Sacred Meetings
Imagine you have another leadership meeting on the calendar, and you know that nothing is going to get done. Nothing ever gets done. It seems like it's just gossip hour or a place to dump worries and concerns about what is not going right. You may think, could this ever be something to enjoy?
For our small church, it's been a learning curve to figure out what an effective leadership meeting could look like, especially when seven out of eight staff members are bi-vocational. Some, I would even say, are tri-vocational. Said another way, we're busy people. Below I will highlight ways we found a better framework for meetings and ways that you and your church, ministry, or organization might too.
In utilizing the structure of sacred listening, we found a better way, one that positions each person at the table as an image-bearer of God, reflecting the Imago Dei. One that honors the patterns of concern, language, and ways of working of each person, and one that seeks to bring these all together to align in moving the mission and vision forward.
Maybe, it starts by shifting the perspective leadership meetings from just meetings to containers of sacred transformation, growth, and connection between you, your team, and God: Set Up the Container:
Gather around shared nourishment: Begin by eating together and sharing a personal check-in (What is hard and what is good in your life/ministry right now).
Ground the group: If a meal is not practical, use a Lectio Divina–style Scripture reading or an alternative reflective reading to help everyone become present.
Name the time as holy: Remind one another that your time together matters and that each person and contribution deserves care.
Carry the sacred tone into the agenda: Approach finances, budgets, departments, and scheduling with the same attentiveness you might bring to worship and hands-on ministry.
Reconnect the tasks to the purpose: Acknowledge that administration keeps ministry running, while regularly returning to the people is the heart. And meetings can be a way of shifting from head to heart and back again staying in the flow of connection.
Protect the environment you created: Throughout the meeting, slow down when needed, listen well, and redirect the conversation when it drifts away from the shared purpose.
Notice and participate in the patterns that people continue to bring to the table meeting one another in their sacred work by centering these three pillars of sacred listening as the guide for future meetings: Imago Dei, Patterns, and Alignment.
We have found this to be the best way not only to connect, collaborate, and move things forward, but to wash each other in remembering who and whose we are. It is the sacred dance between the temporal reality we live in and the divine calling we feel led to. Bringing heaven to earth in little micro-moments.
Leadership meetings then become a container for transformation instead of simply something to dread or another agenda item on the calendar.
Along with the framework mentioned above for setting the tone you may want some structure for protecting the environment. Keeping the container sacred:
Establish a shared way of speaking: Ask participants to speak from their own experience using “I” or “we” language rather than accusatory “you” language.
Honor speaking without interruptions: You can use an order or a talking piece for this
Notice recurring patterns: Pay attention to the concerns, needs, and ideas leaders repeatedly bring forward. Name those patterns and align the conversation around them instead of talking past one another.
Assign a story keeper: Designate someone to capture decisions, key insights, responsibilities, and next steps, not simple minutes but the scale that follows.
Honor the messy middle: Support one another through the planning and administration between envisioning an experience and carrying it out. Treat preparation and execution as sacred work too.
Close with accountability and grounding: Review who will do what and by when, then end with a brief reflection, prayer, or one word check out with what you are carrying from your time together.
