Hey, it's Michael and I want to welcome

you to this month's Master Class. Today,

we were gonna be talking about a

meeting rhythm that will work in your

church, that will take you from the big

picture of annual planning all the way

down through what you should talk about

each and every week. So thanks for

watching and let's dive into this month's

Master Class.

Well, welcome to this Master Class today. I

wanna talk and share just kind of a mix

really of what this is gonna be is things

that I've learned and used in ministry. But

also kind put it in the church context for

you and your staff in your leadership

team meetings. And I wanna talk about

how to develop a really healthy meeting

rhythm. And the reason this topic is so

important is because I have spent, you

know… I'm 44 years old right now. So I'm

not, you know, young, I'm not old. I'm in the

middle, right? I'm the very definition of the

middle age now, but I've been in ministry

for more than 20 years, both as a youth

pastor then as a church planner, a pastor,

and now, working with churches all around

the country.

And I have had my fair share of meetings,

right? We probably all have. We sat in

meetings as participants, we sat in

meetings as leaders, we sat in meetings

that we wanted to be in, we sat in

meetings that we didn't wanna be in. And

observationally speaking, and I've heard

this from other pastors and leaders

probably like you, is that there is this

tension because so many meetings just

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Developing a Healthy Meeting Rhythm

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are not very productive, right? Some

people love meetings, some people hate

meetings, but I think more people would

agree that meetings could be more

productive. And the reason I think this is is

because so much of the time that we get

together in our meetings is that we're

dealing with urgent stuff, right? We need

to have a meeting because this happened

Sunday or we need to have a meeting

because this is happening Sunday and

we're not ready for it.

And so, our meetings tend to be focused

on what's going on right now and what's

urgent, and fixing a crisis or an

opportunity that's like in three days and

we got to get ready for it. And most of our

meetings are about the here and now.

Very few of our meetings ever kinda get

to what I would consider core or the heart

or the big picture or what I would say

would be the ultimately important stuff. So

we get together and we solve little

problems for right now, but we actually

never really have a structure, a system

where we can get together and solve the

big problems or prevent the right now

problems from happening because we're

looking at the whole thing. And so most

church staff meetings, team meetings,

outdoors meetings, whatever kind of

meetings happen, they deal with the here

and now, and they don't ever really get to

the heart of the matter.

Now, I live this, right? I had this happen

both as a meeting participant, I've lead

meetings that weren't very productive, but

it's several years ago, I kind of stumbled

into two or three couple of different

sources, a rhythm that really pulled me

out of this. They got me kinda out of like,

"Let's solve today's problem," but to look

at what are we trying to accomplish, and

to build a system of meetings and

retreats, and kinda get-togethers with the

right people in the room that actually

focused on the whole organization and

not just this week's problems. And that's

what I wanna share with you today.

I wanna share with you, I just call this a

meeting rhythm and the reason it's a

rhythm is because it happens with

consistency, and it starts with a year

planning, a year in advance, and drills all

the way down through the week. And

what this rhythm does... And you can

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customize it, you can change it, you can

tweak it, but what it does is it gives you a

place where you know you're going to talk

about the important stuff. It gives you a

place where you know you have time on

the calendar with the right people in the

room to talk about the big picture. You

can still talk about this week, you could

still talk about the emergency stuff, but

you're gonna find, if you implement a

rhythm like this, that some of that stuff

goes into the background and you

actually talk about bigger stuff and more

important stuff.

And so, the key to this whole rhythm, it

starts with planning a year in advance.

Okay. It starts with creating a year in

advance and then it continues with

intentional mile markers throughout the

year where you revisit the plan that you

create. So there's four steps and I just

wanna walk you quickly through the four

steps. I've got templates, documents, and

resource to help you do it, and learn it,

and implement it, but here's how it works.

Okay. Step number one is you start with

an annual retreat, an annual retreat. Now,

as I'm recording this video right now, our

Church Fuel team, leadership team, just

came off of our annual retreat. So we do

what we're teaching you. Okay. We do this

in our organization. And last week, again,

as I'm recording this, last week or two

weeks ago, I was with the church on the

ground and they were doing this annual

retreat. They had me come in as a

consultant/adviser kind of coach to guide

them through it and they did this. So we

do this in our church, we help churches do

this personally, and I'm just gonna kinda

tell you how it works, and you could do it

on your own.

So you start with an annual retreat and at

the annual retreat, I recommend two to

three days, okay, two to three days out of

the office, maybe even out of town if you

can afford it or get to it, two to three days.

And here's what you do, you do two

things, two things, that's it. Just two things

at this annual retreat. First of all is you

build your one-page ministry plan, you

build your one-page ministry plan, and

you do it in the room. You have lots of

conversation, you have lots of debates,

you have lots of arguments, and you have

alignment that comes out of it, you build

your one-page ministry plan.

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Now, your one-page ministry plan... We've

got training just on that so you can drill

back, get you going just to watch that

training, but on your one-page ministry

plan you've answered eight things. And

you put eight things on the one sheet of

paper. And that's what you do. You take

an entire day, you take an entire day and

a half to either create or revisit the eight

things that are on your one-page ministry

plan. And you walk out of that retreat with

a sheet of paper filled out with a pen, old

school, and you say, "This is what we're

doing next year. This is what we're doing in

the next 12 months. This is our plan for the

next year." It's all one page, is a one-page

ministry plan for the next year, and that's

what you create at your annual planning

retreat.

Now, the second thing that you create at

this annual thing is your calendar. So you

do your plan and you do your calendar.

You go, "When are we talking about this?

When are we talking about volunteers?

When are we talking about giving? What

are our big events?" And you put it on the

calendar. And you do this with the

leadership team, and you do this at a

annual thing so you can look at the whole

year. Not what are we doing next week,

not what do we need to announce on

Sunday. I mean, the year, and you make

sure that you don't have too much stuff

crammed into January or May or

September or December. You make sure

that your key ministries, which you talk

about on your one-page plan, actually

show up in your calendar. You make sure

that too much stuff that's not on your

one-page plan doesn't show up in your

calendar.

So at your annual plan, you get your key

leaders together, two to three days, you

create your one-page plan, and you

create your annual calendar. Now, if you

only do that, you will have incredible

clarity about the next year. And here's the

deal, the first time you do it, it may be

difficult. The first time you do it, you may

be like, "I'm not sure if we did that right."

That's okay. The reason this is a rhythm is

you're gonna come back to it next year.

Now, I really recommend that you do this

in like a November, December or January

type of setting, right? Either the end of the

year looking ahead or the beginning of

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the year looking ahead. You can do it any

time throughout the year, but I think it

works if can you get it on the rhythm of

having that happen at the end of one

year leading into the next. Maybe that's a

calendar year, it could be the ministry

year, however you look at it. But put it

down on the calendar and do it every

single year.

And every time you do your annual

retreat, you know what you're doing,

you're doing your one-page plan, and

you're doing your one-page calendar.

That's what you do. Now, can you do

leadership development? Sure. Can you

do team building? Sure. Can you have fun

and bring spouses? Sure. You can add

other stuff, but make sure you at least do

those two things, two to three days, out of

the office, prefer out of the city if you can

do it, one-page plan, one-page calendar.

Okay. That's your annual retreat.

Now, a lot of churches have done this, at

some point in time. Typically, what

happens next is you get the one-page

plan, you get the calendar, and you come

back, and you set it on your desk

somewhere. And then your Bible goes on

top of that and then some notes from a

meeting on top of that, and then some

other papers go on top of that or it goes

in a computer somewhere, right? It goes in

a Dropbox folder, it goes in Google Doc,

and you share it. And as time goes by it

gets further down, it's not a recently

opened document, it's way down on the

list. We create our plan and then we just

kind of ignore it. That doesn't work and I

think you know that doesn't work, and

that's the tension that we feel is because,

"Okay. I can create this plan," but we don't

execute the plan.

Here's the key. Okay. Once you create

your annual plan, you're not done with

annual planning. The next key to that... So

number one is annual planning, annual

retreat. Number two, we call it quarterly

focus. So you go from annual plan, annual

retreat, to a quarterly focus. And here's

what you do. The next three quarters of

the year, right? So you're gonna have

three more quarters of the year, the next

three quarters, you get together for one

to two days. Now, you don't have to go

out of town for this, you could do in town.

But I still recommend you go out of the

office. Okay. It could be one day, it could

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be a day and a half, it could be a day plus

dinner, you can tweak the schedule, but

one to two days out of the office.

And what you do at the quarterly meeting

is you pull out the one place plan and you

say, "All right. This is what we're gonna do

this year. What do we need to do this

quarter to make it happen?" Right? You

break it down, you make it bite-size. A

book I wanna recommend to you that you

at least look at and I'll give you some

notes on it too is called "The 12 Week

Year." I read this book and a big take away

for me was because…a lot of times annual

plans and annual goals are too big.

And so, tell me if you've done this, right?

You're like, "Hey, this year, I'm gonna save

like $50,000." And then you don't save any

money until you get to November and

then you're like, "Well, now, how am I

gonna say $50,000 in two months?"

Right? The plan was too big. It’s like, "I'm

gonna run a marathon and I'm gonna do

it in December." And then we do nothing,

nothing, nothing, nothing, because here's

the deal, and the author of this book,

Brian Moran says that, he said, "When we

set 12-month goals, like December seems

like forever away in January." So he

advocates, he says, "Hey, forget the

annual goals," which I don't agree with

that, but he says, "What if you shrink it

down to 12 weeks, to a quarter?" Because

12 weeks, if you're gonna accomplish a 12-

week goal, you gotta get to work on that

today.

So, what you do in your quarterly focus is

you pull out the annual plan and then you

say, "All right. What are we doing this

quarter to make it happen?" And two

things I recommend that you do here,

what are your quarterly goals, so you take

your annual plan which has goals on it

and you say, "Well, what do we need to do

this quarter to make that happen?" And

so, it's smaller, it's bite size, it's doable, it's

accomplishable. And then we talk in

Church Fuel, we use the term rocks like,

"What are the big projects? What are the

big rocks that we need to do and work on

this quarter?" Not all year, it's this quarter,

we gotta check them off.

And what does it look like to be checked

off, right? So if we say, “Well, we're gonna

improve something.” Well, what does

checking that off look like. We have to

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agree on how we're measuring that and

we do that at the quarter. So every

quarter you get together and you say, "All

right, we got a plan. What do we do in this

quarter to make it happen?" Same people,

same people, "What do we do in this

quarter?"

Now, annual, that's number one. So annual

retreat. Number two, quarterly focus.

Number three, monthly review, monthly

review. Now, your monthly review, it can be

in the office, it can be a half a day to a

day, right. So there's no overnight involved.

It's a shorter meeting. We have churches

that do this in a few hours, we have

churches that it will take a whole day. You

can go off site if you wanna borrow a

different church or accomplish it

somewhere else just for fun. But this is

where you look at your quarterly

progress. Right? So you're drilling it down.

You're drilling all the important stuff down

and you're saying, "Hey, this is what we are

supposed to do this quarter. These are

our rocks, these are our goals. How are

we doing? Where are we stuck? Are we on

track, are we off track? What issues do we

have this quarter that we can fully solve,

this quarter not like in the future, but this

quarter? What do we need to talk

through? What issues do we have?"

This is a great place to do development as

well, leadership development like, how do

we need to get better as leaders in order

to accomplish our goals. And so now, think

about this, you've drilled down to a month.

No, it's not an annual plan, it's not a big

picture plan anymore. It's like, this month,

this is what we're doing to make this

quarter happen. And if we do that this

quarter, then the year will happen, right?

So we're building.

And then the last thing is the weekly

check-in. The weekly check-in probably

looks like most church staff meetings, and

this is when you can talk about the little

issues that come up. Because you now

have the bigger picture in place, you now

have the important stuff in place, so you

can get together over the week, in the

week and just hit some things. So a few

things that I recommend you do weekly,

weekly. Okay? Start with stories. Always

start with stories.

When we have our Church Fuel meeting,

the very first thing on every agenda, every

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time, is somebody tell me a good story.

And it's not like once upon a time story it's,

"Hey, I got an e-mail from a customer who

was stuck and we're helping them, then

we point them this, and they said thanks."

In your church it could be like, "Hey, there

was a guest this past Sunday, they came

with Martha and they sat together on the

second row and it was awesome." It could

be a baptism, it could be something

happening in your children's ministry,

family ministry. It could be something that

your church did.

Start with a story. Just take five minutes

and start every single weekly check-in

with a story, and then review the numbers.

We're gonna come back and do a whole

another video on this because I really

believe that everybody in your church

needs to know some key numbers. And

just make it public, make it public

knowledge amongst your leaders to say,

"This is how many people are here. This is

how, you know, these are some key

numbers that you should know." We'll talk

through that later, but always review the

numbers. You don't have to talk about

them incessantly, but review them so that

everybody knows what's going on.

You can use the Train Your Team resource

that we talked about, use Train Your Team

in your weekly meeting. If you have a

weekly meeting, take the first 15 or 20

minutes and do some skill-based

leadership development, and then

communicate your key information, right?

And so here's the secret with the weekly

meeting, the agenda is the same every

single week. With the monthly meeting, it's

the same every single month. With the

quarterly meeting, we're talking about the

same things every month. Now the stuff

on the things change, but the format, the

flow, the way it works stays the same.

So here's the deal, the bigger one always

cancels out the smaller one. So when you

do your annual retreat, that takes the

place of the quarterly that quarter. When

you do your quarterly, it kicks out the

monthly that month. When you do your

monthly, you don't need to have your

weekly. And so, the bigger one always

kicks out the smaller one. And that keeps

it from just being overly meeting all the

time. But here's why this works, here's why

this works is because now your core

meetings are focused on the big

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important, what does God want to do

through our church. Not your meetings

are always like, "Which song are we gonna

sing?" or "This person..."

You know, it's bigger, your meetings are

bigger. They're more important, they're

more impactful, and all the little ones

serve the bigger one, all the quarterlies

serve your annual, all the monthlies serve

your quarter. Right? All your weekly, help

your... It builds, it builds, and it builds a

rhythm. And as you do it over and over,

and over again, if you do this for a year or

a couple years or three years, you will find

that you get better, you will find that they

become much more effective, and that

you're better able to lead the church that

God's called you to lead.

Now, I gave you a bunch of resources this

month, and you can see them here on the

page. I gave you that one-page ministry

plan, that's what you do in your annual

retreat. You've got that, if you didn't have

it already. I gave you a quarterly focus

meeting agenda, right? So when you do

these quarterlies, here's what it could look

like. You've got a monthly review agenda.

I've given you a weekly agenda, and I'm

giving you a report template that you can

use. So there's a bunch of documents and

you've got the PDFs, you've got the

originals. If you want to change them up,

you can do that. But you have these

documents to implement the system.

I also recommended some other

resources, link to some other videos, if you

wanna drill in on any of these things. All

this information is available to you this

month through the Master Class right here

on the page. But if you have any questions

about it, if you wanna bring in a facilitator,

we can point you in the right direction

with some people who can help you,

particularly with the annual retreat. If you

want some help, get some help on this,

because as you implement this rhythm, it

will really, really, really help your church in

a big and significant way. So if you got

any questions, let us know. We're here to

serve you. Thanks for watching and God

bless.

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