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11 Ideas for Adding Fun to Boring Church Team Meetings

Having fun with your team is serious leadership! There is evidence that adults learn best when they are engaged in fun activities!  When we kick back have fun at work it helps us connect with our team members on a deeper level. Even in the midst of a tough season of ministry fun meetings can drive our creativity and flexibility to solve the problems ahead of us. As a church leader your team (whether paid staff or volunteer) deserve to have fun at your team meetings! Here are some ideas to spice up your team meetings!

  • boringmeetingAdd Food // Something almost magical happens when you add food to a meeting. But don’t just bring a box of donuts … that’s way overdone! Have a favorite exotic food? Add it to the start of your next regular meeting and see what happens.
  • No Ideas are Bad Ideas! // Host a old fashion “brainstorming” session … but with a twist. The goal of this session is to come up with the zaniest ideas possible to solve a problem in front you. Hand out a bunch of small soft stuffed animals. Encourage your team to throw them at anyone who makes a negative comment about anyone’s idea. Any idea is a great idea at this stage!
  • Don’t Meet // Next time people arrive for a regularly scheduled meeting … don’t meet! Have something fun planned instead. Go see a movie together. Walk down the street and get some ice cream. It’s amazing how the stuff on the agenda gets taken care of … even when you don’t meet. 🙂
  • Standing Meeting // Ok … this might not be fun but just effective. Take all the chairs out of the room that you meet in and have the meeting standing up! You’ll be amazed at how quickly you move through the agenda!
  • Mobile Meeting // As people arrive at your meeting let them know that you are taking this meeting on the road! Either walk or jump in a few vehicles and go a location that is germane to the conversation of the meeting. (Example: Take your team over to the local high school as you discuss the new youth pastor you are thinking about hiring.)
  • Egg Timer // Bring an egg timer to your next meeting. [Here’s an online one if you don’t have a real one.] Set a time goal for each section of the agenda and bring prizes for the group for deciding on action points within the time allotted. (Good for when you have a group that loves to contemplate one more angle!)
  • Optional Learning Experiences // As an antidote to meetings that people are “required” to come to offer some optional development times for your team. Pick a some content that is helpful for your team … offer them free smoothies if they attend … and give away some prizes! 🙂 (Feel free to use this presentation on saving time with your team if you think it’ll be helpful!)
  • Thank You Notes // Kick off your meeting with some gratitude! Hand out thank you cards to everyone on your team and have them share something that someone else on another team at the church did that was fantastic. After people share have them write thank you notes to the people that they shared about!
  • Get Rid of the Table // The physical space you meet in matters. Get rid of that big table that blocks everyone. Paint the walls a bright color. Making a physical change can switch people’s attitudes about your meetings. What if you themed the room something fun? Hawaiian Luau Theme? Christmas in July?
  • Google Hangout // Take your meeting online. Google has done a great job making this tool a lot of fun to use. There are digital “costumes” you can put on yourself to spice up the conversation. It’s a fun break from the same old method of meeting!
  • Stick It Up! // In preparation for the meeting put 3-4 pieces of poster board around the room with short sentences describing issues your church is facing. As people arrive for the meeting give them a pile of post-it notes and a marker and ask them to jot down solutions for each issue and stick it up on the boards around the room. Take some time to discuss the ideas generated.

I’m sure you have way more fun ideas than me! We’d love to hear ’em. Leave a comment!


 

 

7 Comments

  1. I’ve done some of these and others I will definitely try. It seems when I was not the lead Pastor I was a bit more creative when it came to meetings but now that I’m the lead I’ve become a bit more formal. I don’t want that. Thanks for the advice. I like the mobile meeting idea.

      1. Pass a baton around the room and give each leader three minutes to discuss ideas for church growth, etc. Then pass the batonc

  2. Great post, Rich! Simple things matter: use time to let people share greatest dreams/fears. Use time to watch brief instructional videos to discuss. Especially helpful if a controversial topic. Have people bring in favorite video clip from feature film and share why it’s important to them, or how it relates to growth for the church.

  3. At our women’s ministry retreat this weekend, the facilitator had us brainstorm event/project ideas, write them on post it notes and stick them to an overturned cardboard box (“thinking outside of the box”). Then we read through them all and she posted them on the wall. She then asked us to each go up and select the ones that struck a chord with us. It was interesting how we each chose ideas that clustered around certain themes. She then asked that we be responsible for developing these ideas. She apologized if we felt she was requiring us to do these things, but my feelings were just the opposite. I felt as if she were giving us permission/freedom to take our passion and run with it!

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Rich Birch
Rich Birch is one of the early multi-site church pioneers in North America. He led the charge in helping The Meeting House in Toronto to become the leading multi-site church in Canada with over 5,000+ people in 18 locations. In addition, he served on the leadership team of Connexus Church in Ontario, a North Point Community Church Strategic Partner. He has also been a part of the lead team at Liquid Church - a 5 location multisite church serving the Manhattan facing suburbs of New Jersey. Liquid is known for it’s innovative approach to outreach and community impact. Rich is passionate about helping churches reach more people, more quickly through excellent execution.His latest book Church Growth Flywheel: 5 Practical Systems to Drive Growth at Your Church is an Amazon bestseller and is design to help your church reach more people in your community.