Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 01
The Art of Meetings Part 1
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
God sent a messenger, not just a message.
In surveying several churches in our network, we found that there is a systematic weakness in regularly scheduled leadership meetings in most churches. We found that this is directly corelated to the lack of first-level disciples. Not servants, but disciples. Those disciples that most pastors really crave.
Bible experts suggest that Jesus spent 73% of His time with small groups in strategic situations. Jesus did His best work in small groups. Sunday morning services are our best “net” and critical to the growth of people. But there needs to be a steady diet of leadership that courses through the veins of the local church. This is how the things that are being said on Sunday get traction on Monday through Saturday.
I Love Meetings
When you think of meetings, do you roll your eyes? Most people do. But I love meetings. I love meetings I organize because they get things done.
I don’tlove meetings…
That are unorganized
Where there isn’t a clear agenda
That have no clear goal
Where it isn’t clear who is going to be there
That don’t end with an action plan
Bring Back Meetings
Another question we asked in our recent survey of our network churches was: Are there any practices that you used to do that are now neglected or not being done that need to be reinstated? The overwhelming answer: meeting with leadership groups.
Some people in ministry say they are busy. “I don’t have time to meet with people.” The busier you are, the more you haveto meet with people, or you are just going to stay busy.
Developing a Culture of Small Group Meetings
Small group meetings need to be more than a tactic, but part of the DNA. Here are four critical questions to ask yourself when planning a meeting:
Who are you meeting with?
How often are you meeting?
Why are you meeting?
What is your meeting culture?
The vision of your church is not going to have traction without these four things being identified.
Problem vs. Vision Meeting
If your meeting culture is always about problems, that will make you a problem-focused leadership team. It will have a negative posture, so when you call a meeting, it will feel more like the principal calling people into his office. A positive vision, opportunity-driven meeting should be what most of the meeting is about. You water down the bad by adding an abundance of good. You don’t water down the bad by neglecting the good. Otherwise, you will lose vision and your best energy will be spent on negative meetings.
If your meetings are about opportunity and vision, the attendees will absorb and ooze opportunity and vision. Excitement will come out of the meetings. If your meetings are about equipping and training people, the people will absorb it and ooze it. Discipleship will be a result of those kind of meetings.
Developing a Solid, Exciting Meeting Culture
Have regular leadership meetings. Why? Because those leadership meetings are going to hold you accountable to process what’s happening in the church and will keep everything on track. This is how you generate traction. Plan and organize the content of these meetings just like you would a sermon.
Regular meetings keep you from being swallowed up by problems and “problem people. ”When you are focused on opportunities and being proactive, even though there will be problems to be dealt with, they will not cause you to lose traction.
In small group meetings, you are able to assess the health and ability of your team. Having that small meeting on a regular basic will help you determine the ability level of your team and will help you not drive them past where their ability can take them. More than ability, being able to assess whether your team is healthy, walking in victory, having a prayer life, hearing from God, etc. is critical. We have to asses the health issues so that we don’t just use people, but make them useful to the Kingdom of God.
People will come to these meetings because they know:
The meetings will be fruitful
They will leave the meeting with clarity
Their time will not be wasted
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
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