27 Benefits Of Putting An Expiration Date On New Ministries

Fear of failure kills the innovative spirit. It’s one of the main reasons many churches don’t try new things.

But failure is a part of life. And ministry. It’s especially a part of doing innovative ministry, because we can’t know if something will fail or succeed until we try it.

What if we could reduce the sting of failure when a new ministry doesn’t go as we had hoped? It might give us the courage to innovate more often. Here’s the best way I know:

Put an expiration date on every new ministry idea.

Instead of launching something as “the way we’re going to do ministry from now on”, tell people “Hey, we have this great thing we’re going to do until the end of summer!” Or December, or until Easter…

Then at the end of summer, if it doesn’t work it stops happening, just like we announced. No failure, no problem. If it does work, we keep doing it. You can extend it for another three or six months. If it still works, just keep doing it.

Putting expiration dates on ministries has several advantages. Here are a few:

27 Advantages of Ministry Expiration Dates

1. If the idea is a non-starter, you don’t have to live with it for long.
2. There are no more failures. Just experiments that reached their expiration date.
3. Extending an experiment that works is easier than killing a permanent ministry that doesn’t.
4. People can live with almost anything if they know it isn’t permanent.
5. The leadership loses their reputation for being stubborn.
6. People are more likely to give it a fair try if they know they’re not stuck with it.
7. The best way to know if something works is to try it. That’s why companies beta-test their new products.
8. You can get feedback from the congregation while you’re trying it, instead of hearing arguments about why it won’t work, and “I told you so” if it doesn’t.
9. You can field-test several ideas and choose the best one, or create a hybrid of the best ones.
10. It helps people become more open to new ideas.
11. New church members don’t feel like latecomers to everything.
12. You don’t have to sell anyone on anything. Good ideas sell themselves, and bad ones disappear.
13. People feel more comfortable offering up their ideas. And you can try more of them out, with less risk.
14. Trying new ideas is fun.
15. It’s more cost-effective. You don’t invest a lot of money until the experiment has worked.
16. It’s easier to raise the needed money after people have tried it and liked it.
17. It creates an environment that makes it easier to end long-term ministries that reached their expiration date long ago.
18. It’s easier to find leaders when they know how long the commitment will last. And if it works, they’re more likely to continue. If not, you have someone who can train the next leaders.
19. Some people are starters, not maintainers. This gives them a role they can fill.
20. More new things can happen. There’s nothing like new ideas to attract new people.
21. It sparks an environment of creativity and innovation.
22. It reduces territorialism.
23. The church becomes better at responding to shifts in the culture, the community, and the congregation.
24. Some ideas can be rotated in and out on a seasonal basis.
25. It matches how people make commitments now. In chunks, rather than over indefinite periods of time.
26. There’s less burden on the leadership to make perfect decisions.
27. When biblical principles are permanent, but the congregation’s ideas are temporary, it reinforces what we really value.

Isn’t This A Slippery Slope?

So, let’s follow up on point #27.

One of the primary concerns many people have when we make our programs, schedules, and facilities temporary is that it feels like it might be the first step toward making the truths of the Gospel seem temporary, as well.

But the opposite is almost always true. As I noted in De-sizing the Church,

One of the main concerns about churches adopting new methods and ideas was the slippery slope argument. If you give in on church names, décor, stage design, and so on, the next thing you know you’ll be giving in on essential biblical truths – or so went the argument. This prediction has shown itself to be almost 180 degrees off. Today, the churches that were all-in for cosmetic and systemic changes are far more likely to have held firm to traditional biblical beliefs than churches that insisted on keeping traditional formats.

Cultural changes are happening faster than ever. When we acknowledge the temporary nature of our ideas and programs, we don’t damage what’s permanent, we reinforce it.

When a church puts an expiration date on programs, schedules, and facilities, we remain nimble on what’s temporary, allowing us to stand even stronger on what’s eternal.

(Photo by Veronica Doyle | Flickr)