As a pastor I sit in a lot of meetings. Yesterday I had an eight-hour meeting with the rest of the pastoral staff at our church. It was a good meeting and we hopefully gained some clarity for where God wants us to go during this next season of ministry. Even though it was a good meeting and I like all of my coworkers, an eight-hour meeting is still an eight-hour meeting.
My meeting was long but it was still better than these nerdy meetings.
Death Star
I wouldn’t want to sit in any meeting with Darth Vader, much less one about missing Death Star plans. In A New Hope, Admiral Motti got a little lippy with Darth Vader and suggested that the Death Star was more powerful than the Force. Darth Vader found Motti’s lack of faith disturbing and proceeded to Force choke him. I’ve been in some pretty heated meetings where colleagues passionately tried to communicate their point of view. I’ve never seen people come to blows in a meeting much less one person attempt to strangle another person. I’m happy to have missed that meeting on the Death Star and, since I’m not an old white dude, I probably wouldn’t have been invited anyway. The Empire is racist.
Council of Elrond
Rivendell seems like the perfect place for an off-site meeting. It’s a beautiful setting to relax. There are rivers for team building activities. There’s a museum for the boring people. Even though I would love to be at a meeting in Rivendell, I wouldn’t have wanted to be at the Council of Elrond. Wizards, men, elves, dwarves and hobbits gathered to decide the fate of the One Ring. The meeting itself wasn’t that bad, but a lot of the people there committed to a dangerous journey to the heart of Mordor. I wouldn’t have wanted to volunteer for that journey but I would have felt bad if no one from my group stepped up.
Helicarrier
Before the Avengers assembled they had to, like James described, persevere through some trials. Their main trial took place aboard S.H.I.E.L.D.’s helicarrier during a meeting. Not to spoil it for those who haven’t yet seen The Avengers (seriously, see it, you’re losing your nerd cred), but tempers flared up and someone got angry who you wouldn’t like when he’s angry. Watching the Avengers’ meeting, it’s nice to know that even earth’s mightiest super heroes have a bad meeting every now and then. It makes me feel better about some of our less-than-productive meetings.
I didn’t get into ministry for the meetings but I know meetings play a vital role in the work that God wants us to do. There’s nothing better than coming together with other people, listening to the Holy Spirit, and moving forward to where God wants us to go.
And, as long as no one gets Force choked, it’s a pretty good meeting.
What other nerdy meetings would you have been happy to miss?
Wouldn’t want to have sat in judgment of Admiral Kirk and company in Star Trek IV, although at least that meeting reached the right decision!
I wish I could stay for it too but I’m glad right decision was reached at the end.