How to Prepare, Host, and Follow Up with a Church Business Meeting

When we think of church meetings, you’re probably imagining the congregation gathering for Bible study or something. But churches have business meetings too. The reality is a church operates like a business entity, with the church administration planning meetings between management and stakeholders to keep the organization ticking over.

A church business meeting is much like a regular business meeting you’d expect to attend at any SME. They’re board meetings for tough decision-making and quarterly reporting, along with governance, leadership, and operational discussions, it’s all part of keeping the organization growing, and meeting its membership goals and mission. 

A church business meeting is a structured event with leadership roles guiding the issues discussed. There is a right and wrong approach to running a church meeting, and the best organizations understand the rules of planning hosting, and following up on their church meetings.  

Preparing for a Church Business Meeting

Like any other meeting in the business world, preparing for a business meeting between church management and stakeholders requires a structured approach to get things done. If there’s no structure to the meeting, then it wastes the time of the church leadership and the quality of decision-making declines. 

Follow these guidelines when planning a meeting, and everything will run smoothly. 

Create a Clear Meeting Agenda

The meeting agenda should identify key discussion points surrounding the church's operations, fundraising activities, compliance, and other pertinent administrative issues requiring high-level decision-making from the executive team and board. The meeting structure should flow so that you tackle the toughest decision points first while everyone is fresh and ready to contribute their prepared thoughts. 

The church meeting agenda forms the guidelines for the discussion at hand. Without them, you don’t have any organization, and that affects the church at all levels. Identifying key decision points and allowing for questions and feedback to reach viable solutions that benefit the organization. 

The board committees and the Executive director should share the past activities and progress, and share current issues. The majority must vote on and approve each decision before moving on to the next section of the agenda.

Notifying Stakeholders and Decision Makers

Send out an email to the stakeholders and decision-makers at least two weeks before the meeting date. People need time to pencil the meeting into their schedule and work on the discussion points.

Follow up on your email a week later with an RSVP to the attendees to confirm if they’re coming. If you have any cancellations, you’ll need to take their suggestions beforehand and bring them to the meeting, as well as follow up by sending the missing members copies of the minutes. Send a text the day before the church meeting to give everyone a last-minute reminder. 

Running a Church Business Meeting

There’s more to church business meetings than a bunch of execs sitting around a table throwing their weight around. It’s a structured, formal event that follows specific guidelines and rules. Let’s go over them in more detail. 

Best Practices for Conducting a Church Business Meeting

It’s important to note that if the church’s bylaws and constitution are silent, then the governance structure of the meeting and how it plays out will usually comply with Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised.

It’s pretty much the standard parliamentary authority churches use for meetings and covers how to form decisions on proposals brought forward in the meeting. It also has rules for conducting elections and making nominations. 

Assigning Leadership Roles

One of the keys to successfully managing a church business meeting is appointing the meeting leadership team to lead church discussions. The church leadership, ministry, board members, and invited members of the congregation are in attendance, and someone needs to lead the discussion. 

The nomination of a chairperson to direct the meeting usually goes to the lead pastor. It’s their responsibility to see that the meeting runs along smoothly, diffusing any conflicts and enforcing strict timekeeping. 

Church board discussions should occur in a professional setting, and the attendees should behave as such. It’s the job of the secretary and chairperson to keep everything in order and moving along the track to achieving a reasonable resolution favored by the majority. 

Managing Time Effectively

Time is everything in a meeting. Many church board members have other nonprofit or business responsibilities, so a structured, effective meeting is incredibly important to effective decision-making. Time management is the key to working through the meeting productively, ensuring a successful outcome wherever possible. 

The meeting agenda should have a time slot allocated to every topic, and the secretary should ensure that each part of the discussion adheres to the allotted time. If time overruns, the team will need to finalize the decision at the next meeting, rather than bleeding it into other sections of the agenda in the hope of settling on a decision at that time. 

Acknowledgments and Agenda Discussions

When everyone arrives at the meeting venue, there should be an opening prayer to bind everyone together in the same mindset. The next step is acknowledging the voting members in attendance and other parties contributing to the meeting where appropriate. 

Taking Minutes and Recording Decisions

A lot can happen during a church business meeting. Ideas get tossed around and decisions get made. But you’ll need someone recording all of this in real-time as it happens. In most churches, the church clerk is nominated as the secretary for the meeting, and they’ll need to be capable of accurate minute-taking to ensure organizational and leadership accountability.

Documenting Church Business Meeting Outcomes

The meeting minutes are officially recorded meeting documentation promoting total accountability and transparency in the decision records. Transparency in meetings is key to bringing in everyone who’s missing at the meeting on what was discussed and decided upon, and if their opinion was taken into consideration during the meeting in the event of a stakeholder being absent. 

The minutes should include key decisions, votes, and assignments, keeping the leadership accountable for addressing the discussions and decisions settled on in the meeting, and executing them. 

Proper Minute-Taking Techniques

Taking minutes accurately is important for proper governance. Minute-taking in itself is a skill, and church business meeting minutes might cover the following information. 

• Meeting time and date
• The attendees
• Votes and amendments
• Motions and approval of agenda proposals
• Discussion of old business
• Discussion of new business
• Election outcomes
• Action items
• Date and time for the next meeting
• Closing prayer

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The secretary types up the minutes during the meeting and distributes them to the voting members for approval at the next meeting. For larger churches, it’s a good idea to share the minutes on your official website to maintain optimal best practices surrounding transparency and accountability.

Following Up After a Church Business Meeting

Every church meeting needs a list of action items and follow-up tasks to make progress toward moving the organization forward. The secretary should conduct all post-meeting follow-up and action tracking to keep the team on track to achieving its goals. 

Follow-up is an essential component of the post-meeting process. Without it, the organization has less direction, and there will be less success to report on at the next meeting. 

Assigning Action Items

It’s no good making decisions if no one ever follows up and takes action on them. The follow-up process starts with creating the minutes and list of action items, with nominated persons responsible for coordinating the project or task. This action list increases accountability, ensuring that everyone knows their role and function in the church leadership, and what they have to do.

Distributing Minutes and Decisions

The follow-up process starts with the distribution of minutes to everyone who attended the meeting, and those who were absent. 

Use email for distributing meeting minutes, and makes following up on church meetings easy. Ensure that all attendees and decision-makers whitelist the sending email address to ensure the minutes don’t end up in their spam folder. 

Addressing Common Challenges in Church Business Meetings

Overcoming Obstacles in Church Business Meetings

Achieving a positive outcome in moments of conflict turns a zero-sum game into a win-win solution for everyone. Handling conflicts in meetings is a skill, and requires someone with an unbiased opinion who’s willing to let both sides present their argument and motivate their position. 

We’ll discuss the two most important skills; managing time in meetings and conflict resolution. But there are plenty of other issues to be aware of. For instance, the siloing of information between different departments in the church stifles communication and leads to different agendas being carried out. 

Handling Conflicts and Disagreements

It’s inevitable that attendees won’t see eye-to-eye on certain issues, and conflict resolution is an important part of keeping meetings on track. The chairperson should act as a mediator, maintaining an unbiased view of the proceedings. They should let both sides have their say and put it to the voting members to make a decision where necessary. The mediation role provided to the parties allows for respectful conflict resolution, and fewer bottlenecks between the voting members when making critical decisions. 

Managing Time Overruns

Time is always tight in church meetings. Depending on the size of the church, the board members may be juggling multiple business interests, and they don’t appreciate it when meetings overrun or waste their time because they don’t get to the point and achieve progress. 

Time management is a must for any church meeting and the chairperson responsible for coordinating the meeting structure should keep the meeting on track. 

Recapping Our Guide to Church Business Meetings

Follow-up is a vital leadership skill and the foundation of effective church governance and what's required to push the church into long-term success in achieving its mission. 

Effective governance of the church business structure creates leadership accountability with 

long-term planning. It’s a necessary tool for effective church leadership, and without it, it leaves holes in the organization's strategic planning. 

Church business meetings give the organization direction, and by learning how to use them effectively to plan and host meetings, you’ll get more out of the parties in attendance, and better organizational performance. 

Church meeting follow-up skills are just as important as planning and execution. By giving all parties concerned a church business meeting overview, everyone knows what they have to do and what’s expected of their performance on the review of old business at the next meeting.

Church business meetings are more than just an awareness and collaboration tool. They’re a critical leadership strategy and skill every church needs if they expect to move their organization forward.

A Guide to Church Business Meetings: FAQ's

What should be included in a church business meeting agenda?

The meeting agenda usually covers the financial reports, fundraising event planning and results, updates on the congregation and the ministry, and how the church is working to resolve conflicts. The agenda will cover important issues of discussion, and it also features mundane information like the venue, time, and date of the meeting, who’s in attendance, and the objectives of the meeting.

How can we ensure effective decision-making during a church business meeting?

Attendees must understand they need to make a decision on matters and work out their decision-making criteria for each issue. They must understand their options and compare them against the qualifying criteria to gauge the clarity and expected outcome of their decisions. After the group settles on a decision, they must prepare an actionable strategy to produce the outcome they want and measure it against predetermined metrics to determine its progress.

Who is responsible for taking minutes in a church business meeting?

It’s an important function of the meeting, and the secretary is responsible for taking the minutes and emailing them to the voting members. The members will vote on approving the minutes in the next meeting to keep everything transparent and above board.

After approval, keep the minutes with other critical paperwork.

How should action items be tracked after a church business meeting?

Rate the importance of the decisions you settle on during the meeting and how they stack up against each other in terms of how important they are to achieving the church's mission. You can track the progress of the action items using collaboration tools to keep departments in touch and check off progress to achieving their targets in real time. 

What steps should be taken to follow up on decisions made during a church business meeting?

Reach out to the attendees via email and thank them for coming. Ask if there’s anything they need to achieve their action items, and how the organization can support them in achieving their goals. Ensure that all voting members get a copy of the minutes attached to this follow-up email. Send a survey after the meeting to get valuable feedback on how to improve the proceedings.

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