It is likely that having scheduled a church business meeting, you will now have to draw up an agenda, which is when you will realize how difficult it is to compile lists of items that people who do not know each other may wish to hear about and to express their points of view about. The following tips for drawing such an agenda can help you in making it easier for the attendees of your meeting:
Agenda for: Project committee meeting Title: Date: Time: Location: Purpose: To meet, discuss, and make decisions on issues that have been published and are on the table. Details: 1. Church parking Lot 2. Trademark and motto 3. Our new logo 4. Search engine optimization 5. New business 6. End
Meeting Agenda Please note that the Pastor will be addressing a particular topic during this meeting. [Name] (Patron, Cake Decorator) has donated a cake for us to enjoy throughout the meeting.
- Introductions (if needed)
- Ministry updates
- Announcements: announcements about people, dates, events, etc.
- Financial report: a report on how much money the church has earned and spent during the past month
- Reports from committees
- Discussion of upcoming events
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Agenda For A Church Meeting
Opening prayer
- Be brief. Don’t contain your prayer to the end of the meeting, but don’t go on forever either. The purpose of the prayer is to sow seeds in the hearts of those present so that God’s word will be planted in them and they can bear fruit (Mark 4:14-20). Your prayer should focus on that purpose and not be filled with flattery or excessive words.
- Be sincere. Make sure you pray from your heart as if you were talking directly to God rather than simply reading a prepared text from your notes or phone.
- Be specific about what you want God’s people to learn from this meeting and how it will affect their lives or ministry going forward.
- Thank God for all he has done for us; praise him for his blessings, mercy and grace toward us; confess our sins before him asking forgiveness; pray that his name be glorified among men through our lives – especially those who are attending this meeting! We should always remember that we are nothing without God’s help so our prayers should never cease being thankful ones!
Review of last meeting’s minutes
The minutes of the last meeting should be read aloud. Any corrections to be made should be noted, and then the minutes can be approved by a vote of the members (such as a show of hands).
Treasurer’s report
The treasurer’s report is the final agenda item. It reports on how much money was raised, how much money was spent, and how much money is left over for the church to use.
The amount of money needed in order for the church to meet its budget is also discussed during this meeting.
Reports from various committees
- Reports from various committees
- Committee members will give updates on their activities, including how they’re working to make the church a better place for you and your family. Try to pay attention to which committees seem most relevant to you, so that you can get involved in ways that make sense for your life. In addition to the reports of individual committees, there may also be updates from other groups within the church (e.g., Sunday school teachers).
Old business
Old business is a section where you can review the items that were discussed at your last meeting, and check whether they have been resolved or not. If an item was not resolved during that meeting, it remains on the table and will be discussed again in this meeting.
If an item was resolved during the previous meeting, then it cannot be added to this agenda as new business (see below).
New business
New business is any topic that is not already on the agenda, and it can be added at any time during the meeting. However, if you plan to bring up new business without giving advance notice, it’s best to do so in a respectful manner so as not to interrupt other people’s thoughts or discussions.
New business should be brought to the attention of the chair before the meeting begins. The chair may then decide whether or not it will be discussed during this particular meeting (or later).
Next meeting
- Date:
- Time:
- Location:
If there is anything else you need to know, please check the church’s website (http://www.yourchurchwebsite.com).
Remember to pray and make plans for the next meeting
- Remember to pray.
- Remember to make plans for the next meeting.
- Remember to plan for the next meeting when you’re planning this one.
how to conduct a church meeting
Whether you’re a pastor, an administrator, or a devoted volunteer at your church, meetings can feel like a serious drain on your energy and time. When not properly planned, meetings can meander off in a million different directions, making it impossible for your group to focus on important issues that need to be resolved. Poor organization, poorly defined meeting goals, and a lack of meeting structure can cripple an organization’s meetings, and houses of worship are no exception.
If you feel like your church meetings aren’t really accomplishing anything except wasting your staff and your volunteers’ time, it might be time to reassess how you go about planning and executing your church meetings. Maybe you’re having trouble contacting everyone effectively, leading to important people accidentally missing critical meetings. Maybe you’re never quite sure what to talk about, leading to poor focus and meetings that spread your subject matter too thin. Maybe your meetings last far too long, but when they end, no one feels like anything actually got done.
These helpful tips can help you make your church meetings more productive than ever, turning them from a drain on people’s time into a truly valuable opportunity to plan and grow together as a community.
1. Plan Your Religious Meetings on a Regular Schedule
Are your church meetings happening haphazardly, without any real schedule that determines when and where you meet? Having your meetings on a regular, predetermined schedule makes it easier for participants to keep up with them, as well as making it easier to measure progress toward your goals. Whether your meetings are once a week or once a month, planning for predetermined dates and times can help ensure that everyone who needs to be there is available.
2. Plan an Agenda for Each Church Meeting
For each church meeting, you should have already planned what you’re going to talk about. Many church groups create handouts with key points, which can be distributed at the meeting. Without a clear agenda, meetings are likely to veer off-track or last longer than anyone wanted them to.
A carefully designed meeting agenda ensures that anything truly important is brought up and talked about. If you’re planning a meeting to discuss an upcoming bake sale to raise money, you don’t want half the meeting to revolve around recent problems with the church choir. Structured meetings get a lot more accomplished than meetings where everyone is left to their own devices.
3. Make Sure Each Meeting Is a Fixed and Predetermined Length
Planning a clear agenda can help you manage the length of your meetings, making them less inconvenient for anyone involved. Meetings should start at the time that everyone’s agreed upon, and they shouldn’t run over the scheduled time slot. When the date, place, time, and duration of your meetings are always consistent, it makes it much easier for people to make sure they can be present. Plus, everyone will appreciate it when your meetings end when they’re supposed to, instead of keeping everyone there for an extra half hour to talk about something you forgot to add to your agenda.
4. For Each Church Meeting, Compile a List Of “Action Items”
“Action items” are clearly defined things that need to be completed by an individual or group that’s involved in your church meeting. It’s often helpful to designate someone to make a list during your meetings of all action items that come up, then distribute that list afterward. These lists can be reviewed at the beginning of the next meeting, creating a sense of accountability and helping you keep track of your goals.
5. Meet Somewhere Quiet
It’s essential to find a quiet place to hold your church meetings consistently, with minimal foot traffic and little distracting noise. Secluded conference rooms are great for this. You may also want to make sure your meeting room is equipped with any presentation equipment that might come in handy. White boards, DVD players, laptop projectors, and other visual aids can be a useful resource during meetings where you’re covering complex material.
6. Provide Refreshments for Church Members
Believe it or not, great refreshments can be an incentive for people to show up regularly to your church meetings. Whether it’s homemade pies from a staff member, boxes of donuts from the bakery up the street, or even an occasional full-scale pancake breakfast or fish fry, everyone loves sharing a meal with their church community.
7. Don’t Deprive Anyone of a Say
While a well designed and predetermined agenda is essential to successful meetings, it’s important to make sure all your staff and volunteers feel included. When people feel like they’re constantly left out of discussions, they feel frustrated and alienated. Part of the value of getting involved in a church is the sense of community that it brings, and it’s important to foster that kind of strong fellowship among both, your staff and your hardworking volunteers. Plan your agendas so that everyone gets to talk about goals they’ve accomplished, church events they’d like to plan, or fundraising ideas they’ve come up with. Not everyone will get to speak at every single meeting, but it’s important for everyone to play a role.
8. Organize and Simplify Communication With Church Members
If you’re putting together staff or volunteer meetings for your church, you’re probably trying to get a hold of everyone ahead of time. If someone isn’t going to make it, it’s good to know in advance. If your meetings are relatively infrequent, like biweekly or monthly, you may also want to remind people a day or two beforehand.
If you’re trying to do this through email, or using a smartphone’s contacts and groups, this can be a major hassle. It’s sometimes impossible to know if your message was received, and if someone’s phone breaks or their number changes unexpectedly, you might suddenly be unable to reach them.
One way that many churches have simplified the process of contacting people before scheduled meetings is a helpful web service and phone app called DialMyCalls. The notification service is designed to help organizations of all sizes manage their contacts, send mass messages, and keep track of who received their messages.
Using DialMyCalls is extremely simple. To set up a broadcast, you just record a phone message or type out a text. Then, you create a list of phone numbers that need to receive that message. This list can be hundreds or even thousands of items long, so if you need to, you can reach out to your entire congregation.
After you send a voice message or an SMS text message, you’ll get a detailed call report that lets you know whether your messages were received. You’ll be able to see how many messages were sent successfully, how many were sent to a bad landline number, and how many weren’t received due to busy signals, going straight to voicemail, or other obstacles.
how to write minutes of a church meeting
Church meeting minutes provide the official, legal record of the actions of the board or committee. They are important internally for historical accuracy and are also used by outside parties; for example, by lending institutions to establish that the church has approved a building project before issuing a loan for it. Auditors and the IRS also look to the minutes as proof that certain financial transactions were authorized. In most organizations, the secretary or recording secretary takes the minutes.
contents
While specific content varies by committee, in general, the minutes for all church organizations include:
- Particulars of the meeting, such as time, date, place, who attended and who presided.
- Whether the meeting is regularly scheduled or a special meeting and, if special, who called the meeting and for what purpose — attaching a copy of the meeting notice.
- Ordered record of what occurred at the meeting.
- Adjournment and time.
- Signature of secretary and, once the minutes are approved, the presiding officer.
One of the most challenging aspects of minute-taking is to determine how much detail to record. The Mennonite Brethren Historical Commission suggests recording the main points of the discussions leading to decisions, as well as the alternatives considered and a summary of why the committee chose one alternative over the others. The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability suggests that the board establish a policy about details that is consistent regardless of the individual secretary. It suggests including enough detail to show that the board was prudent, but not so much that the minutes read like a novel.
taking the minutes
Before the meeting begins, obtain a copy of the agenda. As the meeting progresses, take detailed notes relating to meeting particulars, board reports, discussions and actions as the board proceeds through each item of the agenda. Record motions, resolutions and decisions verbatim, but summarize discussions. Be sure to include the name of each person who makes a motion or who initiates action, and any conflicts of interest stated. Once the meeting is finished, transcribe and condense your notes to include the appropriate detail and put them in the proper format, beginning with the meeting particulars, then proceeding in order of the agenda.
preserving the minutes
Once you’ve completed the draft of the minutes, circulate the document to members. The minutes you’ve written for this meeting will be approved, with or without corrections, at the next meeting. Once minutes are approved, prepare a final copy, then sign the document and ask the presiding officer to sign it as well. Store the minutes chronologically in a loose-leaf minute book, along with the meeting agenda. That loose-leaf book also should contain a table of contents, and copies of the church bylaws and constitution. At some point, perhaps annually, minutes may be professionally bound.