The Best Weekly Meeting Advice I Ever Got

For many students, the weekly meeting is the face of your movement on campus as well as the main entry point of involvement. Whether we want it to be or not, it’s a big deal. To that end, I want to share what I think is the most important bit of advice I ever received about weekly meetings. Ready?

Be new-guy friendly.

The big question has always been, “Who is the weekly meeting for?” Is it for Non-believers? Believers? Calvinists? Arminians?  Armenians?

I’m a big believer in targeting your meeting for believers, but also making sure it’s “new-guy friendly.” I use those words for a reason. I’m of the opinion that, generally, guys are more socially discerning than women. I mean, women will come pretty much no matter what. Women travel in packs…they even go to the bathroom together! If I draw women, I may or may not draw men. But, if we draw men, we will draw women too.

How do you make it “guy friendly?”  I think you start by having men up front. Have a guy as your MC. Ask men to give faith stories. Make sure men are helping to promote events in announcements. Of course, include women, but make sure you have some men up front too.

And, men can smell “geekyness” a mile away. You need a “no-geek-filter” on what you do at the meeting. This especially plays out in the types of mixers and games you have at the meeting. I say avoid anything with food. It not only can get you into trouble with facilities management, but food games usually are too drawn out and silly. The show “Minute To Win It” offers up a myriad of possible games you can play that are more like what guys would challenge each other to do in the backyard. Always ask yourself something like, “Would a varsity football player feel comfortable here?”

Make use of humor that’s a bit sarcastic and edgy. Not profane, but avoid silly humor. One time our MC had a contest where students came up front and had to say a line from a man movie after sucking on helium. The audience voted to see who said it best. It was hilarious! Imagine a sophomore girl yelling, “This is Sparta!!” sounding like one of the chipmunks.

While I think there are times when we need to dedicate meetings to being seeker oriented, I don’t think that is effective most of the year. If a Christian student likes the meeting and thinks it’s a cool environment, they will invite their friends.  But, we need to create a “friendly” environment for that new person. How do you do that? Here are some thoughts:

• Explain terminology.  If you are going to be teaching from a passage in Matthew, the speaker should give a short explanation of who Matthew is. Say something like, “The passage we will be looking at tonight is from one of the four biographies of the life of Jesus. This one is written by Matthew, who was one of the original 12 followers of Jesus.” Other terminology that will need to be explained each time you say them are: evangelism, sharing, KGP, Backstory, testimony (please don’t use that word…ever!), Christmas Conference, Summer Project, and staff.
• Diffuse the weirdness.  My friend Chip Martinson says, “You are two sentences away from diffusing the weirdness.” Some of the things we do are sort of strange to the non-believer. Take worship for example. We sing songs. The recycling club, as far as I know, does not do that. So, it might help if your worship leader or MC diffuses that weirdness for the new person by saying something like, “We are about to take some time to worship God through singing. If this is new to you, don’t feel any pressure to sing along…just enjoy the music. One of the reasons God made music was to worship Him with it, so that’s what we do here usually at Cru.”
• Be a welcoming community . We can’t emphasize enough to our students to use time before and after the meeting to make new people feel welcome. One thing we would sometimes do is ask our student leaders to meet at least three new people before they leave for the night. If you have some sort of “greeter” team, they need to know their job is not to just say hi to everyone who walks in. They need to be equipped to ask 4-7 questions of every new person to really get to know them.
• Have a wow factor.  I think each meeting needs to have at least one element that stops people short. There needs to be at least one part of the program where people say, “Now, that was really cool” or “That was really creative.” It could be a well shot video or a drama or student faith story. One time we had the university marching band come storming into the meeting playing the school song. We did live dramas and poems. Be creative! Think beyond a meeting that looks like “MC, band, speaker, announcements, band.” Boring!

While I do not believe that numbers at your weekly meeting are the best indicator of the size and health of your movement (I would say small group numbers are), a good weekly meeting can add so much momentum. It’s worth doing, so it’s worth doing well.  I would love to hear your thoughts on what makes an effective weekly meeting as well as things that you would say to avoid. The comment button is waiting!