5 Tech Tasks Your Church Needs to Quit

Bob Goff founded a law firm, wrote a New York Times best-selling book and serves as the honorary consul for the Republic of Uganda. The guy gets things done. But every Thursday he quits something.

We could learn something from Bob.

Maybe your church needs to quit: Quit that social media account with three followers. Quit locking up your Wi-Fi with a password. Quit pretending email isn’t important.

Whatever your church is struggling with, give yourself permission to quit.

Bob Goff the Quitter

We don’t like to talk about quitting or failure in today’s success-oriented world. These things are seen as negative and to be avoided at all cost. But we learn our greatest lessons from failure, and quitting something that doesn’t work allows to us try something that will.

Bob Goff quits every Thursday:

• He resigned a board position at a nonprofit.
• He quit leaving phone messages.
• He gave up having an office.
• He quit making appointments.

Some Thursdays it’s something real and tangible, like a job. Other weeks it’s something less tangible like a bad attitude or pesky habit.

Bob is a bit, well, weird (he’s been known to host meetings at Disneyland). But all this quitting has a serious purpose:

I used to be afraid of failing at something that really mattered to me,” says Bob Goff. “But now I’m more afraid of succeeding at things that don’t matter.”

Too often we get stuck in a rut. Our churches, especially, will keep on doing something because that’s how we’ve always done it.

It’s time to quit.

What does your church need to quit?

5 Tech Tasks Your Church Needs to Quit:

1. Quit social media. If Twitter or Facebook or Snapchat isn’t working for your church, quit. Just because other churches are doing it doesn’t mean you have to. Often it’s better to give up and shutter your account than to do it poorly. (Note the caveat: If it isn’t working. This isn’t blanket permission to give up on social media altogether. Just be honest about which channels are worth your time.)
2. Quit software that sucks. If you’re bending over backwards to make your software work for you, it’s not working. Maybe you’ve got complicated church management software that’s too much for what you need. Or maybe you’re using generic project management tools and they aren’t specific enough. Maybe a simple spreadsheet would be do the trick, or maybe you need to upgrade from generic docs to real tools. Quit clinging to software that doesn’t work.
3. Quit horrible hosting. Your website matters. It’s time to make sure it’s hosted properly. Pick a solid web host and quit relying on the freebie space from your pastor’s nephew.
4. Quit the grandiose web plans. Everyone wants a better website, right? Better, faster, stronger! But how often do you get stuck in planning and never get around to doing? Lower your expectations and focus on delivering. Frequent, modest gains are much better than never making progress.
5. Quit assuming your church can’t do video. Anybody can do video these days. No budget? No problem. Again, you might need to lower your expectations. You’re probably not going to be cranking out clips worthy of The Tonight Show, but it’s amazing what you can do with a cell phone and some good lighting. Quit the excuses and shoot that 30-second intro video that welcomes people to your church. Quit reaching for the stars and just put your pastor in front of a camera for a quick Periscope video. Sometimes you just have to try it and see what works.

Learn more about quitting with the quick ebook, Is Your Church Ready to Quit?: 166 Ways to Be a Quitter. You can also download a free sample.