, and here, and here.

Christian Minimalism – A Beautiful and Versatile Philosophy

I’ve been a Christian minimalist for several years. My life doesn’t look radically weird (I don’t live in a tiny house, I have more than 100 items, and white is not my favorite wall color), but Christian minimalism allows me to focus on what is most important – God and His Gospel. Even our secular society agrees that minimalism is a beautiful thing. Why can’t we add the other element, Christian faith, to find out with the apostle Paul that “godliness with contentment is great gain”[6]?

[1] To use words from Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism

[2] Luke 12:15

[3] Luke 12:29-31

[4] Psalm 119:19

[5] Philippians 3:8, 13, 14

[6] 1 Timothy 6:6