Wednesday, March 24, 2010

It Takes an Excellent Meeting to be Better Than No Meeting

Our meetings should be wonderful feasts - far and away the best option for those who are expected to attend. If they become "just meetings", we have failed in our duties to the attendees. Thus, "It takes an excellent meeting to be better than no meeting," puts the onus directly on us to make sure our meetings are excellent.

J. Reuben Clark once said, "There is no church meeting so unimportant that it cannot start on time; there is no church meeting so important that it cannot end on time." I believe this means that it is up to us to value our meetings so much that we make them as effective (in every way) as possible - recognizing that other aspects of our lives are important, as well, and not robbing Peter to pay Paul, per se. Our meeting should start on time, and people should be excited to get there and not miss a minute; they should end on time, and people should wish they could go longer - thus inspiring excitement to get to the next meeting on time and not miss a minute.

2 comments:

ji said...

Thanks! Sometimes, I think, a generally poor meeting can still sometimes be better than no meeting at all. But I agree that my worship depends on me. I don't know if you're talking about (i) worship and instructional meetings or (ii) administrative and planning meetings, or both. But I agree that the principle applies to both, as a general rule.

Patty said...

I'm sorry.. I can't stop laughing thinking of a Mormon meeting starting ON TIME!! lol
It's interesting to think of meetings being important enough to start on time. I think it shows greater respect to start and end on time... showing that we believe each meeting is special enough to use it's alloted time carefully.