Ministry at any level requires strategy and planning. Many of us voice frustration with all the meetings we are required to attend. From my perspective, there would be a lot less meetings if the list of invitees was better thought out. Many meetings take place impromptu and there is really nothing that can be done about these. I’m talking about the planned strategy meetings. The ones where the highest leadership is involved. The plan? Get in a room and brainstorm the best ideas. Why wouldn’t it work? You’ve probably got the most experienced team of people in the room. What is missing? Quite often the doers are missing. The marketing people, the design people, the web people, the video producers…the people who have to facilitate the good idea and help it get traction. They are ones who can advise of certain pitfalls and bumps in the road if you go a certain direction. Believe me, you are not hiding from the reality of pitfalls by not inviting the doers. Those pitfalls just surface way later than necessary and then another meeting is needed to address these issues.
My advice? Start by thinking about the doers that need to be at the table. I can almost guarantee you will have less meetings and the programs will come to fruition much sooner with the right people at the table.