Closed For Business

A local theater closed near my home recently. It had been a thriving business, but when the newer theaters opened with stadium seating, including one by this same company, it just couldn’t continue to compete.

Today I was driving by the theater and on the marquis is written “Closed For Business”. That strikes me as funny. Shouldn’t it say simply “Closed” or “Permanently Closed” or something like that? ? You could be closed “from (doing) business, but not closed “for” business. Dictionary.com says the word “for” means: “with the object or purpose of”, such as in the phrase “to run for exercise.” You don’t close for business; you close from business.

Well, enough of that, but it did make me think. How many times are we in our churches (or businesses) closed FROM business? We know what we need to do; we have the right goals, strategies and visions, but we never really accomplish what we set out to do. We are, for all practical purposes, at least in that area of ministry, closed. We blame it on a lack of something. “If I had more volunteers…”… “If I had more time or more money…” There’s always an excuse for not growing or completing our vision. We are essentially, for all practical purposes, “Closed For Business”.

Maybe we need to re-open. Perhaps we need to push through the moment that seems impossible, work on the hindrances to achievement, and stay with it until we are once again “Open For Business”. I think many of the challenges we face may be overcome if we just come at them with the positive mindset that we must find a solution, because we are “open” for business.