Necessary Endings

This summer I read Dr. Henry Cloud’s new book, Necessary Endings. I found multiple applications for me personally and professionally. (By the way, it was the first book I ever read electronically on a Kindle. I thought I might have trouble adjusting to a paperless book, but I have become a Kindle convert.)  Dr. Cloud says that endings are a necessary part of life. Life has seasons, stages, and phases. Businesses must sometimes let go of old product lines or even entire areas of business whose day has passed. Church leaders must be able to end yesteryear’s good ideas or involvements in order to create space for today’s strategies. Individuals must be able to let go of certain relationships, practices, and phases to create a sustainable rhythm of life. In order to move an organization forward, sometimes employers have to let an employee go.

Dr. Cloud’s key metaphor comes from the world of gardening. A healthy, vibrant, blooming rosebush is beautiful, but does not come into being without immense effort. The key to a healthy rosebush: pruning.

Pruning is a process of proactive endings. It turns out that a rosebush, like many other plants, cannot reach its full potential without a systematic process of pruning. The gardener intentionally and purposefully cuts off branches and buds that fall into any of three categories:

1. Healthy buds or branches that are not the best ones,

2. Sick branches that are not going to get well, and

3. Dead branches that are taking up space needed for the healthy ones to thrive. (Page 15)

In business and in life, we must execute the three types of necessary endings described above if we are to flourish. Life always produces more branches than it can sustain. Pruning your business, your church, and your life is necessary to direct limited resources (time, money, energy, talent, emotions) toward the things that help achieve your vision most. The book unpacks how to identify necessary endings and why we avoid them.

Questions to consider:

1. What church programs in your church fall into each of the three categories (healthy but not the best, sick and not going to get well, dead)?
2. What needs to be pruned out of your life in order for you to be fully engaged in the callings God has given you?
3. What necessary endings are you avoiding?

I recommend Necessary Endings for anyone who leads anything. If you prefer a quick overview, these six-minute interviews with Henry Cloud by Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church provide a helpful summary.

1. Part one: Necessary Endings
2. Part two: When should you end the program or fire someone?
3. Part three: Are you hoping for change or just wishing?