Ever think that staff meetings are a waste of time? If you want a vibrant and healthy staff – staff meetings are essential. Several years ago, we had a difficult time getting anyone to attend out staff meetings. Now they are the highlight of everyone’s week. Here are the four P’s keys to great staff meetings – and by extension – a great team.
The Purpose
Staff meetings should be designed to celebrate the great things that are happening in your church and to let everyone know what’s going on. They should be fun, celebratory, include a great devotional and include some kind of food.
The Program
We have found that the best day of the week for staff meetings is Wednesday. The best time is at 10:00 am. The perfect length is one hour (not more). Have some kind of food. We’ve found that even the most diligent dieters go weak over really good donuts (and get really mad when you forget them).
Start with one or two worship songs – if you have enough people. Don’t let this be awkward if you only have 3-5 people at your staff meeting.
Next, we recommend a time of celebration over what took place last weekend. Simply ask anyone to give a report on something great that happened in their ministry last weekend. Let this go on for about 5-7 minutes.
Next we often do shout-outs for people you saw that did something extraordinary over the past week in ministry. Someone who you saw go above and beyond their normal duties. This can go on for another 5-7 minutes.
Next, a time of prayer – have everyone get in groups of two or three and pray for each other, their ministries and anything else you both need prayer for. 5-7 minutes for this too.
Then talk about the upcoming weekend. Don’t go into great detail, just enough to let everyone know what’s going on the next weekend, the theme, what’s going to be really fun and inviting about it and why everyone will want to come. 5-7 minutes for this too.
Finally, a devotional. This could be a preview of the sermon for the upcoming meeting (it’s great for your senior pastor or teaching pastor to try out his/her key points for the upcoming sermon. Find a way for the devotional to be uplifting and encouraging. You want your staff to leave encourage and excited about your church and the upcoming weekend. 20 minutes is the perfect amount of time for the devotional.
End the meeting by thanking everyone for attending and pray for them before they leave.
The Participants
Invite everyone who helps make your church tick to your staff meetings. This means volunteers, part-time employees, full-time employees and invited guests who happen to be in town that have a connection to your church. It’s important to know that staff meetings are not just for paid staff – volunteers may be the lifeblood of your health and success.
Having your volunteers there will also make them insiders (which you want all volunteers to become (be sure to read the post on “Creating the Core”). If you treat them like staff, they will behave like staff and represent your church to everyone they meet. By having them on the same page each week about what’s going on, they will be able to recruit even more people to help on the weekend and have more time to prepare.