{"id":692553,"date":"2017-12-20T02:00:57","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T08:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomrainer.com\/?p=692553"},"modified":"2020-02-07T15:31:03","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T21:31:03","slug":"zero-based-church-scheduling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/zero-based-church-scheduling\/","title":{"rendered":"Zero-Based Church Scheduling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your church may be too busy.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed your church calendar may be so full you have rendered much of the activity of the members ineffective. It\u2019s time to start fresh.<\/p>\n<p>I am proposing you dump everything on your church calendar. Okay, I\u2019m not serious. But I am serious about your <em>hypothetically <\/em>cleaning the calendar. Let me give you my argument in a few bullet points:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Most churches have too many activities and programs and ministries for their members. Indeed most of their members are too busy to do ministry in the real world.<\/li>\n<li>Over the years, those churches have added many things to the calendar without subtracting many or any. Those churches have a bloated calendar.<\/li>\n<li>Attempt this exercise. Start with a blank calendar. We call that zero-based church scheduling. For now, it\u2019s only a hypothetical exercise.<\/li>\n<li>Now, fill in the calendar with only those activities you feel will really move the church forward. Keep it simple. Keep it basic.<\/li>\n<li>Look at those activities that didn\u2019t make the cut. See if the church is ready to reduce or eliminate the commitment to them. If not, you can make certain you don\u2019t invest more money or time in the activity.<\/li>\n<li>If you do this every year, your leadership will become more and more aware of how precious the resource of time is for your members. They will become more cautious before adding even more stress or activities to your members.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In too many of our churches, we have become so busy doing activities, our members have little or no time to do real ministry outside the walls of the church.<\/p>\n<p>We need effective churches, not busy churches.<\/p>\n<p>We need simple churches, not complex churches.<\/p>\n<p>As you move into a new year, consider your church calendar. Be willing to consider reducing or eliminating those activities that lead to busyness but not effectiveness.<\/p>\n<p>It could be the best New Year\u2019s resolution you make.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In too many of our churches, we have become so busy doing activities, our members have little or no time to do real ministry outside the walls of the church.","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,175,180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-692553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-grow","category-outreach-and-evangelism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Zero-Based Church Scheduling | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/zero-based-church-scheduling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Zero-Based Church Scheduling | Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In too many of our churches, we have become so busy doing activities, our members have little or no time to do real ministry outside the walls of the church.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/zero-based-church-scheduling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-20T08:00:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-07T21:31:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Zero-Based-Church-Scheduling.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"503\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Thom S. 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