Death by church meetings

Thom Rainer Jan. 30, 2019

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He calls it “the most painful problem in business.” In his book, Death by Meeting, best-selling author and leadership consultant Patrick Lencioni looks at one of the greatest resource wastes in businesses: spending too much time in meetings.

I have worked with churches for more than 30 years. Lencioni’s observation is even painfully true in congregations. Following is one real-life example. 

I once worked with a church with an average attendance of 250. They had a monthly business meeting that lasted at least two hours; weekly deacon meetings that lasted at least two hours; and 13 committee meetings that met at least one hour each month (yes, you read that right—13 committee meetings).

The business meeting averaged about 75 in attendance. The deacon meetings typically had 11 in attendance, including staff. Each committee had an average of five members in attendance.

Oh, I almost forgot. The ministry staff of four met two hours each week for a staff meeting.

Do the math. The total person-hours in meetings each month for this church totaled 335 hours. The total person-hours in meetings in a year was 4,020 hours.

Wouldn’t you love to have more than 4,000 hours in Great Commission activity each year?

The fatality count  

While I would not recommend their total eradication, I do recommend churches conduct a meeting audit. Most churches are in meetings as much as five to 10 times more than is needed. 

So, what can we do in our churches to reduce the time spent in meetings? What can we do to get more time in ministry from our members? Here are five considerations.

1. If you have a monthly business meeting, stop it! Consider having a quarterly, semi-annual, or even annual business meeting. You can keep the congregation informed on such matters as finances and ministries through digital newsletters. And you can always call a special meeting if you need one.

2. Change most of your committees to task forces. Once the task force completes its work, it ceases to exist. One of the greatest miracles in our churches today is the multiplication of committees. By the way, you don’t need a flower committee; you just need someone to take care of the flowers, whether real or dusty plastic.

3. Change your longer weekly staff meeting to a 15- to 20-minute, stand-up session. You don’t need a two- to three-hour staff meeting every week. Limit the longer meetings to a monthly event.

4. Communicate with modern technology. Not every meeting needs to take place. Much of that time can be replaced with emails, texts and communication through software like Slack or Asana.

5. If you must have a meeting, set a clear agenda with a specific time. I am a part of a homeowners’ association that will not cover any items unless placed on the agenda. The chairperson sets a time limit for each item, using a visible stopwatch. Maybe such rigor is not for churches, but congregations can still follow basic committee time-management principles.

Auditing your meetings 

How many person-hours does your church meet every year? You might be surprised if you conduct an honest audit. 

And you might understand more fully why your members don’t have time to do real ministry.

When it comes to discipleship and furthering the gospel, freeing up small amounts of time can produce major dividends.

Photo source: istock 

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Thom S. Rainer is the founder and CEO of Church Answers, and online community and resource for church leaders. Prior to founding Church Answers, Rainer served as president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources. Before coming to LifeWay, he served at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for twelve years where he was the founding dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism. He is a 1977 graduate of the University of Alabama and earned his Master of Divinity and Ph.D. degrees from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Learn More »

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