Expiration Dates
I was talking to a pastor friend the other day about Wednesday and Sunday evening services. Attendance has been low at the church at these times, and they have a bit of a dilemma … keep them open on principle, or shut them down because of ineffectiveness. During the course of the conversation, I referred to an article by Mark Batterson of the National Community Church in Washington DC.
In the article, Pastor Mark talks about their decision to cancel a service at one of their locations. Essentially, the attendance was down, and the format just wasn’t working. Although he hated to do it, he implies that true leaders aren’t only the ones who can ambitiously start new programs, but they are also ones who can boldly cancel them as well. It takes discernment and guts to do it, and that’s what leadership really boils down to.
He uses an analogy that I want to expand:
Ministries have expiration dates. Once you pass the date, it can actually be hazardous to your health and become counter-productive.
I liken it to spoiled milk. It’s not only useless to drink milk that is past its expiration date, but it can actually harm you and make you sick! The same goes for services, programs, campaigns, etc. that have run past their expiration date. They’re not only no longer effective, but they can actually be damaging to the body (in this case, the church body).
Think about it … if you maintain a Wednesday evening service that the majority of the members do not attend,
- volunteers end up frustrated
- the people are less enthused about the service
- the pastor has to prepare for a whole other service/sermon, time which he could use to prepare more for less services
- visitors will probably have to sit through a sub-standard service
Blame it on whomever you’d like. If you want to say that “the people” just aren’t spiritual enough to come out for a Wednesday service, or they’re too busy, or not committed enough … whatever the reason may be … you cannot simply keep a service/program going just because of principle (i.e. people should be showing up). That’s dumb, and worse … it can be dangerous to even the most faithful among us.
Good, practical advice from a great pastor! Thanks Mark!
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Great stuff Nathan!
Why do pastors/churches do this?
Paul,
I honestly don’t know. I assume no one wants to be the guy that had to shut something down. I certainly wouldn’t want that on my resume.
But, that’s leadership. I was so encouraged to hear from my pastor friend that he had been considering canceling the services. To me, that showed tremendous courage in the face of potential personal detriment, because of how it looks. He’s a great man though, so I wasn’t surprised
Thanks for the link too!
That’s exactly the reason. Pastor’s don’t want to hurt people’s feelings or dissapoint anyone. So they avoid tough decisions like these in favor of having another fellowship dinner.
I’m a pastor myself so I’m throwing stones at my own glass house… Leadership often means that you make a decision before everyone else can see it’s value.