{"id":803664,"date":"2023-05-15T05:00:18","date_gmt":"2023-05-15T10:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=803664"},"modified":"2024-05-30T09:26:37","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T14:26:37","slug":"how-to-throw-away-accumulated-junk-in-your-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/how-to-throw-away-accumulated-junk-in-your-church\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Throw Away Accumulated Junk in Your Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You might be surprised that this issue really exists in churches.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It really does in a lot of churches.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, it is so bad in many churches that the junk takes up valuable room for ministry, small groups, and offices. In our consultations with churches, we often ask them where they keep their donated broken upright pianos. Church leaders are usually surprised we ask that question because it is a pain point for them.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One church showed us an upright piano in a men\u2019s room. I am not kidding.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Church members sadly can use the church to store things they no longer want. They call it a \u201cdonation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah. Right.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Matt McCraw, one of our Church Answers team members, actually has a process to dispose of junk in his church. I have never seen such a process in writing, so I thought I would share it with you.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If something is obviously trash, we just throw it out. For instance, if no one donated it, it\u2019s broken, it\u2019s smelly, or something like that.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"font-family: laca, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;\">\u00a0<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We chose a room where we put stuff that we think needs to be thrown out or given away, but there may be a question about it. We let it sit there for a while in case someone\u2019s deceased grandmother donated it. If they get upset that it\u2019s missing, we simply tell them that we have it and we\u2019ll be glad to get it back to them. Among our staff, we call this room \u201cpurgatory.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If something has been in \u201cpurgatory\u201d for six months or more, I ask the properties team chairman if we can give it away or throw it out. I tell him that the item has not been used in many months\/years.<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes some things need to sit longer than others, depending on how much of a sacred cow they are. Our church is nearly 150 years old, so we\u2019ve collected a lot.<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve also learned to ask a few key people if they have any personal items in rooms that we\u2019re clearing out just in case they want them.<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thanks, Matt, for these insights. I am adding to your title at Church Answers, \u201cchief administrator for junk disposal,\u201d with the hopes that you will keep me around. By the way, \u201cpurgatory\u201d is an incredible name for junk-in-waiting.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You might be surprised that this issue really exists in churches. It really does in a lot of churches.\u00a0 In fact, it is so bad in many churches that the junk takes up valuable room for ministry, small groups, and offices. In our consultations with churches, we often ask them where they keep their donated&#8230;","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","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":[1,182,175,192,177,14796],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-803664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-facilities","category-grow","category-how-to","category-lead","category-monday-wednesday-featured"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Throw Away Accumulated Junk in Your Church | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Junk takes up valuable room for ministry, small groups, and offices. Matt McCraw, one of our Church Answers team members, actually has a process to dispose of junk in his church. I have never seen such a process in writing, so I thought I would share it with you.\" \/>\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\/how-to-throw-away-accumulated-junk-in-your-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Throw Away Accumulated Junk in Your Church | Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Junk takes up valuable room for ministry, small groups, and offices. Matt McCraw, one of our Church Answers team members, actually has a process to dispose of junk in his church. 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Rainer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/how-to-throw-away-accumulated-junk-in-your-church\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/how-to-throw-away-accumulated-junk-in-your-church\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Thom S. 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