Yesterday I blogged about the end of the Geeks and God podcast. Matt and Bob had a 3 ½ year run of doing a weekly hour-long podcast about using technology in Christian ministry. My first reaction to the news was sadness. I’m going to miss their voices and their insight.
But I wasn’t surprised. The podcast seemed to have lost some direction and in recent months it seemed like they were scrounging for topics to discuss. They both felt it Geeks and God had run its course and it was time to shut it down and do something new.
I admire them for having the courage to courage to shut it down.
Fear of shutting it down
Often times I think we hang on and keep doing things long after we should have stopped. We’ve all seen the aging sports star who just won’t retire, the charity that has become more focused on funding or socializing than its cause, the once great company that’s lost its sense of direction.
But it’s scary to shut something down.
It looks too much like failure.
It sounds too much like quitting.
Plus most things we do develop a constituency. A blog has readers. A charity has people it helps. A business has employees. If we shut it down. Those people will be disappointed. Some will get upset.
Set them free
Periodically I’ll catch an article lamenting the fact that 3,000+ churches close their doors every year. It’s sad, but the truth is most of those churches died long ago. Shutting down is actually a good thing, because it frees up the people, their talent, and their resources to be reinvested somewhere where there is vision and passion.
Earlier this year OurChurch.Com shut down some of its forums. We also pulled the plug on ChurchMarketingOnline.com Both had become distractions and were consuming time and energy that could be better put elsewhere.
Reading Trust Agents has got me wondering if this blog is its current form is really worth the time I put into it.
There is a Season for Everything
Nothing on earth lasts forever. There is a season for everything. A time to be born and a time to die.
What are you doing that is no long working? What’s draining time, energy, and resources that could be better used elsewhere?
What do you need to shut down?
[image by maistora]