Summary: Your people want to walk into a well-constructed meeting that is highly engaging and that is balanced. Providing an agenda sends a signal that you've thought through where you're going. Take note of what is bad at someone else's meetings and make yours dominate.
“Stop having sucky meetings”, said everyone always. Now I don't know about you, but I have sat through a number of sucky meetings. I sat through sucky meeting when I was a teacher. But when I was a full-time pastor for over a decade, I certainly sat through my fair share of sucky meetings. One of the reasons why I think meetings kind of suck, is that leaders don’t think that they need to have a meeting agenda. And I want to tell you, in the lead volunteers’ material, we have a fantastic four-part agenda that you should follow for all of your meetings.
Providing an agenda sends a signal that you've thought through where you're going. There's nothing worse than walking into a meeting and having this sixth sense that your leaders are making up the meeting as they go. You know what? I have a particular set of lenses that can pick that out almost immediately.
Your people want to walk into a well-constructed meeting that is highly engaging and that is balanced. There's a time of prayer. There's a time of personal connection. There's a time of deeper teaching that would educate them how to do ministry in the long haul. But then at the end, there is this punch list of brief items that need to be executed.
Sucky meetings can be overcome. And I really want to challenge you. If you've had sucky meetings done to you, that does not mean that you have to hold sucky meetings for those you lead. Take note of what is bad at someone else's meetings and make yours dominate. Stop having sucky meetings and people will want to come to your meetings.