First Baptist Church of Milford

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Located across the
street from Starbucks
in Downtown Milford, MI.

Blog

Staph Meeting

February 7, 2025

Staph Meeting

I was sitting all alone in a coffee shop with this laptop, deep in thought about something or other. A couple of older ladies sat to my left. I’m not sure how old, maybe my age. But then I saw him, a man with a book, a discussion book. He started to pull some tables and chairs together just to my right. Oh no! He’s getting ready for a staph meeting.

It was not my intention to listen to either the left side or the right. But if I had to hire someone, I would definitely go with the two ladies on my left. They were friends and talked about this or that. One of the things the one mentioned was trying to show some younger people how to get something done, as though these ladies could actually get things done. What a concept!

The tall guy getting ready for his meeting kind of gave himself away. Not only was it the Patrick Lencioni book on organization and leadership (who also wrote the classic, “Death by Meeting,” which was about to be played out just to my right). It was his loafers with no socks. It had snowed that morning, and the compulsion to be cool totally overwhelmed any instinct for common sense. Eventually the group gathered, three women and, finally, a young man. There was some small talk, and then the real issue came to the fore.

I suspected that they were a church staff before they even began churching. There’s just something about that crowd that gives them away, similar to how old, grouchy Baptist pastors are easy to spot. The pastor, that is, the cool dude, started iftoff by, well, talking about himself.

And that is what the meeting was mostly about: self. They were all supposed to have a list of what makes them most happy in ministry, and the longest segment was the pastor’s talk about what he enjoyed most. They were each to contribute, and around the circle they went. Not a single one mentioned getting paid, though I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have been there otherwise.

Now let me step back from my negativity and cynicism for just a moment to make a point. For each of those staff members, there was nothing that they said that made me think they were not sincere. They were doing as instructed, and I think they most likely truthfully mentioned things that they enjoyed in ministry. It’s not wrong. It is just not what it is all about. I so wanted the Apostle Paul to attend that meeting and tell what he most enjoyed. What was it, Paul, the imprisonments or the stonings or the shipwreck? Oh, he wouldn’t have said that, but he would have changed the question to something like this: What is it that makes Jesus most happy related to this ministry with which you are involved? Your feelings are not to be central. Jesus is.

And so the fault wasn’t with the staff members, but with the leader, who liked to talk about leadership, but never talked about leadership the way the Bible talks about, not as leadership but as servanthood. Servants don’t talk about what they enjoy and don’t enjoy all that much. They talk about Jesus, and they talk about others. So that’s how you turn a staff meeting into a staph meeting.

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