Snow days are one of the few things in our lives that can actually make plans stop. When roads are closed, school is cancelled, and stores don’t open, we find ourselves with a pocket of freedom where our best laid plans simply will not work.

Snow days happen pretty regularly where I am from, in northern Minnesota. About this time of year, it is not uncommon to have events cancelled because of the low temperatures or high snow drifts. Cancelling church events for those same reasons used to stress me out. (How can we cancel!? It was going to be so good! I had the best lesson / speaker / prayer / service project / worship service planned and ready to go! It will be impossible to reschedule!) The thought of cancelling a ministry event felt like a failure, a missed opportunity. I approached those necessary decisions with guilt and dread. (Something we “had to” do, not something we wanted to do…)

Then, a pastor friend of mine confided in me that she loved to cancel. Her perspective was – it’s such a gift! It’s a gift to families and individuals. An unexpected evening at home with no plans?! It can create space for families to simply be together or for an individual to have an evening of self-care and self-compassion. Holding the joy and peace that can come from making that hard choice to pull the plug can make the situation celebratory for everyone. That unexpected freedom applies to you too! Your participants know that you put care and effort into events, as shown by their continued interest. When you cancel, you remove the burden of choice from them as they ask, “Do I risk my safety on the roads or my peace in a tiring schedule?”. Whether it is caused by inclement weather, low attendance, another reason, you can cancel an event in a way that is loving and kind.

Seeing it in action: Last summer, I had big plans for my high school students. A mini mission trip! Meaningful service projects! A fun group outing! But when I reached out to those high school students – and their parents /caring adults – it quickly became clear to me that my ideas wouldn’t fit with their summer plans and schedules.

Full disclosure: those plans meant more to me than anyone else. These were meaningful traditions at my church. Program events that I planned on year after year. And, most of the students and families liked the ideas, they just couldn’t make them work this year. I listened to the feedback, listened to the families, and cancelled. It didn’t feel like it at the time, but this ended up being a gift. It was a gift to the families. (No guilt, no “trying to make it work”, no rushing from activity to activity, attempting to “do it all”…which they were all willing to do, by the way…) And it was also a gift to me. I learned a lot from that experience, and we have a stronger summer ministry planned for this year because of it. We’re trying new things, we are making some changes, and it is all good. But I didn’t know that last year. When I had to cancel the summer event, it just felt like a failure, like I was letting everyone down and our ministry wasn’t relevant anymore. Thankfully when one door closes (or all of the roads under a foot of snow) another opens, ushering us into a new understanding and new opportunities.

It is ok to cancel ministry events. Clear communication is key, of course. You can cancel something well, being intentional and organized, and then, let go of the guilt and dread. Think about snow days from your childhood. Remember that giddy feeling when you woke up to a caregiver telling you school was cancelled, or you heard it announced on the TV or radio when eating breakfast (cereal bowl immediately dumped into the sink, followed quickly by “Where are my snowpants!?”). A snow day! What a gift! To wake up in the morning, expecting to go to school, only to find out that the day is yours… What a beautiful moment.

Many of us are trying to find the balance in an overscheduled world. If you have the opportunity to do it well: feel free to cancel. Happy snow days!