I would definitely add the creative people to the mix, even if you have to deal with the extra bodies. Try to ensure that these people have a function outside of the meeting, though. Not just to create ideas for other people to do, but things they will do themselves. Then you can whittle down from 10 to 7 over time. Sometimes mutual discernment occurs and people realize as the team grows that they don’t need to be on it.

Two more articles on our site that may help you. One is on team size:

http://www.midnightoilproductions.com/reading/team-building/team-size/

And the other on team roles:

http://www.midnightoilproductions.com/reading/team-building/assigning-roles/

Maybe focus on these things foremost and then return to the organizational hierarchy. In other words, if you didn’t have political ramifications, what would be your dream setup? Start there, identify if, and then come back to the current reality. This method might help you to identify the points of conflict that need resolving.

Good question. In fact, thinking about it gave me some flesh for what is going to be a separate chapter in the book on defining dreams, purposes and goals for worship. This of course is something the team should do together. As a start, I could identfy that there needs to be consensus on a) basic philosophy of worship (adoration, community, discipleship, and/or outreach), b) methodology, and c) style. This is a good start. Once a team has worked through this stuff, then a comflict over whether a particular song is appropriate for worship becomes a non-issue, because you’ve already taken time to work through these issues. Much better to do it ahead of time before people get emotionally attached to particular creative ideas.

I know a purpose statement is by definition a custom thing for each team, but can you share one or more of the ones from teams you’ve been part of? It’s easy enough to come up with a single statement describing what the team will do, but 5 or 6 statements including how to deal with conflicts is trickier, so having an example or two to use as a launching point would be helpful.