I LOVE Meetings!/I HATE Meetings!

 Yes, I love meetings and I hate meetings.  Mostly, I love meetings.  They plan good things.  They allow people to express their thoughts, concerns and ideas.  They make progress toward an intended goal.  Those are the meetings I love!  The meetings I hate are those where it seems people are disrespected, nothing is accomplished and it seems there was no good reason for the meeting.

Whether you like meetings or not, they are an important part of ministry.  I would go even further and say maybe they are a MORE important part of college ministry because not only are we working on our ministry, we are teaching students how to do meetings that benefit God's Kingdom.

Here are some simple questions and guidelines to help have better meetings that work for the good of God's Kingdom:

1.  Have a clear purpose and reason for the meeting.

2.  Have clear planned and announced starting and ending times.  People tend to get done what they need to when they know how much time is allotted.  Sometimes, it is beneficial for the one leading the meeting to say something like, "We have about ten minutes left, what do we for sure need to cover?"

3.  Make sure everyone is treated with respect and given the opportunity to say what they have to say.

4.  Yet, it is possible that sometimes people keep saying the same things over and over, and over and over and over.  Ok; that is where the leader needs to summarize what has been said and move to the next step.

5.  Is what is being done and said moving the meeting toward the desired goal and purpose of the meeting?

6.  Does everyone really FEEL they have the chance to say what they want to say?  Sometimes, the leader may need to say something like, "Harold, you look like you have a thought or question you want to raise."  Reading the faces and body language of the people present is important and necessary.

7.  Has some action been taken or a path decided on or a decision made?  A mentor of mine used to say that there needed to be at least one vote at every committee meeting, so that everyone present would feel they had accomplished something and their being there had served a purpose.

8.  Some meetings are for the purpose of sharing information and having everyone clued in to what they need to know.  Close the meeting by making sure the key information is clear and communicated.

9.  I believe in praying at meetings.  HOWEVER, it is important that it not just be rote praying for the purpose of just having a clear start and end.  Pray about what you have met about.  Pray for the people involved in the meeting. Pray like you think praying matters and the reason for meeting matters.

By the way, laughter is a good lubricant of a great meeting.

"But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way." I Corinthians 14:40

Arliss Dickerson's book, ALMOST EVERYTHING ABOUT COLLEGE MINISTRY, is available at amazon.com.