Death by Meeting By Patrick Lencioni If you love to go to meetings, you probably will find this book a bore. However, if you are like 95% (my guess) of us who have endured meeting after meeting after meeting with no end in sight, you might want to check out Death by Meeting. Author Patrick Lencioni notes, “Meetings are a puzzling paradox. On one hand, they are critical. Meetings are the activity at the center of every organization. On the other hand, they are painful, frustratingly long and seemingly pointless.” In his executive summary, Lencioni notes two things worthy of consideration regarding meetings. Meetings are boring and meetings are ineffective. If I am responsible to give leadership to the church and part of that leadership is expressed in meetings, I am going to stand up and take notice. The high-value mission of the church makes eliminating those two aspects of meetings of top priority. Lencioni in Lencioni-fashion weaves a leadership fable that is more than just real or believable. He is the master storyteller. The lead character, Casey McDaniel, maneuvers his way through the whole process of leading new meetings. By the end, you feel like you may actually be able to do the same. According to Lencioni, meetings that instill drama and have built-in contextual structure are the centerpiece of successful communication and forward-movement. Casey learns the value of the four meetings: daily check-in, weekly tactical, monthly strategic, and quarterly off-site review. In the fable of Casey, Lencioni makes the very successful case for more and better meetings, not fewer. You need to be a creative thinker to assimilate that which Lencioni espouses. Most churches are in such a rut of meetings that to make the changes the author suggests likely will be seen as “the boss’ new gig on how to run the church.” You will need to fight that sense. The battle will be won in the careful guidance of all staff from top to bottom or side to side in understanding the long-haul implications of coming alive by meeting and not dying by meeting. You will read in this book the cure for the most painful yet underestimated problem of the church: bad meetings. Although his writing is secular in nature, his application is clear to the church. The stakes are too high for us to not take serious the business of doing meetings well. If you want a blueprint for the church your serve to eliminate waste and frustration among your team and create an environment which responds to the mission of the church, Death by Meeting is the book for you.