Do you like meetings? What if those meetings become long? How long do you daily, weekly, and monthly meetings last? How upset do you get if they last longer than scheduled? What percentage of your meetings are productive?
Having spent many years in the corporate world, I know meetings can be a drudgery. A good many of us don’t like having to attend meetings. However, meetings can be productive. The key is developing an agenda and sticking to it. Keeping everyone focused can be like herding cats.
One of the keys to a team is to meet regularly. The purpose is to inform each team member what the other is working on and the progress being made toward the goal. An iterative software development team will meet each day for no more than fifteen minutes. Each member provides three basic pieces of information—what they did yesterday, what they plan to accomplish today, and any impediments to progress.
One of my favorite sports is football. They meet every twenty-five seconds—they call it a huddle. The next play is articulated in a way that each player knows what their assignment is. Of course, each player has memorized the playbook, thereby knowing their part for each play.
We are called to meet as Christians. No one can walk the Christian life on their own. Meeting together regularly is a necessity. Otherwise, we simply go off on our own, making our own interpretations, and falling prey to Satan’s schemes. We need one another, including hearing one another’s viewpoints on Scripture and experiences with God.
Proverbs 27:17 states “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Without meeting with fellow Christians, we cannot sharpen one another nor be sharpened. A dull weapon is of no use to the solider on the battlefield. And make no mistake, our lives are lived on a battlefield.
Another reason to meet is to encourage one another. We need encouragement to continue doing the good God has appointed for us to do. How does it feel if you are working hard at a task and receive no encouragement? After a while, we all feel like giving up. We feel as though no one cares.
Showing love for one another is also a reason for meeting. How can we show love to one another if we don’t meet? If the pandemic has shown us nothing else, people need contact with one another. We need physical touch. We need intellectual interaction. We need to show and be shown love.
I pray we all decide to gather together. I pray we meet to encourage one another. I pray each one of us decides to meet to show and be shown love for one another. Continue meeting. Go to church. Attend Bible studies. Sharpen one another. Encourage one another. Love one another.
Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Marty Pressey 