In an article in the October 2005 issue of Technologies for Worship magazine, Len Wilson and Jason Moore wrote an article for media ministers whose pastors don’t seem willing to plan ahead. One of their suggestions is to encourage the pastor to meet as part of a creative team environment. They note:
“Pastors have also been trained to design worship by themselves. Many have an alone (and lonely) understanding that God’s Word is only revealed to writers in quiet rooms surrounded by books and that to proclaim God’s Word, one must go into isolation. In fact, the early church as outlined in Acts was a riotous atmosphere of interchange—quite different than the traditions we’ve been handed down from monasteries and writers…Pastors are trained in modern-era seminaries that place a heavy emphasis on books. Books—reading them and writing them—are individual experiences. A by-product of such a book emphasis is that pastors are trained to think and work alone in their ministry.
“There are multiple problems with working alone, including loneliness and busyness. One of the worst, though, is that a bad idea remains a bad idea. Most of the time, lone sermon planners don’t know it’s a bad idea until the words spring from their mouths as they are delivering their messages. This is mostly avoided in a team environment where creativity is exponential and a bad idea is a path to a good one. Learning to trust in the power of a team takes lots of time and many small steps, but results in savings of time, as well as better worship.”