I’m trying a new format with team meetings and I wanted to walk through it on my blog hoping there was something insightful for you to grab the next time you connect with your paid staff, volunteers or student leaders. And please share what is working in your team meetings! Here’s what the current format looks like:

Training – Start off the meeting with a time of training the big picture of student ministry. it typically involves a passage of Scripture and a reminder to focus on the Power of God.

Prayer - Take time for prayer requests and spend some time in prayer. Critical in building a spiritual culture for the team.

Week Ahead – After the opening few items done, it is time to take the week head on. Since we meet every week on Tuesday morning, we throw out everything that is going on in our ministry before we meet again. It’s a great time to make sure we tackle last minute questions and insure the team is informed to the baseline on who needs to be where.

Celebration – I posted on this last week – we take a few minutes to celebrate students, volunteers and staff. Easily my favorite time of the meeting!

Leadership Challenges -this is where we go after places where we dropped the ball or we need to pick up some slack.Typically this is group admonishment, and we leave specific challenges to one-on-one conversations in a follow-up later.

Team/Responsibility Changes -If there’s a significant change for the team, this is the time to announce and discuss it. I value this time so I can breathe life and ownership to the person assuming the new role. If something “leaks” out internally, it robs me of one of my most honored roles in leadership – to give vision to the change and to talk about the strategy behind the decision.
Debrief - Ask yourself 4 key questions (I’ll blog about them soon) to make sure we had a great weekend service.

Stack Hands – Everyone put their hand in the middle and we pray for unity, teamwork and God’s power.

Everything Admin via Email - don’t waste valuable team time with admin stuff. That’s what email is best for! I talk about it in the group, then send it out right afterward!

JG