The ministry of fewer meetings
Let go of the 'stuff' of church, and get more of the 'good stuff'
The question on social media was about evening church meetings. It was not by a minister I know, but it felt so familiar. On the surface, it was a question about parenting: how to be there for your kids when you have a demanding job.
But I couldn’t keep myself from commenting:
'Stop going to meetings. I’m serious. This is killing us as clergy’.
When I think of all the ways the church is having trouble breaking out of 20th century institutionalism, meetings are near the top of the list.
Board meetings, budget meetings, outreach meetings, building meetings, strategic planning meetings, etc., etc.
This is the stuff that exhausts us, and at the same time it’s the stuff we think we can’t give up.
What will happen if we do?
This is the core of reimagining ministry.
If we look deeply at the work most congregational ministers do, beyond worship on Sunday, it’s attend a lot of meetings.
Talk with most ministers long enough, and they bemoan how the ‘stuff’ - the seemingly endless maintenance work of keeping the organization moving along - sucks the energy and creativity out of them and leaves precious little time for what they want to be doing:
Praying
Shepherding souls
Spending time with God
Listening to their people, being with them in life’s joys and challenges
Teaching the faith
Serving others in Jesus’ name
This is the ‘good stuff’. This is what we’re called to.
It feels risky, even subversive sometimes, to say: do those things. Live into your ministry. Forget the meetings.
’But what will become of the church if we don’t have all these meetings?’
Let’s find out.