Worship Teams And Emasculation

So today in our staff meeting one of our staff members suggested that we have a volunteer testimony in our worship gathering this coming Sunday because we are talking about volunteering the next two weeks. This is a great idea. A wonderful idea. But it was offered way too late. After we had decided to add it in, I mentioned that this was a great idea, but that it was being offered probably two weeks too late.
Then it was said by a staff member that they don't even know what we are talking about and they aren't able to offer their input at any time. We settled on communicating the message series with them so that we can work about 6 weeks out.
But this was a dangerous moment. It almost turned into the staff would give their input on what the service should be and then the worship team would develp off of that. This is a horrible idea for at least two very basic reasons.
First, it would emasculate the team. Nobody likes to be micromanaged, especially creative people. If they are going to have to be creative inside of narrow guidelines, they will quickly grow frustrated and quit.
Second, the more people that give input to things, the more people that will get their feelings hurt when their idea isn't used. This is huge. If there are 15 people offering ideas and only one idea can be used each week, then that means 14 people will have their idea rejected. This can quickly develop into a "nobody likes my input, so I'm not giving it and screw them" mentality. Empower people, give them basic guidelines and a purpose, and let them do the work. If you can't do that, then don't empower the people. JM