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Steps to Transforming Committee Life
8 areas churches must address to transform committees into caring communities.
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4. Holding a yearly retreat. It may take years to move from a voluntary retreat to a required one for leaders. The benefits, however, can be cumulative, with each year's attendance and content improving as you build a history and sense of commitment. One year we had ten elders retiring from the board. All ten asked if they could still come to the retreat! The question was no longer, "How can I get out of this?" but, "How can I be involved?" Like the training sessions, the annual retreat should begin with sharing led by a pastor or key leader. This can create energy and excitement as leaders grasp the overall picture of what God is calling them to. The next step is evaluation. How did we do last year? How do we stack up to the vision? This provides a basis for the next stage, clarifying expectations and setting goals. Just listing various positions and asking what we can expect from each can be revolutionary. It clarifies who owns what and can create a shared sense of owner-responsibility, and excitement about ministry. 5. Making meetings productive. Homes are the meeting places. Committees behave differently in homes than on metal chairs in a sterile classroom. At home, people treat each other with dignity. They relax. Some refreshments and a little sharing can infuse energy. People often fear relational exercises will make meetings longer. But if you give people fifteen minutes in groups of three or four with a focused question for each person to answer briefly, it can actually shorten meetings. People have a need to be heard. A rule in building relationships is: Never let someone come to a meeting and say nothing. When people feel they've had their air time, they can focus on issues and are less likely to make inappropriate speeches later. They feel cared for, and with discipline the meeting actually can end earlier. Discipline for me means no meeting goes past 9 P.M. I figure if you can't solve it between 7:30 and 9:00, it isn't worth pushing, because the level of personal competence goes flat after that. Ending the formal meeting before people absolutely have to leave has a way of giving a group an extra shot of energy. They may sit around informally, share notes, touch base on projects, form strategies, and end up having spontaneous mini-meetings. Remember the first hour of a meeting is your most productive. Don't kill that energy by going straight into trivial reports and minutiae. Ask yourself, What are the issues we most need to work on? After dealing with these issues, go to routine reports that require little creative energy and insight. |        
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