Towel Dispensers and Church Ministry

The bathroom at a recent job site has a folded towel dispenser. You know, the ones where when you pull down one you sometimes get 2 or 3 more. Over the last few days, they have been over stuffing the towels into the holder, making it harder to pull out the towels. Also, little bits of towel go all over the floor, and it is difficult to dry your hands with what is left in your hand. Instead of filling the towels twice a day instead of once, they now think that by over stuffing the dispenser they are saving themselves time and trouble.

Does this sound familiar? Are you over stuffing your ministry with things to do? Sometimes things change. People change. Situations change. Patterns change. What worked for you weeks or months (or years) ago doesn’t make sense now.

Phone prayer chains become email prayer chains. Yesterday, visitors learn what a church is like before ever step foot inside the doors through websites and streaming audio and video. Today, they blog about churches they have visited or they call “home” and influence any number of potential visitors. But, instead of changing what we do, we often just stuff more into our days. We over stuff our spiritual towel dispensers, until it can’t take anymore.

Being an agile ministry means being able to take the time and assess what is working and what isn’t. It means accepting that sometimes your ministry is outdated and needs to change the way it does business – it may even mean that your ministry needs to go out of business entirely. Whatever it means, church and ministry leaders have to take time and assess the situation, and change their habits. Otherwise, those little bits of towel on the floor may be your volunteers.

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