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Beyond Bored Meetings
Breathing Life into the Most Important Board Activity| posted 10/24/2007
Most people find board meetings to be about as interesting as watching slides of their great aunt's bridge party. It's a good thing we don't turn out the lights for our board meetings! Considering that meetings are the only times boards have the authority to function, poor meetings mean poor boards.
If board members are going to add real value to the ministries they govern, their meetings will look much different than the current cliché gatherings that commonly masquerade as board meetings.
Start with Life
Great advice that I credit to Bill Hybels, founder and Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, is to divide our board meetings into three segments: community, cause, and corporate. Corporate is the business portion of the meeting, and most of this article will focus there because that part could be improved so greatly. However, all our board business will go more smoothly when we frame our time together most appropriately. If our board has been assembled well, the people around the table are passionate about the ministry we're serving and worthy of being lifetime friends. Take a set amount of time—say 45 minutes—to build community amongst the board members, sharing life and maybe sharing some food. Our relationships are the glue that holds the board together.
Next, spend half an hour discussing some of the most outstanding recent accomplishments that have propelled the ministry forward in fulfilling its mission. There are many ways to do this. You could have a leader of an area in the ministry come and share some testimony and vision. You could share our own personal experiences and observations. Regardless of the method, this focus on your "cause" reminds you why you are meeting and sparks the right kind of energy for your gathering. With this foundation of community and cause, you're well positioned to tackle the "corporate" matters. And there are ways to tackle those matters with greater effectiveness.
Annotate your Agenda
Let's take a lesson from popular magazines like Home & Garden, Readers Digest, and National Geographic. To provoke people to read their articles, their tables of contents include a punchy description under every title. Board meeting agendas are typically flat and vague. Worse, some are simply last month's agenda with the date changed. And if last month's meeting was boring, guess what people expect from the upcoming meeting.
Freshen up the agenda to trigger some positive expectation in the board members. Rather than simply listing "Report of the Senior Pastor," underscore it by adding that "Pastor Brad will update on progress regarding the city-wide outreach being coordinated with five other area churches and elaborate on the disappointing news that our children's ministry leader will be departing." Give people reasons to want to be at the meeting.
