Video Transcript: Lesson 36 Making the Most of Meetings

Well, for the last time, let me say it Welcome back to this class on revitalization. I am just so honored and privileged to have gone through this time with you,  thank you so much for this. And I do hope and pray that God is going to bless  what you've learned, he's already at work in you through this class, and that he  will continue to do so for a long time. So here we are lecture 36. Let's jump into  it. Let's get it done. And just celebrate all the things that God has been doing in  through you during this class. Father, thank you so much for this opportunity we  have had as brothers and sisters in Christ to gather together through the  wonderful gift of technology to share your truth, God, we know that your heart is  for the church, she is your bride. I mean, this was great love, that you lead it, so  Lord, We ask in this final lecture that you would help us to be the very best we  can be for you. And Lord, thank you again, for this wonderful call to love your  church and to work alongside you, in bringing it to the place it needs to be. Lord, we ask this in your name, amen. Okay, so these last three lectures have been  making the most of your leadership. Because as pastor or leader, wherever you  are, you are uniquely situated to influence the direction of the church, right? You  have a unique opportunity to move people from where they're at, to God's  agenda, you know, which I think is a great way of just certain defining,  revitalization, moving people from where they are to where God wants them to  be on his agenda. I think that that just sums up revitalization. And so you have a  unique ability to do that, where you are God's puts you there, for that very  special purpose. And so we've talked a little bit about how to make the most of it. And the first one we talked about was building the body, that your role is not to  be the all star who saves the church, right? Your role is to be the coach, the  equipper, you're getting people out there doing dancing, living for the Lord,  right? That's your job, so that everybody is growing, you're all maturing, all the  parts of the body are working together, that's your role, that you got a unique  position to be able to do that. And the second thing where we talked about more  in our last lecture was about expanding the leadership base, and really keeping  an eye on who are the people around you, that you can develop very  intentionally. Because you're in again, you're in a position, make the most of it  you this is your there's going to be time well spent as you equip. And as you  multiply, it's time well spent your make your make the most of the office that you  sit in, okay, and I don't mean this physical space, I mean, the place the position  that you're in. And so today, we're going to finish on one more on making the  most of your leadership, which is making the most of meetings. Now, this  doesn't necessarily sound like the most spiritual way to end this. But I promise,  this is a very, very practical and helpful thing for you to be thinking about.  Because as a leader, you probably call meetings right or you chair you lead  meetings. That's a unique spot that God has you in literally like you're in a very  unique, special chair, to lead meetings. And so we're going to talk today about  how to make the most of those wonderful opportunities, called meetings, what a 

valuable tool it is. When you can have all your people together around the table,  and to discuss, you know, what God is up to and how you can join him. Now  there's nothing worse than a meeting where nothing gets done. I hate going to  meetings where nothing gets done, whether I'm the leader or I'm sitting around  the table and somebody else is leading. And you know, meetings get a really  bad reputation of like, well, meetings and committees nothing ever gets done  out of them, because they think they're often done poorly. Yet I've seen meetings generate so much, you know, energy and direction and, and plans for the future  and, you know, really energizing you know, walking out of a meeting just ready  to just kick down the door and go do what God would have us do next. So  meetings aren't inherently good or bad. They're just an opportunity that we really want to make the most of, okay. And we've got to be really careful about how we do meetings, because time is very valuable and precious. And since that most of our meetings are attended by people who are volunteers, and they're coming on their free time are, often after a day of work, or on a weekend or something like  that, we need to make sure that their time is honored, that it's valued, we make  the most of it, and that they feel like when they leave the meeting at the, you  know, at the end, that it was worth their time that they were glad that they were  there, and they've got some, they've got some real momentum going forward.  Okay. So meetings, we need to talk about it, and making the most of it. So I'm  just going to bullet point, a bunch of things that I think are important parts of  making the most of a meeting. And so hang on, we're going to kind of move  through this here. So how to lead effective meetings, let's talk about that. So first is agendas. And an agenda is really just the outline of the meeting, and what the meeting's about and what you want to accomplish. And so, never meet without a purpose. Okay, so you never meet just to meet, I've been part of meetings  where it was, you know, we meet the first Monday of every month, at seven  o'clock, whether we need to or not, we meet the first Monday, and there's no  clear purpose other than this is just when we always meet, okay, and you're  trying to I don't even know what we're doing here. So every meeting, you don't  ever want to go to meetings like that I've been to too many, there are waste, and you just you resent being there. And then the next time they call a meeting, you  say forget it, I have no interest in doing that. So you want to have a really clear  goals. And you should be able to state to your team or whoever you're meeting  with. Why are we here today or tonight? What is the purpose of it, and it's right  at the beginning, this is what we're hoping to accomplish. When we walk out of  here in an hour, this is what we would like to see. Okay. And so that's what an  agenda we'll help you do. And you're going to want to really kind of prioritize  what you're talking about. So, you know, if you go to an agenda, and there's 78  things on the list, like nobody prioritize, you know, what are the one, two, maybe  at most, three things that we need to talk about right now. So you want to be,  you want to be really clear, this is what we're talking about. And this is the end 

goal we're trying to get to, or we're trying to make a decision on this particular  item. And I would say you know, really be good about honoring time. So if you  say the meeting is from seven o'clock to eight o'clock at night, don't let the  meeting go to 930. You know, respect people's times when they're there. And I  would really just recommend keeping meetings, like 60 minutes to 90 minutes at the max, we've probably all been to marathon meetings. And you know that  once you get past a certain amount of time, the energy goes down, people are  just tired of thinking they've had a long day, they want to go home, they're  supposed to be someplace else. But now they're kind of stuck here. And so now  they're not contributing at all, they're just more irritated that they're still at this  meeting that they should have been out of an hour ago. And so I would really  limit meetings to 60 to 90 minutes. And so I try to keep it like very focused, clear, short, and like boom, boom, boom, we know what we're here for, we're going to  do it, and then we're gonna get out. With that being said, what I find to be really  helpful in the practice that our church has adopted, for the last number of years  is most every meeting, we begin with a time of worship. And that could be I play  guitar, so it could be me just playing something. It could be we'll watch a video,  some worship music, maybe it's something new, or we'll sing along to it if there's words on the screen or handouts. Sometimes it'll be like, just a prayer time with  some open space just honoring and glorifying the Lord. You know, some  scripture reading. But again, that has a more worshipful bent, or just going  around and saying, let's just, let's lift up some names of the Lord, as in  Scripture, and as we and why, why it's important to us and we'll go around and I  just always so wonderful to be reminded why we're even at a meeting what the  church is all about. It's for Jesus, and that Are we're at the meeting actually then  often say is an act of worship, you know, we're giving you know, it's not just  singing songs is worship, it's, it's everything we do for the Lord. And here we are tonight seeking, seeking out what we can do and trying to listen to the Lord and  decide and come together as a body and, and push forward and, and that's an  act of worship, so. And it also, I think if people have bad days, it really recenter  them, it focuses them. If there's any negativity that people are coming in with  about the agenda, I think it really just takes the edge off of that, because it's like, yeah, you know, this isn't about me, it's about the Lord. It's his church. He's  honored and glorified. And so I would just like, we've just had 510 minutes. And  it's always worth it. I've never done that. And so boy, we really wasted our time  worshiping, before we got started, just practically speaking, starting with an easy item that everybody can agree on, that's not going to take a lot of time, you kind  of want to build some more momentum, you know, don't start with like, the most  divisive, contentious issue, or, you know, something like that. Just something  easy, that you guys can just, you know, talk about, and there's agreement, and  there's good feeling. And then usually after that, then I would move on to like the bigger item like, okay, like, here's really why we're here. And, and really trying to 

make the bulk of our meeting is going to be talking about the big item, right? I  don't want to have a 60 minute meeting, and spend only three minutes talking  about the really big item, because I just spent 45 minutes talking about the  smaller inconsequential things, right. So I'm really kind of deliberate with like,  Okay, we really want to spend our time here, okay, and building an agenda kind  of around that. And then, usually then ending with a minor, easy issue, or just  something that we can all celebrate together, you know, ending on it's just a  good positive note, on the way out. So, that's kind of an overall flow of what a  meeting looks like. And in terms of agendas, depending on your ministry, and  what means are available to you. We always send them out, you know, a week  ahead of time, or you know, at least several days ahead of time, so that when  people come to the meeting, they know exactly why we're meeting, you know,  it's such as well, what are we doing here, when everybody comes in the door,  they know exactly why we're meeting, they know, they've had a little time to  think about it. And they know we're we're trying to get Okay, so give giving  people a heads up is really important. Okay. And, uh, one last thing on on  meetings, having a meeting, never have a meeting when it could have been like  an email, you know, if you're, if you have that capacity, and then you have  distribution lists, sometimes you just need to send out information. And it's like,  or just Hey, everybody, just so you know, this is what's up, you know, if you can  do it in an email, don't have the people come in, you just don't need to do it. So I always try to make people know that when I'm calling you in for a meeting, and  we're we're going to spend some time face to face. It's, it's something that can  only really be done face to face. Okay, so let's talk about this. So sometimes, in  meetings, there's reports from different committees or different, you know,  projects we have going on, whenever there's reports, they're always given  ahead of time. You know, they're printed out, emailed out, or copies are given  and handed off to people. So you know, like, again, a week, several days before  the meeting. We don't spend our time just like, Okay, Bill has a report for us, and then builds out a three page report. And we just sit there and we listen to Bill,  read the report, right? We can do that at home. And so basically, when we get to different reports, it'll be like, Okay, Bill has a report from the mission team. And  Bill might highlight one thing that was in there, like, Hey, I hope everybody saw  this, because that's a really big thing. And then we'll say, does anybody have  any questions? And then it's like, you're on page two, you said this, you know,  more often than not, people are like, Nope, I read it at home. Great. Let's keep  on moving. As long as that information got out, and everybody knows about it,  we don't need to talk about it. Right. So if anybody does need to give something  and then occasionally time where it's like, we just didn't, you know, something  popped up last minute or there's an addition to the report that was sent out. If a  report needs to be given or if there's a guest who wants to Just come and speak to the team for whatever reason, it's very brief, you know, it's very brief, the 

meetings are not the time to like, catch up on all the things you missed, you  need to do that kind of, you know, everybody do that kind of before to be  prepared for the meeting. So that's just something, you know, I've been at a lot  of meetings where somebody just reads the report. And it's like, This just made  the meeting 20 minutes longer. And I could have done this, you know, last week  when I have the time to do it. Okay. Another thing with good effective meetings  is really watching who speaks and how often they speak, it's typical in a group,  that someone or someones are going to want to dominate the conversation and  you, you probably had a name, jump right into your head, as I said, that you've  been in a meeting. And it's like the same person, just always. It's like, everyone  is entitled to their opinion. And, you know, they'll talk for 10 minutes, and then  somebody else will talk for 30 seconds, and then they have to give their 9  minute rebuttal to what that 30 second thing was, you know, people have, you  know, big personalities, and they have to be going out, you know, always just  dominating the floor. And that really can destroy a meeting, as I'm sure you, you  know, you've been I'm sure you've been part of meetings, whether you've led  them or you've been one of the people on the table, and you just want that  person to be quiet, because it's like, they're running the show. Okay. So just a  couple of things. So if somebody does speak, you know, we didn't we need to  set some guidelines, like, hey, you know, we want to talk about this. But if  everybody could limit it to a couple of minutes, you know, that's probably about  enough to get your point across. And so somebody's talking, you know, I don't  like to have a stopwatch. But if it goes to like, four minutes, five minutes, I'll just  say, was there anything else you needed to add? Because we, you know, we  were going to try to limit it. And we want to make sure we hear from other  people, then people will either cut it short, or they'll say, No, that, you know, that  was about it. You definitely want to do that. And then if they speak again, it's like, you know, yeah, kind of how to cut them off. And then they're speaking again  and going on. And, you know, don't be afraid to just say, you know, Bill, we  already heard from you on that. And I think, you know, we've got a good idea of  where you stand, and you can kind of say, you know, repeat from what I hear  Bill, you know, you're really against this because of one two, and three, or Bill,  you you're really behind us because of these two reasons. So Bill feels like he's  heard, as they say, we don't really need to talk about, you know, anymore, we  can move on, let's hear from some other people. And, and I, you know, definitely if there's more quiet people, sometimes they just, you know, they need, you've  got to draw it out of a little bit. The person who's quietest, I found this more often than not, the person who's the quietest often has like the best idea. And you've  got people who talk a lot, and it's going round around, around around and you  can't get any real solution. And then finally, ask the most quiet person to say  something in about two sentences. They, they hit the nail on the head, and it's  like, Oh, I wish you know, we needed to get you in on this earlier. So just making

sure it's it's more of a team feeling. And it's not just heavily dominated that one  or two people are just running the whole conversation conversation. Again, so  inviting people to speak or not, and then people who speak too much, saying,  you know, we already heard from you, let's, let's, let's, let's move to somebody  

else. So we all have a chance to express what we think the Lord would have for  us? And also, I always hold people accountable to speak for themselves. So it's  a well, I've heard, you know, that people are upset about the new worship style.  Okay, well, I don't ask for names at all. But I will say, Well, Bill, we're picking on  

Bill today. Say, Well, Bill, uh, you might have heard that, but what do you think?  Because sometimes people will, you know, they'll dominate meetings and kind  of, uh, you know, talk about what other people think. But it's really them. Like, if  we're going to talk about this, I don't want to speculate, you know, so Well, Bill,  is that how you feel, tell me what you think about this. And then he'll either say,  Well, I agree, and then I can address that or he goes, Well, I disagree. And we  

can talk about that. But if we're just having conversations about hearsay, there's  no way we can address it. There's no way I can, you know, try to resolve it. Or  things like that. Okay, so, speaking it's always like We're keeping it fair and  balanced. But also, we're not having conversations on hearsay, it's what do you  think, what, where are you at with this issue? Okay. Another key thing with  meetings is vote when you need to come to a decision on a big issue, what I  have found really helpful is not ever voting on a bigger issue. The at the  meeting, it's first raised. So we're going to talk about hiring a new staff position,  we've identified a need, you know, our children's ministry director has stepped  down, and we need to replace that. Well, that's a pretty big decision, you know,  or if it's like, budget or something like that, or we're gonna, you know, we're  gonna, you know, do a remodel in our church, it's gonna cost a lot of money,  whatever it is, you know, give people time to hear it. And then to process it, not  to feel like it just got railroaded through. So if it's a big issue, even I'd say a  moderate issue. It's like, we'll bring it up. We vote on it next month. And if we  can't wait for a month, I'll say we're going to bring it up today. And then within  next week, I'll call around or we'll do an email, and we'll take a vote then.  Because we have to decide this within 10 days, we just found out about it. This  is what we need to do. But those are really the exceptions. And I have found just letting people have a month to sit on something. By the time it comes back.  There's almost like no. There's really very little, almost even conversation about  it. Because they got introduced a month ago, they've had a month to ask  questions to think about it's a process to work through any issues, if they  needed to talk somebody outside the team. They did. And then when they come, it's usually like, Yeah, sounds good. All the problems I had I worked through,  rather than saying we're voting on this tonight, and they still have like, eight  unresolved questions about what you're doing and who's doing it, and how's it  gonna get paid. And it's like, it's much better to wait and get everybody on board

than to just like, get it done. And, you know, slam it through. So I would really  encourage you to just if I need something, you know, a big vote, I need some I  need a decision by October, well, I'm gonna probably introduce it in like August,  or something like that, or September at the latest. So people have time to  process it and think about it, okay. And they'll appreciate it. Because you don't  want meetings where there's like a lot of anxiety and, and artificial deadlines,  increase that anxiety. Okay, so voting, very important how you do that you want  everybody feeling good about it, building consensus, deliverables, this is a  really, really, really big one and really important, okay. So there needs to be  some accountability, let's say you're, you're at a meeting, and you've decided to  do three things, you're going to do A, B, and C. So that's great. And a lot of  times the meeting ends, we all agree on this, and we all walk out the door. And  then we come back next month, and no, but nothing's happened. A, B and C are still not done. Because there wasn't any, like accountability attached to it. So  what we do, which has been very helpful for us and becoming very effective, is  that whenever we decide something, there's always what are we doing? Who's  in charge of making sure it gets done? And then when are they getting it done  by? So Sally is going to you know, interview three people for the children's  ministry director position in the next month. And she will report back here next  time on that, right? Or, you know, we're going to, you get the idea. I don't have to make up a bunch of examples. But you say what's happening? Who's  responsible for it? And when are they getting it done by So then everybody has  a really clear idea, okay, by the next meeting, I have to do this. Or by the next  meeting, I'm not responsible for anything. Because if nobody's name is attached to something, it's never going to get done. You have to say this is who's doing it.  This is and this is what it's gonna get done by. So then as a leader, what I do  and what I'd encourage you to do a week before the next meeting, or whenever  that deliverable is do by, I'll call Sally and say. Sally, how's it going? Have you  been able to meet with any of the three candidates yet? Yes, I met with two of  them and I'm meeting with one on Thursday. Great. Or she'll be like, No, I  haven't I haven't met with any of them yet. Okay. Are you going to be able to  meet with them? No. Okay. Well, that since that was going to be the the focus of the next meeting, well, we're not going to have to have a meeting now because  Sally didn't get to it or, and there's different reasons. Sally said, Well, my  mother's been in the hospital for the last two weeks, and we've been running  back and forth taking care of her. I totally get it. I totally understand. Life  happens. Don't worry about it. Sally, why don't we plan on you doing this for the  next month? She says, Great, perfect. Or it's like has something come up? No,  no, I just haven't gotten around to it. And that's where you can then, you know,  she just kind of dropped the ball. That's when you can do a little bit of coaching  on, you know, leadership. And, okay, well, let's talk about this. And you know,  why it matters, and, you know, very gently, very graciously, but because there's 

some accountability, I can, you know, we're going to get more stuff done. But  even if it doesn't get done, I can actually do some coaching, I can do some  leading, I can do some developing. So kind of a win win, either way. But if we  just say we're going to do A, B, and C, and then we don't agree on anything, or  who's doing it, we all come back and said, Yeah, that was great. We all decided  it. Nothing, nobody's done anything. Okay, well, we just wasted this meeting.  And I've been in way too many meetings for things have been wasted. Okay.  And so that's just a really big one. Also just throw out the idea of some meeting  alternatives, if it's difficult for you to all meet in one place. And just kind of  working between meetings. Our church as we do a lot of collaborative work, a  lot of work on teams. And so we do, we've got our churches, a big space on  Google Drive, with shared folders and documents and people work together. So  it's like, they don't have to meet in person, because they're working on a  document together. I don't know how technologically astute your people are, or  what technology you have available to you. But we try to use technology as  much as we can. So I can work on it when it's convenient for me, my friend,  Sally can work on it when it's convenient with her. We don't have to, you know,  schedule time to meet together. And we can kind of collaborate and work on  things. And that's been, you know, just cuts down on meetings, honestly, it  makes it a lot more effective for us. So we use as much kind of digital stuff as  we can to cut down on meetings. And another way we do that is with conference calling. There's lots of free companies, or companies that offer free conference  calling. So if we just need to do like a quick 15 minute check in what's going on.  It's like, we don't all need to drive in and talk about this. We can just do a quick  conference call and like, Hey, Sally, how's it going? Hey, Bill, how's it going? And this is what I'm working on. And boom, boom, boom, okay, yeah, sounds good.  We don't We didn't need to meet, but it was important that we updated each  other. And then that's the end of it. So Bill can be driving in this car calling in  and, you know, that saves him a meeting and Sally's, you know, her lunch break. And so now she hasn't come in at night, and she's eating her sandwich at her  desk, you know, doing this. So we just look at a lot of just alternatives. So that  when we do meet, and when we are together, we get the most kind of bang for  our buck, that we're not just doing reports, we're not doing something that could  have been an email, we're not doing something that could have been just a  phone in that it's stuff that we really need to talk about in person. And so I found  that we now have less meetings. But we get more done in less meetings. So I'll  get more done in four meetings than I used to get done in 10 meetings, doing it  this way. And then finally, last little bullet note here is the communication post  meeting. You can have the greatest thing happen in a meeting. But if it word  doesn't get out about it, it's almost like it never happened. And so you really  can't overdo it, you know, sharing with the congregation, sharing with, you know, appropriate whether it's you want to share with just all your leaders or the whole 

congregation or whatever, hey, this is what we're doing. This is what we're  talking about. You can do newsletters, you can do email, you can do it in  bulletins, you can do it in person, announcements and worship, whatever it is.  You know, communicating this is what's going on. This is what's happening,  because everybody likes to be in the know people don't want to be in the dark. If you're doing really good things, and good things are happening at your meetings you want, you want people to know about it, you want people to get jazzed  about all the great things that are going on. And I can tell you, you can't do this  enough. Because for every one time I've heard somebody say, we've heard  enough about this, you know, kind of you're beating a dead horse. For every one time I hear that there's probably 500 times I hear, I never heard anything about  it. You know, what, where did this come from? Nobody said anything to me.  Even if they've, we publicize it like crazy. They still are, they still swear they've  never heard it. And so we've even done things like, we'll have meetings and  take, like the big, you know, poster paper that will take notes on, we'll just, like,  hang it in a common space for people to look at, and be like, Oh, what was this  for? Oh, this was for this meeting, you know, not just, you know, kind of our  notes are private. And we just try to be transparent and let people see, this is  what we're doing. This is what we're working on. So when there's I work with  youth leaders, it's like, hey, this was a great meeting, the parents need to know  about this. And the kids need to know when, when what's going on, and the  things we're working on and the things we're deciding. But that's kind of an  example of, again, if you want to have effective meetings, don't just have them  be effective when you're actually meeting? Have them be effective after the  meeting and getting the word out. Okay. So that's it, can you believe that, my  goodness, we have finally made it to the end. Good for you. Congratulations. I  do pray that, again, all the talks, the readings you've done have been helpful, all  the challenges for you to do that along the way that God has just stirred  something in you at different times. And truly, my every blessing, the work or  revitalization you're doing is very hard. As I've shared in the past, there are  times where I just feel like Yes. And there's times where I feel like you no, like,  there's times where I teach this, these lectures, and I feel so excited about  because I see what God is doing in my church, and I want to just pass it on with  you. And then there's been other times in these lectures where I almost feel like  why am I to even teach this, we're still we're still struggling with this or we've  gone backwards. And I think that's the big thing for you to remember, as you do  revitalization, we've talked about this so much, it's a slow process. There's not  just one kind of silver bullet. And you're gonna go two steps forward and one  step back, and one step forward. And one step back, then two steps forward.  And it's it's an up and down process, you need to be patient with your people,  you need to be patient with yourself. And just keep keep at it, keep working.  Keep pushing into the things that God is leading you to keep moving your 

yourself and your people onto God's agenda. Try to grow as a person of  character that displays Christ, model it for others, and at the end of the day, just  trust it with God, just give it to the Lord, and your congregation or your ministry  might double. It might go down in size. But if you're being faithful to the Lord, at  the end of the day, you can go to bed, put your head down, and no in  confidence. God, I'm giving it to you, I love you, I'm serving you. And friends, let  that be enough. Let that be enough. Because your people might not. You might  be the most wonderful leader but they're just not going to accept it. You know,  think of Moses 40 years trying to get the people to go in the right direction. And  he couldn't you know, so if you're discouraged in six months or a year from now,  it's okay. It's okay. Just continue to develop who you are as a person and as a  leader, keeping in mind all the things we've talked about, and then trust it to the  Lord, and pray for him to turn the hearts of those you lead so that they might  share in your joy in him. With that, let me pray for you one more time. Father,  may your blessing be upon your people. Your blessing be upon your church,  particularly Lord, the church that struggles, the church in decline the church that  is stagnant and Lord the leaders who grieve over it. Lord, replace their grief with  joy. Continue to speak to them with direction and wisdom and guidance far  beyond this class. May their people be open to them that is not just them that  are leading but it's you through the power of Your Spirit Lord may your church  grow until you come again to take us all into your glory Amen