Image credit: http://oldpiano.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/SacredCow.png
Every ministry has a sacred cow.
Sometimes sacred cows need to die.
But how do you kill a program in a healthy way?
Here are the steps I follow in order to slaughter sacred cows:
1. Enter a time of prayer and discernment. Since people are, by nature, resistant to change, invite others to join you in this process. When people have a hand in making a decision, they’re more likely to support it.
2. Individually examine the questionable program’s…
– Value: What has and does the program contribute to your ministry, congregation, and larger community?
– Sustainability: Is your program breathing life into your ministry or sucking life out of it? How much momentum and funding does the program have?
– Worthwhileness: Is it good stewardship to continue pouring resources as well as the time and energy of leaders and students into the program? Is the program worth a night away from people’s families?
– Seasonality: How long has the program been around? Is it possible it’s run it’s course and that God might be calling it to end?
3. Collectively examine the program’s value, sustainability, worthwhileness, and seasonality. Reach consensus around as many answers to the above questions as possible before then moving back into a time of prayer and discernment.
4. Together with those involved in your discernment process, determine what God is calling you to do.
5. If God is calling you to continue with the program, take time to determine how you will intentionally reinvigorate it. Make plans to reevaluate it at a specific time, so as not to let it linger indefinitely on life-support.
6. If God is calling you to kill a program, carefully determine how to share the news with people. Frame your decision positively and hopefully. Positivity enables you to celebrate and affirm the fruit that’s come from that program. Hope enables you to live into the future rather than dwell on the program’s death.
After working through the aforementioned process, my youth ministry recently made the decision to kill one of our staple programs: A relationally based Kids Club ministry for refugee children, which my high school students faithfully ran for four years.
In many ways, this program was one of our ministry’s best. It gave teens the chance to put their faith into action and provided a frequent entry point for friends to get involved in our ministry.
The problem was by the end of the school year, high school teens outnumbered the refugee children 7 to 1.
So after much prayer and discernment, we killed it.
We are, of course, grieving it’s loss. But we’re also convinced it’s far better to kill a program than to indefinitely keep it on life-support, in the process allowing it to rob our ministry of much needed energy and resources.
We’re also hopeful about the future, curious to see what new ministries will emerge in it’s absence.
After all, in Christianity, life comes from death.
So it is when we kill programs. By intentionally killing some, we make room for others to grow and flourish.
Love this and thank you for writing. We have a “sacred cow” building that once was the original chapel for the church. This poor thing needs to die in order for us to build a new education building for discipleship. but wow that cow is really important to the history of the dying church. So we will keep feeding the cow…for what reason I’m not sure, but hey at least it will be healthy. We may not have a place to disciple our children and our youth, but that old building will always look great. 🙂
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here what you should do to kill hindu traditions. be a retardy in christ ! don’t ask anything and pray blindly ! for christ love the retarded mindlessJ slaves in him and thought him ! jesus will wield a sword when he returns for judgment day, portraying him as a violent figure.
– Christians should accept Jesus and suffer for him in order to escape demons, gremlins, monsters, and hellfire.
– God, in order to manifest on Earth, impregnated a human woman to give birth to a 100% humanified God.
– Jews will betray Jesus and the Romans will execute him, but his death somehow magically extinguishes sin.
cause this simple execution is in reality all the sins of the world that jesus carry on his cross while he is crusified
he is not put to death because the romans sentenced him. but because he somehow magically extinguished sin by dying.
god is so much great and so smart and love you so much that he sent his only son to die without letting him ask his choice
“father why have you forsaken me” but somehow his death is magical and save ! read john-13 he still is god ! (jesus ret*rded logic)
– Jesus as both God and human, and i suggest reading John 13 to support this idea.
– the book of Revelation claim that only the elected or those who believe in the man-made book will be saved, while others will go to hell.