Meetings: Why No One Comes

By cwesleynativity

I'm working with the Director of Children's Ministry to put together a training event for our ministers.  As much as we would love to bring all of our ministers to all the great conferences out there we can't...it's too expensive.  So, instead of bringing them to the conference we are bringing the conference to them.  Basically, we'll gather them on a Saturday morning and have them view a video message from Catalyst, I'll give them a brief follow up message, we'll have community building activities and then send them on their way.  So I sent out the evite to all the ministers, and I got this response from one of the ministers:
"I'm just a crowd minister and I'm not sure I see the purpose of me being there.  Besides 4 hours is a long time to meet."
I was taken aback and immediately my defense mechanism chimed in and I wanted to send an email asking them, "How could they not see the purpose of this gathering?"  But, then I thought about it and considered that maybe we've created a culture where meetings are excessive and boring.  It makes sense and I get the minister's reluctance because we are asking her to give more of her time (especially on a Saturday morning) and if the meeting is going purposeless then why should she go?  An attitude in your organization will build if you have meetings and trainings that:

• Never End: Is there a perfect length? Depends on why you are meeting. A training meeting, probably can go longer than an hour depending on the content. A prep meeting probably should be brief (15-20mins). All you have to do is determine how long the meeting is going to be and post a start and an end time.  Most times people just want to know how long they are going to have to endure your meeting if it:
• Never Engage: I hate going to meetings where you just meet for meeting sake.  Again you need an agenda, but you also need a vision.  You need to ask yourself, "What do I want people knowing when they are leaving this meeting?" or "How will my volunteers be better off after we are through this agenda?"  If all you are doing is meeting to go over something that could be communicated in an email, you've wasted their time.   

You want to have meetings and trainings that:

• Fuel - Meaning refresh your team.  A year of ministry is a long time, find some way to replenish their souls and purpose for serving.
• Challenge - Make them solve a problem, address an issue or change the way the view ministry.
• Teach - Volunteers don't go to school for ministry (neither do some of us), if you want them to take ownership, teach them a skill that will enhance their ministry.

I do my best to show that I value my volunteer's time, but I also know that I'm not the best meeting/training coordinator.  So how do you make sure that your meetings fuel, challenge and teach? Please comment.