Several months ago I was having a casual conversation with a man in my church and I mentioned that I felt like I wasn’t a good administrator. I confessed that I felt like I was good at coming up with good ideas and direction, and terrible at making sure those ideas got implemented and that I let a lot of things slip through the cracks. (Perhaps you can relate.)
This man, a businessman, suggested that the church do what his local business had implemented - something called EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System). I remembered EOS from my own stint in business, but never thought of implementing its ideas in church. I decided to reread the book and consider giving it a try.
The key idea of EOS is leading through a regular cadence of meetings, with a set agenda. Basically, you have a meeting with:
- The same attendees
- At the same time
- On the same day
- In the same place
- With the same agenda
- That starts on time and ends on time
- The same attendees
- At the same time
- On the same day
- In the same place
- With the same agenda
- That starts on time and ends on time
This meeting is NOT optional. My friend said at their company the line is “You can miss the meeting for a funeral, as long as its your funeral.”
I decided to try adapting it for our church and what I came up with was what we call Administrative Leadership Meetings.
This will work for a small church
Before I tell you what we do, I want to give you an idea of our church. We are not a large megachurch.
- We have one full-time staff member (me)
- two part-time staff members (a youth pastor and music pastor)
- three deacons
- we run in the 80–90s every month.
- We have one full-time staff member (me)
- two part-time staff members (a youth pastor and music pastor)
- three deacons
- we run in the 80–90s every month.
We are not a large church - we are likely a very typical church.
I believe this meeting would have been helpful when we were even smaller than we are now, and can help us if we ever end up growing.
Who, When and Where
Our Administrative Leadership Meetings are attended by the following people:
- The pastor
- The youth pastor and music pastor
- The deacons
- Our church clerk/secretary
- The deacons and pastors wives can come but it isn’t required.
- The pastor
- The youth pastor and music pastor
- The deacons
- Our church clerk/secretary
- The deacons and pastors wives can come but it isn’t required.
We hold the meeting on the second Sunday over every month, after our evening service, in a room we have setup with a small conference table, comfortable chairs and a TV.
The meeting is supposed to last no more than an hour, and we provide food each month. (Usually just some pizzas or sandwiches.)
Agenda
One of the keys to Administrative Leadership Meetings is having the same agenda and being laser focused on that agenda. This is our meeting agenda:
1. Opening Prayer and Remarks
The pastor (me) will open and prayer and say a very brief word of encouragement. (Usually less than two minutes.)
2. Reports
Finances
Our treasurer gives a brief update on the month's finances.
Our treasurer gives a brief update on the month's finances.
Attendance
We discuss attendance numbers for the month, and reasons for any big dips.
We discuss attendance numbers for the month, and reasons for any big dips.
Assignments
We review the assignments from last month and discuss which tasks remain unfinished. (This is a good time to praise work that has been done this month.)
We review the assignments from last month and discuss which tasks remain unfinished. (This is a good time to praise work that has been done this month.)
3. People
We go around the room discussing the following five categories of people in the church:
Hurting Sheep
Who in the church is going through a hard time and needs special care and prayer?
Wandering Sheep
Who in the church seems to be slipping away and needs to be followed up on?
Fighting Sheep
Is there anyone in the church who is not getting along?
Biting Sheep
Is there anyone in the church who is expressing problems with leadership?
Widows
Do our widows need anything?
Note: It’s very important that you stress that what you discuss here is:
- Not to turn into a gossip session.
- Not to be spoken of with people outside the meetings.
- Not to turn into a gossip session.
- Not to be spoken of with people outside the meetings.
4. Upcoming Events
What do we have coming up in the next month?
We go around the room and list all of the events we have coming up in the next month and discuss what needs to be done for those events.
What do we have coming up in the next three months?
We discuss further out events - like revival services, Easter services, etc that may need our attention.
Note: It’s important that the church has ONE source of truth when it comes to the calendar. For us, we use our church website’s events section for that and these Administrative Leadership Meetings are how events get on the calendar.
5. Areas
The next thing we do is to go around the room and discuss what needs to be done in key areas of our church. In our church, these areas correspond to our deacons and staff members areas of responsibility.
The goal of this discussion is to list to dos and problems to consider for the next month. It’s also a great time to discuss planned absences.
Buildings
Is there anything that needs to be done in our buildings and grounds?
Finances
Is there anything we need to change or look out for in our finances this month?
Operations
Do we need to make any changes to our operations?
Note: We define operations as anything that happens around a church service that doesn’t happen in a pulpit or classroom. Things like ushering, live streaming, greeting, etc.
Missions
- Do our missionaries have any needs?
- Are there any problems with missions support?
- Do we have any missionaries to take on?
- Do we have any missionaries that we need to consider dropping?
Music
Is there anything that needs to be done in our music ministry?
Youth
Is there anything that needs to be done in our youth ministry?
6. Purchases
- Are there any major purchases that we needed this month?
- Do we need to bring these purchases before the church?
- Do we need to take up any special offerings?
7. Assignments
As we close the meeting, we take the time to discuss all of the tasks. We discuss the tasks from last months meeting that got postponed or remain unfinished and any tasks that have come up in this months meeting. Then we assign these tasks together, reminding people that we will discuss them again at the next Administrative Leadership Meeting.
8. Closing Prayer
Finally, we close in prayer.
After the meeting
After the meeting we send out notes with assignments to all of the attendees with a reminder of the date of the next meeting.
How this has helped us
In the few months we have been doing this, we have already seen a greater degree of coordination in the church. Things are getting done, more people are getting involved, and fewer things are slipping through the cracks. People seem to feel like they have more ownership and more of a voice in what is going on.
In our last meeting, one of my deacons graciously told me “Pastor, if we were doing these meetings the last couple of years, we would have avoided a lot of problems.” I agree, and I feel that is a failure on my part.
I’m sharing this with you so that maybe you can learn from my mistakes and implement something similar in your church.