In many corporate settings, meetings are an inevitable waste of time and energy. When they happen in the context of church, people often feel one or more of the following emotions:
- Joy at doing God’s work.
- Guilt for not enjoying God’s work.
- Dread at spending time away from home or away from your favorite restaurant or away from binge watching your favorite show.
While I don’t expect that people will always find more joy in a church meeting than they do at El Dorado, I do think we could refine the process so that the joy we get from experiencing God is at least hinted at as we run our meetings.
To take a closer look at how to run a meeting, let’s look at a case study of one of my favorite meetings ever. Read Acts 2. Go on. I’ll wait.
Fascinating right? This is one of my favorite church meetings. You might not think of Pentecost as a church meeting. It was after all a Jewish holiday. They were worshiping. Not all meetings have worship components but I’d challenge you to put those components in your meetings – then you might just find God showing up.
So to have the “M” word at church feel a little more holy and a little less horrible, follow the example of Peter at Pentecost:
- There was a clear purpose for gathering. A holiday!
- The right people were there. People were gathered from all over so that their voices were heard at the table – and boy were they ever!
- Ask genuine questions. “Are they drunk?” is always a good question.
- Decide the next steps. In this case – repent and be baptized.
- Expect God to show up. There was a bit of mystery about when Jesus would send the Holy Spirit and what would happen next but the disciples were expecting something to happen. They just didn’t know what.
Follow these steps to put a little more liveliness in your church meetings. If that doesn’t work, try bringing bacon (and invite me).
Until Everyone Hears,
