What is "Simple Living"?

It's a journey to find more meaning, more joy, more fun in life by getting out from under the burden of so much stuff, to remove the barrier of stuff that keeps us apart from other people, from God and even from ourselves.

Simple Living is:

• Knowing your needs
• Seperating needs from wants
• A lifestyle of integrity
• Living as a disciple of Jesus
• Living more with less
• Finding meaning in relationships, not stuff
• Finding peace and fulfillment in a complex world
• Finding balance in life

Simple living is NOT:

• Living on the cheap
• Being a miser
• Selling everything and joining a commune

Simple living may benefit you if

• Your stuff owns you
• You don't have time for family, you have to work more to make the payments
• Your consumption is out of control
• Your life is out of control
• It is time to de-junk your life

Brethren Principles of Simple Living*

Living as Christians calls for constant reexamination and recommitment. We seek "an obedient devotion that transcends legalism and remains open to new situations". Without presuming to be all inclusive, we observe that Christian lifestyle embraces the following concerns:

1. engaging in community as a way of sharing, making decisions, empowering growth through the Holy Spirit, and providing support for Christ-centered living. The life to which we have been called is that of unity in body and spirit, and of meekness, patience, forbearance and love (Eph. 4:2-3).
2. conforming our use of power to the life and teaching of Jesus, not only in the use of wealth, but in all the places where we make decisions and are given responsibility for other persons. Jesus manifests his greatness not in exercising lordship but by his presence as one who serves (Lk. 22:25-27).
3. fostering both change and nonviolence. The church is called to bring about change where persons are devalued and exploited. Yet promoting change may cause the hidden violence of the status quo to erupt. "The world confronts us with the temptation to use violence in war, to acquiesce and participate in structural violence, and to support violent revolution against structural violence… To these three types of violence we make a uniform response: the Scriptures call us to reject all forms of violence and to undertake nonviolent acts to exercise our commitment to human liberation and justice" (Justice and Nonviolence, Annual Conference, 1977).
4. building caring relationships. Can we think of the "poor" as brothers and sisters rather than as problems? Are we free to treat our spouse, children, friends, employers, employees as persons apart from their function or role? Are we able to enter into the joy and pain of others? If we walk by the Spirit, there will be no conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy, but we will be able to bear one another's burdens, fulfilling the law of Christ (Gal. 5:25- 6:2).
5. stewarding of time. Time is a resource, non-renewable and irreplaceable, a gift from God. Time is life, our very existence. Like the people of ancient Israel, we need regular Sabbath periods for laying aside the past, renewing our spirits through worship, and deepening our trust in God (Ex. 20:8-11). In heeding the injunction of Eph. 5:16 for "making the most of the time," we need both long-term goals and daily priorities. Without the stewardship of time there can be no stewardship of life.
6. respecting the body as God's gift. Healthful living includes our getting adequate physical exercise, practicing sound nutrition, appreciating our sexuality, and in our high pressure world, learning to manage stress. It follows that physical inactivity, overeating, abusing sexuality, and turning to alcohol and other drugs as a means of coping with stress are contradictions to a Christian style of life. "You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body" (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
7. adopting a norm of sufficiency. Are we satisfied with "enough"? Can we reject incessant advertising built on appeals to greed, envy, and egotism? "Unless there are conscious efforts to the contrary, wants will always rise faster than the ability to meet them" (E.F. Schumacher, Good Work, Harper & Row, 1979). To scale down, to be free to give away our material substance or leave it for others may be seen as an act of defiance, a provocative witness. It is also a very positive act "to pursue God's intention of enough for all…on the basis of harmony with nature and steady movement in the direction of equality in the human family" (William Gibson).
8. living in unity with the natural order. We need to discern violent attitudes toward natural resources as well as toward persons. Trees, grasslands, water supplies, minerals, wildlife and farmlands are resources which must be conserved by conscious effort. Beyond conserving, we need to foster reverence for God's ongoing process of creation. "The whole creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God" (Rom. 8:19).