Over the years I've had the opportunity to participate in countless board meetings, in all sorts of contexts--including the dreaded church board. Some went smoothly and got stuff done. Many seemed to bog down in trivial details and drag on interminably.

When I became a pastor, I determined to take our board meetings up a notch. It was a busy church, with a large budget, a jam-packed calendar, and lots of ministries. But my members had busy lives--and I was serious about wanting to protect their time. So we worked at it together and gradually developed a system that helped us stay on track, make important decisions, and grow our church. And by God's grace, we would usually get out in close to an hour!

My church was blessed with an exceptional team of leaders, but you can use the exact same strategies to improve your meetings too. In the paragraphs below I'll outline the plan we followed.

The Agenda

There are a lot of things that go into leading a good meeting. A good familiarity with the church manual is important. A good command of basic parliamentary procedure is also helpful. And a good church clerk and a good church treasurer are crucial. But the main key I want to address today, is a well-planned agenda.

We pretty much followed the same basic agenda every month--involving seven basic elements. I pretty much just updated the meeting date, and reprinted it for every meeting. (You can see my template here.) You'll note I included target times for each section of the meeting so I could instantly tell whether we were on track or getting behind.

Here's a detailed outline for each section:

1. Devotions (10 minutes)

Setting a strong spiritual tone for each meeting is first priority. In my experience, spending a bit more time here more than makes up for itself--as it helps board members be more united and Christlike, and prevents needless argument and debate.

We would start on time, with a brief word of prayer. Next, I would read a brief devotional. Then I would remind the group that the most important thing we could do as church leaders is to pray, and would take a few priority church prayer requests. Then we would all kneel for a season of prayer, asking for 2-3 volunteers, and last I would close the prayer session. I allocated 10 minutes for this.

For the devotional, I would simply read a page from a devotional book. I have a whole shelf of them in my home, and I would read the devotional for the current date in 6 or 8 until I found one with just the right message. Something positive, focused on character, mission, our reward. I would never use the worship to drive a proposal, but used it to remind the group of our great privilege to live and work together as ambassadors for heaven.

Don't rush it. Plan this part carefully and emphasize its importance. Get off to a strong spiritual start, and the rest of the meeting is far more likely to go well.

2. Consensus Items (5 minutes)

This section typically consisted of three items: approving minutes from the previous meeting, approving the financial report, and recommending membership transfers to the church.

To avoid wasting time on consensus items, I asked my clerk to send out the minutes by email 3-4 days in advance to all board members (along with a reminder about the meeting). Similarly, the treasurer would send out his report by email in advance. Each board member was encouraged to review these prior to coming, and ask questions or give feedback directly to the clerk or treasurer. This way, when we met, we could normally go straight to a vote.

To streamline the membership transfers, I generally voted them all as a group. Members had the option to request discussion of an individual name separately, but most often we could just read the transfers and vote them quickly with little discussion. It helps when the board trusts the pastor and/or church elders to properly review these requests before they come to the church board.

3. Pastor's Report (15 minutes)

This section of the meeting consisted of two main parts: a Vision and Values section, and any major church proposals I wanted to either introduce or take action on. (Usually 1-2 per meeting). These were all listed as line items in this section of the agenda. By putting them first, I was able to make sure the most important decisions were taken care of. Itemizing them helped to ensure we didn't get distracted.

Though the pastor may not be hired by the local church, I always felt the pastor should be accountable to the church, particularly in terms of the voted vision and values of the church. So each month I would try to highlight the biggest successes of the church, in relation to our church vision statement. Where possible I would refer to our core values as well. Sharing reports of individual lives being changed, and special accomplishments of the church is motivating. And reminding board leaders where you are going, and the progress you are making, at every meeting, helps build momentum.

The special projects I presented were typically whole church efforts. They usually centered on evangelism, but I would sometimes discuss nominating committee or major building projects briefly during this time. To help make sure this section of the agenda went smoothly, I did several things:

1) I always tried to clear my strategic plans with key church leaders in advance. In most churches this would be the board of elders, though we developed a strategic planning committee. I also always tried to work out a financial plan with the treasurer in advance as well. Securing the buy in of key leaders in advance of your board meeting is important.

2) Next, I would test the waters. For big decisions with a potential for conflict, I would usually take one meeting to float an idea. I would not entertain much discussion at this point--but would explain rather that it was just an idea, that I was not going to ask for a vote, and that I wanted to encourage the board to pray about it. I also encouraged those with feedback to talk to me outside of the board meeting. Meeting with individuals separately gave me a chance to resolve their issues, or revise my proposal, before any actual vote.

3) Third, I would seek full agreement. We didn't always accomplish that--but we worked at it. If I sensed there was significant division on a proposal, I would recommend tabling the motion to review it and see if we couldn't find some way to improve it. This would give me additional time to work through the issues with any individuals I needed to, and come back with a better proposal. Or to reconsider the proposal entirely. Pushing a vote when there is contention can be necessary, perhaps, but it doesn't contribute to good board meetings.

In my experience, people object to major proposals because they are not given information in advance, are not given time to process that information, and are not given input on the actual proposal. Give people time to get used to new ideas, provide answers to their questions, and find ways to tweak and refine your proposals, and you can get near unanimous support, nearly every time.

4. Dates and Dollars (5 minutes)

You may wonder how we voted all our calendar items and all our budget requests in 5 minutes. It was pretty simple actually--as long as our departmental leaders followed a specific protocol.

In another post I'll talk about church organization, but for now I'll just mention that all our church offices were organized into departments--and each had their own departmental meetings. To bring a date or dollar request to the board, they first had to have their proposal voted as a recommendation by their department. All outreach events went through the personal ministries department and all inreach events went through the family life department.

Second, those requests had to be cleared with the calendar secretary (for dates) and the treasurer (for dollars). This was to confirm that the dates were open and that there were funds available.

Third, they had to forward those requests to me (the pastor) at least a few days in advance. This gave me a chance to preview them to make sure there weren't any major issues, and if necessary, to suggest modifications that would fit better with the larger church plans. I would then compile all the date requests on a single sheet of paper and all the dollar requests on another. I would then present each sheet separately and vote on each list as a whole.

Members would have the option to separate out any item they had questions or concerns about for separate discussion and vote, but generally--if the requests had cleared this 3 step process, there would not be significant issues and these lists would almost always be approved unanimously with little discussion.

If someone wanted to bring up a request from the floor, I would usually refer it back to the appropriate committee, to get approval there first. And I almost never entertained discussions of problems that did not include clear concrete proposals. These would go back to some department too. And I should add, most departments were authorized to make purchases up to a specific amount providing funds were available without special board approval. This eliminated the need for church board action on every small purchase.

5. Departmental Reports (15 minutes)

Next, each major department was given a standing place on the agenda to bring up special departmental requests. But it was not uncommon to go through this entire section with little or no special discussion. First, most motions ended up being dates and dollars, and were approved in that section. Second, big projects were often included as part of the pastor's report. Still, there were occasional items that did not fall into any of these categories.

The policies here were similar. First they needed to bring a clear proposal (motion). If someone wanted to discuss a problem, I would generally refer it to the appropriate committee to hammer out and vote on a plan they could bring back the following month. By encouraging church leaders to work together on solutions, the proposals presented ended up being more polished, balanced, and effective. And plans that couldn't make it through a departmental committee were unlikely to make it through a church board anyway.

I also discouraged departments from giving reports. There were other avenues to inform the church about what was happening in each department, such as bulletin inserts, announcements, newsletters, etc. Limiting board meeting time to specific motions that required board approval went a long way to ensuring we finished things up in a timely way.

6. Maintenance Items (10 minutes)

Last but not least, I had a special section for maintenance items. These were usually requests from the deacons/deaconesses and the building committee, and other small items that didn't fit in anywhere else. The list was usually short, as date and dollar requests were already taken care of through the process described above. But we reserved time for these requests, just in case. And if there were no maintenance items, we could go home early!

Small details should not be neglected, and need their place in the agenda. But all too often the discussion of minor matters expands to fill more time than necessary. Putting them at the end helps to constrain this. Because we were typically nearing the end of our hour by this point, and people were starting to get anxious about going home, the discussion usually stayed to a minimum.

Again, only concrete proposals were entertained--no open discussions. And proposals needed to be vetted in advance by the most appropriate department. Following these two rules, and even a church with ongoing maintenance and/or building projects can keep those projects moving forward in an expeditious way.

7. Adjournment!

Enough said. Once we cleared the last maintenance item, I entertained a motion to adjourn and we closed with prayer.

To get done on time, you just have to make sure each section stays on time. Our timetable was printed right on the agenda, and I would call explicit attention to the fact we were behind schedule, if things started bogging down. My board appreciated this and would cooperate with me to help catch back up. In fact, on several occasions, I saw board members offer to postpone their motions because we were running late--especially if they did not have a pressing time deadline.

I wasn't rigid about ending on time, but if we ran past the 1 hour mark, I would sometimes call for any urgent items and suggest tabling the rest until the next meeting. Do this once or twice and the board will be more conscious of their use of time, and work together at keeping things moving. By pursuing the most important items first, and reserving at least a few moments for urgent items at the end, and you can get most meetings done reasonably close to on time.

Conclusion

To lead your church, it is important to know how to lead your board. There's more to it than just having a good agenda, but a good agenda can definitely help. The exact plan you follow may vary from what I've suggested above, but if your board is willing to work with you and make small incremental changes, your meetings can gradually become both shorter and more productive!

If you want your church to become a true training center, learning to lead good meetings is important--whether you are chairing the board, a committee, a department meeting, or some council. May the suggestions above prove helpful!

Comments

Which of these tips are most helpful to you? What methods have you used to keep your meeting productive and mission focused?

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