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On-Purpose Staff Meetings

An on-purpose staff meeting strategy includes four different kinds of meetings, each designed to keep your ministry team on course.

Have you ever come to the end of a staff meeting and wondered what was accomplished? Most of us have. For staff meetings to be productive, they must first be on purpose.

Don’t try to make your staff meetings a one-size-fits-all meeting—a combination prayer meeting, training meeting, emergency meeting, business meeting, and regular all-purpose (no-purpose) meeting.

Let me offer an on-purpose meeting strategy that includes four different kinds of meetings, each held once a month in different places for different purposes with different people attending.

(Note: In smaller churches, key volunteer leaders are included in any or all of the four types of meetings.)

The first Tuesday: all-staff meeting

The primary purpose is shaping staff culture and building team morale.

All paid employees are included. The components may consist of celebrating organizational wins, a training lesson that shapes staff culture, communicating big items, and community building from things such as celebrating birthdays, to giving awards, to prayer for each other. The meeting should last about 2 hours. A simple continental breakfast is a nice touch.

The second Tuesday: matters of ministry meeting

The primary purpose is communication and strategic thinking.

The pastoral/ministry team and key administrative staff are included. This is the meeting that most closely represents the typical weekly staff meeting. The key components are an exchange of important information, ministry development and alignment, and prayer (specifically for the congregation.) This meeting should last from 90 minutes to 2 hours. There are a number of ways to design this meeting for productivity and high value. The following is one example.

Storytelling. Have several staff members share stories of changed lives from within your congregation. Tell stories of the ongoing transforming power of Christ.

Rapid fire. There are many items included here, but only a few minutes are needed. This is a fast review of calendar items, ministry updates, policy and administrative items, and numerical reports.

Think tank. This is the bulk of the meeting. It will usually have only one item and no more than three. This is the time to deal with ministry strategy and design. It’s the time for brainstorming and idea exchange. There is no end to the possible subjects, from better assimilation of first-time guests to evangelism strategies.

From the heart. This is a brief moment when the team leader can share whatever may be on his or her heart in a personal way.

Prayer time. Pray for the people in your church by name. Like the possibilities for topics in the think-tank discussions, you can pray for anything from God’s favor for a Great Commission harvest to someone being healed of cancer.

The third Tuesday: staff-development meeting

The primary purpose is dedicated solely to leadership development of the pastoral/ministry team.

There are components of community and team building included in this meeting, but the focus is leadership development. I recommend you have this meeting off church property, in the same location each time—preferably a warm, inviting environment without distractions, such as someone’s home. This leadership-development meeting lasts 3 to 4 hours and involves a variety of possibilities such as book studies, teaching leadership lessons, analyzing case studies, watching and discussing videos. I consider this the most important meeting of the four. Applying what is learned is essential.

The fourth Tuesday: calendar-planning meeting

The primary purpose is master planning with a detailed focus on the calendar.

Our staff at Crossroads meets in our War Room where we display a 14-foot January to December calendar with different colors to indicate various kinds of activities. This meeting includes some of the pastoral staff and several of the administrative staff. It lasts about 45 minutes and is more informal and less structured than the other three meetings. This is a stand-up meeting with free-flow dialogue, even multiple conversations at one time to counter the effect of the intense level of detail. Success is found as you continue to land a good rhythm and balance of ministry timing. This meeting requires strong big-picture thinking to achieve a purposeful and balanced sense of programming for the church as a whole.

For additional information on making your staff meetings more productive and worthwhile, see Michael D. Jackson’s Web sidebar, "Staff Meeting Reality."

—Dan M. Reiland, D.Min., Lawrenceville, Georgia