What makes up a good Creative Team? Well, I don't necessarily think there is an exact formula to building your Creative Team, but here are 5 quick things that help us as we work in our Creative Team for Worship/Media at Fellowship Church. In this post I will be talking about our Worship Brainstorm.
1. Diversity Is Key: One of the strengths of our Creative Team is the diversity in the room. We have men and women from all walks of life. For example: We have a former Miss Texas, a guy from Englewood, California, and a country girl from Nashville, just to name a few. As far as race, we're very diverse. Musically, we are all over the map--none of us likes the same genre of music.
2. Trust Is A Must: We have some incredible fights in our brainstorms! I mean some great throwdowns. Do you know why? We all love what we do and as a result what we do has our hearts. In our meetings we put our hearts out there and without trust, our fights would be team-ending. I love that the men and women I work with are so passionate about what they do that they are willing to fight to express their perspectives. The amazing thing is that by the end of the meeting we are all on the same page and with a single mind and single heart we move forward. I guess you might say we fight until we are in one accord.
3. Someone Has To Land The Plane: I don't know about you, but I have been a part of some marathon meetings where we just didn't land the plane. Nothing is more frustrating! In your creative sessions, you have to have someone who is directing the meeting and landing the plane.
4. PINGERS: What is a "pinger?" It's the name I have given to people who have the ability to allow ideas to flow freely through their minds. These people don't get bogged down in the details, they are first dreamers. The mind is amazing! It is constantly in search for solutions. "Pingers" have the ability to delay the mind in finding a solution in a brainstorm setting until the best idea presents itself. (I will post more about how the mind works later. I am bit of a nerd when it comes to this stuff.)
5. Pre-Meeting Work: We spend one hour alone on campus individually praying for God's direction in our brainstorm before we meet. Armed with direction from our Pastor we spend time coming up with preliminary ideas so that we all have something to present to the team when we gather.
I will be shooting a short video of one of our meetings in about two weeks as well as writing a few more thoughts so be sure and check it out. Send me your thoughts on what makes a good Creative Team.


Pingers! love it
Posted by: Blake Wingo | May 09, 2008 at 02:03 PM
we used this in our seminary worship studies class on planning Sun. AM worship. I thought the most important part is praying before the team meets. I am looking at putting a team together at our church. right now we have different small separate groups who do various things, but not a cohesive team.
Posted by: pat | May 01, 2008 at 11:48 AM
Love the things you shared about your creative team. And am looking forward to seeing a video of one of your meetings. I love seeing what others are doing so that I can help influence our team to improve!
Posted by: Luke DeMoss | April 24, 2008 at 12:05 PM
Pace, have enjoyed your work for years. Really enjoyed C3 and the Easter video. I sang with the Fellowship Team back in the day with Troy and Tianne. Now on staff with Mac in Austin.
Things have changed a bit over the years thanks to your leadership. God's best to you and the team and you strive to use creativity to communicate timeless Truth.
Posted by: Alex | April 19, 2008 at 10:51 AM
Your timing couldn't be any better. Yesterday, I met with the pastor of the biggest Brazilian church in America and he picked my brain for 45 mins about creativity. I'm sending him your blog and emailng him this post. He will get so much from this. Thanks!
Posted by: HEATHER PALACIOS | April 19, 2008 at 07:47 AM