How do I make brainstorming work?

If you're looking for the easy way to build a life-changing service, skip this post.

Brainstorming is one of the hardest jobs arts teams have in the church. It's hard because we rely on the teaching pastor for information, because filling the blank page is difficult when you have to do it every week, and because it's a spiritual process.

So, how do arts teams make brainstorming work? Here are a few tips to point you in the right direction:

Build a great team
Make sure you have innovative people on the team! Each person
should be able to come up with original ideas every time you meet. The make sure the people can get along. While you don't want completely like minded people (or your brainstorming will flatline), you need people who are optimistic about the
vision they're contributing to. And keep the group closed for seasons, so that
trust is developed.

Treat brainstorming like a spiritual process
I've always been a little irked by the question: Is God present in the planning of worship services or the leadership of the moments during worship services? Can I say...duh, it's both! God is not absent from our planning room, only to suddenly arrive in the heart of the worship leader when he's onstage. God is active in both settings. When planning worship services we need to commit ourselves to the same yieldness to God we might have when leading a congregation in worship. Both are necessary.

Get information first
If you're the leader of a brainstorming team, walk into the meeting with as much information as you can about the teaching you'll be supporting. Clarity is your friend. While you don't want to limit creativity, you do want to give your team some probable boundaries. Without a clear direction, the team will wind up frustrated.

Create a healthy idea culture
All great "brainstorming rules" suggest that while the team is brainstorming or sharing ideas, there ought to be very little commenting (positive or negative) on the ideas proposed. Later you'll need to evaluate the ideas and see which ones rise to the top, but while you're putting them on the table, don't react. Overly positive reactions tend to stop the brainstorming, since everyone thinks the accepted idea is the best one...so far. Negative reactions tend to create an unsafe culture, and participants stop sharing ideas.

Save decisions until the very end
When all the ideas are collected, you can make it clear to your team that you're heading into idea evaluation mode. You can still brainstorm, by combining ideas or making the ones you choose the best they can be, but decide!

Where do great ideas come from and how do you put the together...more on those later.