Friday, May 28, 2010

Being Effective at Reaching Japan for Christ #1 -- Death by Meetings

There are aspects of the culture of Japan that "pushes" people to hold a lot of meetings.
A few years ago I decided that life was too short and our mission far too important for me to waste time in meaningless meetings so I avoid them as much as I possibly can.

How big a deal is this issue?

A high level committee in Japan made up of missionaries and pastors discussed a badly needed new translation of the Bible for 15 years. During that time this group didn't make a decision to move ahead and actually do it.

A church in Tokyo established a committee that met for over 100 hours to plan the church's anniversary celebration.

If every church and mission in Japan cut the amount of time spent in meetings by 50% and also had a clear purpose for every meeting that does take place we would be far more effective at reaching Japan for Christ.

I have worked in Japan for over 20 years as a missionary and my observation is that we waste large amounts of time in meetings -- I wonder what would happen if we just quit doing that?

What do you think?