Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 03
The Art of Meetings Part 3
I was watching some guys drill a well for water. I began talking with them and asked how it was going. They told me, “We are about to hit water.” That statement hit me. How did they know they were about to hit water? They had all of these drill bits on the ground. They had drilled about 100 feet down at this point. The guy looked at the bits on the ground and said, “Oh this bit has this on it, and that bit has that on it.” In other words, there were different marks on the bits from the different kinds of ground they were drilling through. He knew from the deposits on the bits, based on the soil he was drilling through, that he was just about to hit water.
The Holy Spirit spoke to me in that moment. He said, “If you stay in contact with all the different soils in your church, you will hit water every time.”
When we talk about meeting with people, I know that as a leader of a growing church, you have to spend a lot of your meeting time with your top leaders. But you can’t just meet with the few at the top; you have to drill down.
What is a Leader
When I refer to leaders, I don’t mean opinion-givers. Leaders gather people, motivate people, move people, and actually lead people. Your leadership meetings are going to be dead on arrival if they are full of church attenders who have a lot of wisdom, but they are just offering their opinion and they are not part of the mobilization force.
Drill at Every Level
You do need to have regular contact with every person in the church. Why? You cannot delegate vision. You are the vision carrier. You can delegate certain aspects of accomplishing that vision, but that vision can only drip down off of you. From your top leaders to the new people in the church and everybody in between, there should be constant, consistent contact.
Picture the drill bit and hit every level. By doing this, you will keep replenishing and growing people. Some of those people at your church membership class could be your next small group leader or campus pastor or missionary.
What are the meeting priorities?
People that lead people.
1. Small Group Leaders: Small group leaders are the most critical people to meet with because they are helping you pastor the church. When I pastored, I met with them every Sunday before church started—praying together, checking in on each other. I had a form they would fill out that told me who was at their small groups, what was discussed, any input needed, etc. That way I knew what was going on. I read them and gave the leaders fresh feedback.
2. Worship Team: Those are the people you have up there all of the time. Especially your worship leader. I would meet with my worship leader on a regular basic. I want that person to carry my worship DNA. Then periodically, I would drop in during a regular mid-week rehearsal to thank the team for serving, share something God is doing, ask them how they are doing, and spend some time together in prayer and worship with them. Those are not maintenance meetings. Those are proactive meetings where you are engaging and enjoying your people.
3. Influencers: Other groups I would meet with are the counselors—those doing marriage counseling, altar ministry. Anyone who is influencing people. Those are the people you want to be meeting with.
4. Task Drivers: The task-oriented people are people who are making things happen. They are your administrative team, financial team, building maintenance, outreach team, follow-up team. You want to meet with them on a regular basis. Not as much as your small group leaders and your worship team, but consistently meet with them at least once a month.
Proactive Leading
Get these meetings on your calendar early. Forecast them. That will help the meetings be sharp and will let your people know that you are really interested in them. You will learn a lot by listening to them. You will learn a lot through observation. After the meeting, follow up with a note so that they know you heard them, and communicate any decisions made.
Many leaders make fatal errors and do not act quickly because they are simply going on old information. When you get around your people, you see and hear what is going on and it enables you to pastor them in the context of the way they are serving. You will find in doing this that you sustain people serving in those areas a lot longer because they feel empowered and supported.
Who are you meeting with on a regular basis? If the majority of your meetings are spontaneous or as-needed, something else besides you is driving the vision of your church—usually a problem or a “problem person.” Look at all your people as you drill down so you know when you are about to hit water. Who you are meeting with is important. I encourage you to do that on purpose every time. When you do that, you are going to raise the water level—the movement level of everything that is happening in your church.
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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