I am interested in other creative team schedules and processes. If you serve in a church or ministry or even corporate America and are on a creative team - I have a little survey for you. I would appreciate any input! Thanks!
How many times a week do you meet?
When do you meet?
How long do you meet?
What is the setting like? (around a table or on couches)
How many are on the team?
Thanks again!
Brian
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Before I answer the questions, please note I'm going to pull from my own experiences as well as from over a dozen churches that I've taught how to do Creative Team Planning for Weekend Experiences. So the answers will be a bit longer than usual...
How many times a week do you meet?
I suggest 3 times per week.
1) Either on Sunday afternoon (part of recap/analysis of Saturday evening/Sunday morning services) or on Monday mid-morning. This first meeting is to recap the past weekend and look at the good, bad and ugly. Learn from it and use it as a launch pad for tweaks for the coming week. 1/3 meeting is recap, 1/3 meeting is changes learned from recap and 1/3 is assignment of research for various team members.
2) Tuesday afternoon - in this meeting, (around 24 hours later), team members report on research (new props, music changes, copyright permissions, volunteer availability, rentals of equipment, etc.) and give at least three options. Includes cost (time, personnel and money), practicality (probable, possible, improbable) and deadlines for completion.
3) Thursday morning - shorter meeting where team members show progress and share how they've been working together to pull off the assigned tasks. Any last minute changes happen here - not during the weekend - if at all possible.
When do you meet?
In addition to my answer above, it's also important to understand that week-to-week should rarely be spent on developing NEW ideas. It should be spent on tweaking already planned ideas and finding out how to implement them (see above).
But more importantly, it's critical for all of the team members to know the sermon series theme and basic points before they start planning. To this end, I suggest the Pastor take a one to two-week Sabbatical and hear from God about what will be the big sermon series themes over the next 3-6 months. When this happens, all the creative team needs are those big ideas and then they will help suggest ideas for where it could lead.
Once a direction has been established, the team can start working on pulling appropriate songs together, obtaining video copyrights for footage, building sets for the stage, preparing scripts for the drama, building graphics for print, web and video as well as setting the lighting looks to match the theme.
Then, when week to week planning comes around, it's not a new slate - it's working on an existing theme and tweaking as you go. Remember, quality takes time!
How long do you meet?
This depends on the flow of the meeting. For the initial sermon series planning meeting, this can take 2-3 hours where all ideas (there are no bad ideas - because a bad idea can lead to a great idea) are tossed out and written on a white board.
For week to week meetings, this can take anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours, depending on the size of the group and the complexity of the tasks.
What is the setting like? (around a table or on couches)
I like couches and lots of pacing room. Plus, a huge white board and multi-colored markers are a must. I also prefer electronic white boards so the content can be saved and distributed as an email to all involved AND to those who couldn't make the meeting.
How many are on the team?
Minimally: Senior Pastor, Music minister, Media minister, drama director and a rotating creative staff member and/or volunteer. You need this rotating person to be on and off during a series or even week to week so that the group has a fresh perspective and doesn't get into a "me-too" rut.
There's a lot more to this...but I think this is enough for one comment!
Post a Comment