Reduce The Waste

One of the keys to being physically fit is to 'reduce the waist'. Studies show that the most dangerous weight we carry is around our waist because of the pressure it puts on our internal organs. And anyone out there who has tried to get rid of some extra pounds around the middle knows it is harder to lose than to put on. Again, I see an analogy for the church.

Churches tend to carry a lot a 'waste' weight! For example, how many programs, events, even committee work just happen because "we've always done it." Church calendars get filled up with lots of things that take energy and bodies to accomplish and yet both energy and people to carry them out has declined significantly. The complaint then becomes "why don't some of those young folks or new folks step up and take this over." It doesn't occur to them to just eliminate the activity.

I served one church that was very 'chronologically gifted' in its membership. Year after year they put on a pork dinner for the community. The year I was with them they were dreading the thought of the dinner. They didn't have the energy, the people or the heart, literally, to do all the work needed. I suggested that they don't hold it. Horrified, they replied, "but we've always done it. It's our fall fundraiser". Boldly I asked if that was the only way they could raise funds in the Fall? Some looked at me like I had grown an extra head and others were open to ideas.

What did they do? They held a porkless pork dinner! Everyone was asked to donate a dollar amount that they would have spent for tickets for their families, for ingredients they would have donated and for what they thought it was worth to them to save time and energy. They put out a big Piggy bank to collect the funds and they made as much as they did on the dinner! AND they had eliminated waste freeing up energy for other things.

Where does your church need to reduce waste...waste of time, energy and resources? What are the things that just continue blindly year after year without much return or spiritual growth? What is suffering internally as the waste weighs the membership down?

Reducing waste can be a first step to church health and wellness for this program year.