TN118 Why, exactly, are we meeting?

First published on this website in October 2019 and last updated in September 2023

Synopsis

This set of training notes assumes that many church groups have only vague ideas of why they have meetings, which therefore may be ineffective.

There are five key questions to ask first of all:

1. Do you need to meet at all?
2. Are you aware of your time footprint?
3. Does this group have a clear purpose?
4. What’s likely to go wrong?
5. Is it worth it?

The notes then outline three purposes for any church group in their meetings:

P1      To seek God’s will

P2      To work together

P3      To take action for the future.

If groups truly followed these three radical purposes, everything might change.

The notes conclude with seven possible purposes for any agenda item within a meeting.

These notes were updated in September 2023 with minor amendments to the text and layout.