![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/IQuitNote.jpg\" "\\"iStockPhoto")
<\/a>We had been running an evangelism initiative in our church annually for more than 5 years.<\/p>\n
In its early days the results had been impressive. Each time this outreach was launched we\u2019d see dozens of people make decisions to become followers of Christ.<\/p>\n
But in later years the results seemed to taper off.<\/p>\n
No matter how much energy, time and resources we poured into the initiative, the results we had seen in the early days simply couldn\u2019t be replicated.<\/p>\n
Faced with these realities, I gathered up our senior team and tossed a seemingly radical thought on the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cTeam,\u201d I began, \u201cthis outreach initiative has generated wonderful results in the past, but I think we can all see that it no longer seems to be effective. I\u2019m suggesting we discontinue this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Immediately, and predictably, the response was very negative. \u201cWe can\u2019t quit!\u201d one leader began.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy not?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
After a moment of reflection my teammate replied as if by rote, \u201cWell\u2026leaders never quit.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, what I was learning then and believe even more strongly today, there are times when a leader must<\/span> quit.<\/p>\n Specifically, there are at least 3 times a leader should consider saying \u201cI quit\u201d:<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>When the results no longer justify the investment<\/strong> 2.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>When the organization\u2019s values and\/or strategies have changed<\/strong> 3.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>When personnel on board are no longer qualified or able to effectively lead the initiative.<\/strong> To be sure, ending any initiative should never be considered capriciously and without considerable prayer and counsel.<\/p>\n But at the same time, don\u2019t allow a narrow view of the expression \u201cleaders never quit\u201d to limit your options.<\/p>\n Because sometimes the best option is to simply stop.<\/p>\n Are there other occasions when a leader needs to quit?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cA leader never quits!\u201d From the moment we take our first baby-steps in leadership, this anti-quitting sentiment is drilled into our heads. But an episode that unfolded in my days as executive pastor in a large church jolted me into realizing that this axiom is simply not always true. Sometimes, leaders must have the courage…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[478,7,579],"tags":[19,832,257,41,122],"class_list":["post-2592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-leadership","category-ministry-2","tag-change","tag-decision","tag-effectiveness","tag-ministry","tag-results"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2592"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2607,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2592\/revisions\/2607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nLeaders, pay attention to the ROKI: Return on Kingdom Investment.<\/p>\n
\nAn intentional shift in the overall direction of the church can render some initiatives out of sync.<\/p>\n
\nSometimes God moves people in an out of leadership, signaling a time to re-evaluate ministries and programs.<\/p>\n