I remember hearing Andy Stanley say that “if it’s not working, kill it”. The next step may be, depending on what it is that you’re killing, after you kill it, rebuild it.

The guys at ChurchMarketingSucks.com have made that point in a post this morning. If you’re not reading churchmarketingsucks.com you really need to. Here’s part of what they say:

We can’t be eliminating the very things churches should be doing! The very Message we’re all communicating is always going to be at odds with our selfish, lazy, indulgent, and passive human nature.

Getting rid of church-sponsored softball teams (let’s continue clearing out the Christian ghetto people!) is one thing. Getting rid of biblically-condoned ministry contexts is quite another.

The church is not always going to be doing things that people naturally want to respond to. From discipleship and caring for the poor, to teaching the fundamentals of faith and being a hospital for sinners, not everything we do as a church is going to appear like it’s working, or even that it always matters. This doesn’t mean we should stop doing it.

The measure for success is not just about how many people respond or attend. It’s also about how well we’re being Christ’s hands and feet so that we can truly be called beautiful for communicating the Good News!

Good stuff. BTW, the way we are measuring success at our church is by finding out the answer to this question: “How did you impact the life of a person this week?”