The Blessing within the Business Meeting

I HATE BUSINESS MEETINGS! By and large, Business meetings within the traditional Baptist church are a drain, a drag, depressing and often disappointing. They sap energy, misuse and misdirect excitement and at least for me are very rarely energizing, and now a word from our sponsor( I am just venting and I loved the meeting we had tonight at Macedonia) and now back to our regularly scheduled programming. I HATE BUSINESS MEETINGS! However, I am proud to write that God has been working on me and I have come away believing there is a blessing and not just a burden within the business meeting. Business meetings are more than just the discussion of financial details, going over how much the pastor, musician and etc makes. Business meetings are a chance for the pastor to do another version of vision casting. When we preach we cast vision from the pulpit to show forth what the Lord has spoken to us as Pastors; what the Scriptures says and how it applies to our lives and how we should enact it in our world, in our church and in our lives. We do the same in our teaching sessions whether small group, Discipleship, Sunday School or Deacon training; we declare what God has deposited in us so that we might develop and deploy disciples for Christ. Therefore, why don't we view the Business hour as the same opportunity! There is a blessing within the Business Meeting! Just some ideas:

• REVIEW AND PREVIEW- A good business meeting is one where we look back at where we have been, review where we are now and look ahead to where we want to be.


• REINTRODUCE- One of the things that personally bothers me the most about business meetings is I feel I am wasting time answering questions that I have already discussed in Bible studies or said in Sunday Sermons. I want to scream ARE YOU LISTENING? Then it hit me, No, they are not. Every one does not come to Bible Study, every one does not listen to Sunday Sermons and sometimes people can miss the forest because of the trees, so we have an opportunity to reintroduce our agenda. To bring back to the forefront what others have missed or tried to misplace which leads me to the next point.


• RETOOL AND RESTRUCTURE- Every good idea does not always work for a variety of reasons: not enough manpower, not enough money for ministry, wrong motives and unwilling workers, sometimes it was better in thought than in reality or better in principle than in practice; therefore business meetings give us a chance to retool, reshape and restructure our practices for better productivity. Periodically, General Motors would issue down time to some of its workforce in an attempt to retool the line, change the spacing, create better footsteps for greater efficiency and maximum production. Business meetings give us the same chance to stop double work, or prevent people from walking within the same foot path creating gridlock and chaos.


• RESTART AND REKINDLE- Some people don't get it on the first, second or even third tries. Some people got the idea but allowed events, enemies or the evil one to put out their flame for service and ministry. We have the chance to restart and rekindle. Sometimes people need a boost or a shot in the arm. Sometimes we as leaders need a boost and a shot in the arm as well.


• REMINDER- This is mainly for the leaders. Sometime we need the critics, the hell-raisers, the devilish deacons and tricky trustees, our meddling mother's boards and our messy music ministries to remind us WE NEED HELP. WE NEED GOD! While there are times we believe these people are killing us and they may believe they are doing the Charlie Sheen WINNING, by destroying us, in reality it just reminds us we need God. We pray better, preach better, pastor better because there are people who drive us to our knees and to our God. In addition, there are people that we are so desperate to love us, affirm us, appreciate us when in fact sometimes God allows these people to cross our paths to remind us, There is something better waiting for us. Some Hell reminds us this place is not a permanent passage but rather a rest stop on our way to our destination. Some people through the pain they cause us are just giving us the fuel we need to get to our purpose. Thank God for the reminder.

I will readily admit, I STILL HATE BUSINESS MEETINGS but I do believe there can be a blessing within them. I hope that was displayed in my actions and demeanor during this last session.

Owens