I recently had an incredibly hectic Thursday. Here is how it went.

8:00 AM//Arrive at Office

Watched the video from previous night’s Oneighty service. Made some mental and written notes on what we could have done better as a team and how I could have been more effective in my presentation.

10:00 AM//Big Event Planning Meeting

Sat down as a staff and planned out our LIVE@ONEIGHTY event that’s coming up in September. In this meeting we secured plans, gave job assignments, and set deadlines for everything it would take to have a great outreach event.

12:00 PM//Phone Call

Spoke with a youth pastor from another state about youth ministry. He told me about some great things he had coming up and I shared some things we were doing as well.

2:00 PM//Oneighty Conference Meeting

We took a few hours to meet with Whit and his Creative Arts team about our conference coming up in February. We talked about scheduling, advertising, and tons of things that will help us pull off an incredible training event for visiting youth leaders.

Now on the surface, this may seem like an extremely boring and uneventful day. However, if done right, it is days like this that shape the future, make things better, and win more people to Christ. Meetings are extremely important. Here are some things I always do for a meeting…

1) Ask the question…”Do we really have to meet or can this be done over the phone or email?”

2) Set the “win” for the meeting. What are the top three things we want to accomplish?

3) Take time beforehand to prepare all information needed to play a solid role in the discussion.

4) Stay on task during the meeting.

5) If getting off on rabbit trails, take a break and come back when ready to focus again.

6) Once the “win” has been accomplished, call the meeting over and move on to the next thing.

If done right, meetings can be fun, energetic, and a catalyst for change in ministry.