On Meetings

I always thought we should change the words from:

“Like a mighty army moves the Church of God” to “Like a might army meets the Church of God.”

Why is it that church meetings seem to take forever and go nowhere?

As a leader in your congregation a fair amount of your time will be spent in meetings, some official and some unofficial. You better get good at meetings. While what follows addresses congregation meetings, you can apply much of it to other meetings you may have at your work place, in the community… and even at home.

Learning to “do meetings well” will amplify your leadership as leader.

Length

I have heard it said that nothing good happens in a meeting after an hour and a half, and not much good happens after forty-five minutes. Keep an eye on how long your meetings last. Unlike rock concerts, shorter is better.

Determine before the meeting starts when it will end. The ending time is as important as the beginning time. Hold to the determined ending time. Budget the use of time in accord with the length of the meeting. A clock in the meeting room helps keep things on schedule. A friend of mine taught me to add at the bottom of the agenda: Adjournment: NLT X:XX.  (NLT = No Later Than)

Be especially sensitive to the length of evening meetings. Remember, like you the other folks sitting at the table have already put in a long day and have things to do at home.

Agenda/Purpose

Don’t have a meeting without one of these! Never. They serve as a contract with and between the participants.

And stick to them. If something comes up at the meeting that begins to lead the group toward non-agenda issues, gently but firmly lead the group back on track. If it is an issue that must be dealt with, find another time to consider it. If in fact you must deal with the unexpected item “right now,” take something else off the agenda by mutual consent.

If you are the leader of the meeting, provide one in advance. If you are a participant, insist on one in advance. 

Preparation

Follow the Coast Guard motto, “Semper paratus.”

Always be ready for the meeting. Read the agenda prior to the meeting. If there are minutes from the previous meeting, review them before the meeting and make sure that you have completed any assignments you may have been given. If you have come across information you think might help your group, send it to the chair for distribution before the meeting. 

Don’t forget prayer; it constitutes a crucial part of meeting preparation.

Seating

This is not manipulation. This is how life works.

Whoever sits directly across from you will be the most adversarial to you. Make sure you minimize this by having a key ally across from you.

Whoever sits directly next to you will be the most aligned with you. Make sure you maximize this by having your greatest adversary sit there.

(Note: To whomever has been at a meeting I have run, I have not always followed this…)

Participation

Make sure you do. It you attend a meeting at which you say nothing, you should have stayed home.

Make sure you don’t talk too much. Spend time listening, really hearing, what others are saying. Formulating your response before the previous person is done speaking will keep you from hearing.

Devotions

Begin and end all of your meetings with prayer. If they are congregation meetings, you will pray with others. If they are not congregation meetings, you should offer up silent, private prayer on your own.

Congregation meetings do not necessarily have to have a devotion beyond a prayer. Devotions given at the beginning of meetings can suffer from being more perfunctory than edifying. On occasion they can be hastily prepared. “Oh, I forgot I had devotions tonight.” Some participants may get in the habit of straggling in after devotions when the “real meeting” begins. 

If your group decides to include a devotion, make sure it is always excellently prepared and that all are on time for it.

As long as a congregation meeting has a legitimate agenda and purpose, it is a legitimate gathering of the people of God to do the work of the Church even without a Bible study. Although you can’t get too much of a good thing, a Bible study is not “necessary.” You and the other participants should already be in the Word, should be Bible readers. A meeting is a meeting, not a study. This is the time to put the Word into action. A congregation meeting is the Word at work.

Decisions

When making decisions at a meeting, keep in mind the following:

• Make sure that those affected by the decisions have been included in some way in the consideration. The Elders should not make a decision impacting the Education Team without the Education Team somehow involved.
• The more decisions that can be made by consensus rather than by an actual vote the better. Votes lead to winners and losers. The fewer of these we have in the Church the better.
• Once a decision has been made, make sure that all stick with it and support it.
• Seek what is right not who is right.

Socializing

Arrive at meetings a little early and plan to linger a bit afterwards. Socializing and conversation preceding and following a meeting build camaraderie in a group. During the meeting, while there should be light hearted give and take, keep the off-topic conversation to a minimum. Save the socializing for before and after so that people who need to get somewhere else can get there.

Chair

The chair of a meeting should focus on keeping the meeting on track, civil and productive. The chair runs the meeting but should never dominate it. The chair’s goals are to have all participants involved in the meeting, cover the task at hand and adjourn the meeting on time… all in a way that participants are still speaking to one another at the end of it. This is the extent of the chair’s “power.”

Robert’s Rules of Order 

Congregation meetings, because participants feel so passionately about their congregation and because the Enemy does too—from a different point of view, often careen toward the chaotic. They need order.

You may be aware that U.S. Army Major Henry Martyn Robert devised his Rules of Order in response to difficulty he met in running a church meeting. Others have experienced the same situation at congregation meetings. (Note: This is an understatement of extreme proportion.) 

Most congregations use Robert’s Rules of Order to some degree. Often their use is stipulated in organizing documents like constitutions and by-laws. Their greatest benefit is that, properly applied, the rules keep one item on the table at a time so that conversation can be focused. You should have a working knowledge of these so that you can use or, when necessary, ignore them.

When using Robert’s Rules of Order, keep in mind the following:

• They are a tool; do not let them become a master. They are to keep a meeting under control; they should not take control of the meeting.
• And don’t let them become a club either. Too often a participant at a meeting will invoke Robert’s Rules of Order in a way that circumvents a healthy give and take and at the same time clubs a dissenter to be quiet.
• When people begin to invoke Robert’s Rules of Order, the disorder is already at the door. Be careful.

Meetings Matter!

Worship services rightly conducted provide great vitality and strength for the local congregation and the Church as a whole. People will experience the presence and power of God.

While in a secondary position, the same is true of meetings. So yes, the Church and her congregations meet. But in those meetings the Church of Jesus is on the move.