When Is It Time to Pull the Plug?

During a recent conversation with a pastor friend, we discovered that he had been the pastor 20 years ago of a church that I worked as a consultant last year. As we talked about the church, we realized that very little had changed, including a major annual event that was still an important part of church life.

Churches have a tendency to institutionalize events and other offerings that are successful the first time around. These events quickly become a tradition in the life of the church, whether the original purpose continues to be achieved. One church I visited continued to have a Swedish luncheon annually even though few of the members were still Swedish and did not know any Swedish dishes to prepare!

When is it time to pull the plug on activities that seem to have outlived their usefulness? Here are some questions church leadership might consider in making that decision.

First, does it still fulfill the purpose for which it was designed? It is easy for an activity to become a tradition, something we are comfortable doing, even if it no longer achieves its original goals.

Second, if it does not achieve its original goals, have new goals evolved to justify its existence? For example, something that originally began as an in-house fellowship event might be repurposed as an outreach to the community.

Third, does the activity still generate passion within the leadership and church membership or it is just something we do because we have done it before? Too many leadership teams do their annual planning by just going through this year’s calendar and finding dates next year to do the same things. Do leaders and church members still have the energy for these activities, or have they run their course?

Fourth, if we are continuing an event, how can we improve upon it? Once an activity has been completed, leadership should evaluate what happened: Did we achieve our goals? What went well? Should we do this again? If so, what should we change? Since leaders and members have limited time, energy, and resources, it is foolish to continue investing in something that does not help the church fulfill its mission.

The biggest challenge in this process is our complacency. Making change requires intentionality, being willing to fail, and then learning from failure. If we are afraid to fail, we just keep doing the same things and hope that no one notices that what we are doing is no longer relevant.

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