The most common complaints I hear from the trench are a lack of communication from leadership and the desire of those in the trench to be part of the decision-making process. Yearly planning and evaluation meetings have four benefits:

1. The leader is given the opportunity to listen to what is going on in the trench.

2. The leader has a platform for presenting new ideas or visions.

3. The team becomes more unified in its direction.

4. The leader and his team have the opportunity to plan for the future. In order to make a meeting as effective as possible, you must prepare adequately for it.

Choose a time to meet when your team can come together and focus on the topics. Make sure they are rested and eliminate as many distractions
as possible (food, temperature, child care, etc.).

Prior to the meeting, get a feel for the perceived needs of your team. Send out a survey and collect the results. Before the meeting, meet individually with some team members to get their input. Also, ask an outsider for input.

Do your homework. Anticipate questions and find answers before the meeting. Create an itinerary for the meeting that addresses the needs of your ministry. Determine ahead of time where you see your ministry in the next three years so that you will be able to give a vision for the future. Look for tools that you can give away during that meeting that will equip your team even after the meeting is finished (books, tapes, articles, etc.).

The hardest part of a yearly planning and evaluation meeting is the preparation.

Choose a definite start and finish time. Recently, I had a yearly evaluation meeting that I had announced would end at 10:30 p.m. Around 11:00 p.m., I realized the importance of ending on time: everyone had mentally checked out at 10:30 p.m.

Keep the meeting moving forward. Print the itinerary of the meeting for everyone to follow along. Use variety— break into smaller groups, use an overhead and a whiteboard for notes, and allow different people to make presentations.

Do not do all the talking. Remember, one of the goals is to hear how things are going in the trench. That happens by letting people talk and by listening to them.

Take a few breaks. Conversations during breaks can reveal things that are unclear or that should be addressed. Make sure you cover the past, the present, and the future. Start your meeting with blessings from the last year, review your mission statement, and ask what the ministry did well and what needs to improve.

Present: be honest with where the ministry is (financially, staffing, problems, and present joys). This is a good time for the leader to share a “state of the ministry” address. It is also a good time to praise individuals and point out weak spots in your ministry.

Future: share a three-year vision and give others an opportunity to share how they envision the ministry 20 years from now.

Many leaders believe that once the meeting is over, their job is done. However, many times the real work has just begun. Follow up with concerns you heard individuals voice during the meeting, and work hard to find answers to the questions you were unable to answer during the meeting.

Running a good meeting (especially one that includes many people and goes for longer than an hour) is definitely an art, but the chief way we gain that skill is by jumping in and learning as you go. People will appreciate your effort to listen to their concerns and to allow their input in the decisions the ministry is making.