Church Video Ideas: The Creative Planning Team

Orginally published on Thursday, May 17, 2007 at 8:32 AM
by Greg Atkinson

Okay. Close your eyes and visualize these scenarios with me: First, picture a symphony conductor, let’s call him, Maestro, waving his arms feverishly; conducting beautifully and passionately, yet there is no sound. You see that he is standing at his podium in front of an empty orchestra pit. On and on he goes, directing these empty chairs in a silent song. Silly, huh?...

--Next, picture an NFL Quarterback, let’s call him Ben, hiking the ball to himself, dropping back and throwing a perfect spiral pass, 50 yards in the air and then….it hits the ground, because he is playing alone and there is no receiver to catch his amazing pass. Not to mention the quarterback gets hit hard because there is no line blocking for him. Still with me?

--Finally, picture an extremely gifted and very popular movie director, let’s call him Steven, calling out cues and giving direction and suggestions from behind the camera. His trained eye and creative imagination knows exactly how he wants this scene to play out, but there’s no one to act these ideas out. He is essentially filming a blank wall. That’s absurd, right?

I could go on with examples, but I think you get the point. Each scenario is bizarre and each person mentioned is crazy for trying to go at it alone. As foolish as this may be, it occurs in churches all around the world. Many pastors, unfortunately, view sermon preparation as a solo thing and miss out on having the greatest impact possible. In the book “The Wired Church”, Len Wilson wrote, “Don’t do this alone. Don’t even try.” Jason Moore added, “Good teams should take us to heights unimaginable by ourselves. This is a product of not just a team, but a team with synergy.”

Synergy, huh?

Have you ever really delve into the reality and power of synergy? The Oxford English Dictionary defines synergy as an “interaction or cooperation of two or more agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.” Look up ‘synergy’ in a thesaurus and you will see synonyms such as: alliance, collaboration, communion, concert, cooperation, harmony, help, helpfulness, participation, partnership, service, teaming, teamwork, and unity; all Biblical words that we hold high. When a team taps into the reality of synergy and employs their gifts, the results are impressive and pleasing. Creativity grows exponentially on such a team.

We see this echoed in Scripture as Nehemiah rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem. In Nehemiah 2:17-18, Nehemiah said, “Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace…” They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” Can you imagine him trying to build it all by himself? I know Nehemiah is often looked to as an example of leadership. Yes, he was “God’s man”. Yes, he had “a vision” and “a calling”, but the reason he is so respected as a leader and has become a model that we study and teach about is because he rallied the people and empowered them to do together what none of them could do alone.

While we’re looking at Biblical examples, one should consider the various other teams mentioned in Scripture, such as the Disciples, Elders, Deacons, Pharisees – just kidding. Even Creation was done through a Triune God, Who said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

What’s the Big Deal?

Why spend so long setting up the ‘why’ of team planning? Sadly, many pastors are still trying to plan week to week all alone. They get it when it comes to other ministries. They have leadership teams, worship teams, youth and children’s workers, but when it comes to their message it’s, “Hands off! I’ve got this one.” This phenomenon is something that I’ve heard about and witnessed over and over. Personally, I’ve been fortunate to work with wise and open pastors who enjoy creative team planning, but that’s not always the case.

Nancy Beach, in her book, “An Hour on Sunday”, says that “There is a wall in some churches…This wall divides the artists preparing one part of the service from the teacher who will deliver the message…What contributes most to this wall is the overwhelmingly rapid pace of ministry combined with a lack of vision for what services could be if the wall were torn down.” This wall exists for many reasons; from lack of vision, to lack of communication and planning, to pride on the pastor’s part, to seminary training, to false assumptions. Sometimes a communicator feels as if he or she is all alone and no one would want to come alongside and offer feedback and support. This is rarely the case. Usually, it is not too formidable a task to find at least 4 people in a congregation. Awareness is a large part of the problem. I honestly believe that most pastors would be for anything that would increase their effectiveness as a communicator.

Unfortunately, some communicators think that they alone have the ability and right to craft the message and worship experience. Brad Johnson, pastor of Calvary Community Church put things in perspective when he wrote, “Do you believe you are smart enough, creative enough, and insightful enough to prepare your sermons week after week, year after year with the same level of freshness and energy each time?  Honestly, having prepared sermons for over twenty years, I know the personal limitations of this awesome task.  Certainly, we each rely on God the Holy Spirit and the power of God’s Word, but can’t our Lord use the input of others to strengthen our personal deficits?”

When I share this at a preaching conference, I experience a variety of reactions. From “Duh, of course we have a creative planning team” to “I’ve been planning on my own for 30 years and it’s worked fine for me” to “I’ve been planning on my own and I’ve never really felt like I’ve made a dent. This sounds fascinating.” One experience I’ll never forget was 2 years ago at the Moody Bible Pastors’ Conference, where a 60something year old pastor, said, “May I say something?” I said, “Absolutely.” He slowly stood up and with tears in his eyes stated how he had gone at it alone for years to no avail. He said that just in the last few years of his ministry he had come to learn about and utilize the creative planning team. He could not say enough about how much it had revolutionized his messages and how he had seen his church grow spiritually and numerically more in the last few years, than in the previous 20 years of his ministry combined.
I should confess that I am a conference junky. I believe we never stop learning and that valuable insight can be gained from all kinds of churches and leaders. So, whether speaking or attending, I’m at a lot of conferences. Here’s something interesting to consider: I often see church leaders flock to various churches and conferences to learn how to be more creative and effective. One of the main things people bring back from those conferences is a commitment to start a creative planning team. From Willow Creek to Saddleback, Ginghamsburg to Granger, Southeast Christian to North Point, they all point to planning in a team setting and testify to the synergy that they’ve experienced.

The last 5 years I’ve attended the C3 (Creative Church Conference) at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas. I remember a few years ago, Ed Young, Jr. not only pumping up the value of a creative planning team, but showing a video (which people were also able to purchase and take home to their team) of the creative planning process. They set up a camera in their conference room as they met and planned for an actual service. Ed is an extremely gifted and innovative leader, known for a highly creative church and ministry, yet he says that of all the amazing series and services Fellowship has done and is known for, very few have been his idea. Those ideas started in a brainstorming session where someone threw out an idea and others chimed in and built upon that idea. The lesson? You can try to emulate a preacher’s delivery and style, but as far as coming up with ideas, series and memorable messages, you have to dig deeper. Please don’t try to replicate on your own what others are doing as a team!

“Some men preach for an hour and it seems like twenty minutes, and some preach for twenty minutes and it seems like and hour. I wonder what the difference is.” – Harry Ironside

Getting Started

Okay, so maybe you’re willing to give this team thing a try. Now, you’re asking, “How to I go about starting this?” A creative planning team is done a lot of different ways in churches all around the world. There are, however, several elements that seem to be pretty consistent across the board.

1. Size: Whether your church is made up of 25 people or 25,000, the team size is about the same. Len Wilson said, “Brainstorming studies have shown that an ideal creative team has between 4-7 people.” Alan Nelson in his book “Creating Messages that Connect” echoed this, saying that “The best team size seems to be four to seven. Things get bogged down with eight or more.” It’s weird; I’ve seen mega-mega churches (5000 to 20,000) with 4 to 7 people on their creative planning team. Then I’ve smaller churches (under 200) which had 10 to 12 people on their teams. Trust me, big or small, you can get by with the right 4 to 7 people. That brings us to the second consistent element of starting a creative planning team:

2. Recruiting: Who you go after is crucial. A team is a group of interdependent people committed to a common purpose who choose to cooperate in order to achieve exceptional results. The creative planning team is usually made up of the senior pastor, worship pastor, and the following ministry leaders (if you have them): drama, graphics, video, creative writer, props. This is not a team for everyone on staff or even involved with worship – this is for your dreamers, artists and “out of the box” thinkers. Be aware, though, that some dreamers are too far out there and never get anything accomplished. You have to balance between not having people that are too analytical and shoot down every idea based on cost and logistics and people that aren’t realistic and won’t be around to help bring the idea to fruition.

How you build your team is crucial, too. This is a team that the senior pastor and worship pastor should hand-pick. You can’t have every band member, choir member, drama participant, etc. on this team. Select those that are best suited for this and have a proven track record of making Sunday happen.

Kim Miller, in her book, “Designing Worship”, writes “Do not assume all ordained clergy are passionate about the weekly worship experience…You can tell when a person has a different passion from worship design. He grows quiet and his eyes glaze over in a design team meeting…Seek out like-minded people who are passionate about designing worship experiences.” She goes on to say, “Stop and dream a little about what kind of person you really want and need…When you’ve dreamed all you can dream, it’s time to look…When you think you may have found someone, then listen. Listen to what God is telling you to do, and obediently act on that direction.”

When I started this at my church, I developed a list with my senior pastor. This list was intentionally too big. I knew that some were going to say “no” for a variety of reasons. That’s going to happen. Once I heard back from everyone and had a core team of those that said “yes”, I began planning our first meeting. This brings us to the next element:

3. Roles and Responsibility: Once you’ve assembled your team, you need to prayerfully define each person’s role and responsibility. Be flexible, as this will change over time. I learned the hard way that if you don’t assign each person some responsibility you will lead a creative team of people that dream up more work for you to do. You must know what you’re willing to own and be ready to say, “Who will own this?” when someone throws out an idea.

Something else to consider is that the overwhelming majority of time, the team is meeting to discuss how to enhance and support a message or message series that the pastor has already chosen. The focus isn’t so much on what to preach on, as how to package and present this in a fresh and attractive way. A lot of pastors mail or email an outline to their creative planning team before their meeting. This is wise. When you let your people chew on it for a while, instead of putting them on the spot, you’ll find your meetings will be much more productive.

Again, every team looks different. Some churches have one team that meets weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. Some have a very small team (like the senior pastor and worship leader) that meet weekly to finalize things and the bigger team that meets monthly to plan for the next month. If your team is made up of paid staff, the meetings often take place during the day and more frequently. If you’re utilizing several volunteers, these meetings occur at night or on a Saturday and are more likely to be monthly.

Developing Your Team

What will it take to make this a success? Prayer and planning. Hopefully, all of what we do as leaders is bathed in prayer and submitted to Christ’s leading. The planning side of things is just plain hard work. It takes vision, organization and determination. Maybe you’ve been finishing your sermons on Saturdays for years and can’t imagine knowing what you’re going to preach on weeks or months out. No doubt, it will be an adjustment, but it’s doable and it’s worth it. Take some time off. Get away with your Bible and a notebook and just dream. Pray and consider what series interest you for the next year. When you begin to teach in series, you’ll see that it really is easy to plan far out. You know that for the next 6 weeks, you’re teaching on the Sermon of the Mount or the book of Galatians; that’s a starting point. You can at least go ahead and give your creative planning team your titles or main ideas for the upcoming series.

A couple of ground rules: Team members need the freedom to fail. Risk should be encouraged and each team member should have permission to share any idea, no matter how crazy or out there it may seem. Make brainstorming fun. Take out a dry erase board and just start writing words and ideas all over it. At Ginghamsburg Church, the pastor shares the week’s Scripture passage and the “desired outcome”. The team asks questions for clarification and then throws out ideas. They decide on the “hook” (theme) and also the metaphor (look) and roll with it. Know that chemistry will take time. Your team will eventually gel, but you’ve got to have many services and series under your belt. Then your challenge will be to avoid ruts and intentionally stretch yourself.

Ways to grow and stretch your team

Here are some thoughts on taking it to the next level. Maybe once a year go off on a retreat and dream together. Build in plenty of time for fun and games, but also have some good heart-to-heart conversations. Share your struggles and life challenges. Maybe others are going through something similar. If so and you hit a nerve, there’s a future series.

From time to time, bring in various perspectives. When I was in high school, my worship pastor would invite me to their planning team meetings from time to time. They were given a youth’s perspective on what they were discussing. I was given valuable experience and an appreciation for what goes on behind the scenes. You may want to bring in one of your senior citizens from time to time. Want to really shake things up? Invite a lost person to one of your planning meetings. They’ll put things in perspective real fast.

I’ve heard of senior pastors that meet anywhere from once to four times a year with other pastors to discuss message planning and series ideas. They’ll get together to pray, worship and fellowship with one another. They’ll take a topic or series idea and together delve into it. I don’t mean the creative, how would we promote this, side of things. I’m talking about the theological side. They allow iron to sharpen iron and find a lot of meat that they can take home to develop. The pastor comes back with series ideas and starting places for key themes and doctrines that he will personally research and develop.

Evaluation is a vital part of any organization. When your team gathers to plan a future series, briefly discuss the previous one. What did you accomplish as a team? What lessons were learned? What can you improve on? 

Encourage and minister to this team. Let them know that you value their feedback and involvement. Look for opportunities to challenge them, while at the same time strive to let this team be a blessing and not a burden. Remind each of them (and yourself) that we are servants. Concepts such as teamwork, sacrifice and flexibility should be modeled, taught and common language among the group. Ask team members to lift you up in prayer and cultivate a we’re in this together-atmosphere.

Finally, remember that this team can brand, promote, set-up, support and enhance your message, but they can’t deliver it for you. With all the creativity, innovation and artistic edge that your worship gatherings will have now, you may find that you have to step up your game as well. I think we can always grow and improve in our given areas of talent and skill. You, as a communicator, should be better next year, than you are now. Get feedback from various places. Give your creative planning team permission to share their perceptions and impressions of you on the platform. Ask your spouse and a few friends how you’re doing as a communicator. Listen and watch other effective communicators such as Rob Bell, Andy Stanley, Tony Evans, Erwin McManus, Jack Graham and TD Jakes, to name a few. You’ll find that they are all drastically different in how they preach and deliver a message. They are being who God designed them to be. Find your communication style and sharpen that. Video tape your messages and watch them to see what needs tweaking.

We have the wonderful calling and opportunity to share the greatest story ever told. We have not only heard of the old, old story, but have been personally impacted and changed by it. So, dream brother. Dream of lives being transformed and your community coming to know Christ. Dream sister. Dream of marriages being restored and addictions bowing the knee to our Creator King. You have been given tons of resources. The Body of Christ, of which you are a part, is on the move. Dream, recruit, lead and develop this team of servants that believe the Gospel is paramount and can make a difference in our world. Use every ounce of creativity and innovation that you possess; this world needs it and our Savior deserves nothing less.

©2006 – Greg Atkinson (www.churchvideoideas.com) - This article first appeared in the July/August 2006 REV Magazine
Used by permission from author. All rights reserved by author.

Greg Atkinson lives in Dallas with his wife and their three small children. Greg served previously as the Director of WorshipHouse Media, after having served as a worship pastor for 11 years. Greg is now the Technical Arts Director at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship and continues to consult, teach and write about worship, media and creative communication. You can connect with him through his daily blog, Church Video Ideas, his podcast, Creative Synergy, or his email: .

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