Team Ministry: Too many Cooks Spoil the Broth?

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Need 4 Creed

Puritan Board Freshman
Within the wider church world, there is a huge emphasis on team ministry today. Many church leadership teams, even if they have a pastor, share the preaching ministry.

Reformed churches have traditionally differentiated between ruling elders and teaching elders and have set apart a minister of word and sacrament who will feed the flock.

So, is 'team ministry' (in the sense that elders share the preaching) a good thing, or do (as the old adage says) 'too many cooks spoil the broth?'
 
Within the wider church world, there is a huge emphasis on team ministry today. Many church leadership teams, even if they have a pastor, share the preaching ministry.

I'm not familiar with that model, even in two office churches, such as the PCA. Where is it widespread to have the ruling elders preach, when there is a teaching elder available?
 
Many independent, evangelical, brethren, contemporary and charismatic and pentecostal churches follow a 'team ministry' model. If you click on a church's 'sermons' tab on their website, many have different preachers every week.

I should also have added, that I am talking about churches that would probably not distinguish between ruling and teaching elders.
 
My eldest son is lead pastor of an independent evangelical congregation in rural IL. They typically run around 850 in three services. My son does the majority of the preaching (probably 50%+) but three of the other full-time pastors also preach. They preach through a series, so whichever pastor has the pulpit that weekend, he takes the next sermon in the series. Obviously there are differences of temperament between the pastors. However, from what I hear, it works pretty well.

I don't know if this is a classic "team ministry" model in that my son is the "lead" pastor. The other pastors who preach are the pastor of worship ministries, the youth pastor, and the pastor emeritus. In their minds, it mitigates the "cult of personality" that often surrounds "successful" preachers.
 
Yes, we have 10 ordained teaching elders (may be going to 11 this summer) so I am familiar with the multiple pastor set up, but I wasn't familiar with putting REs into the rotation. Seems like a poor practice unless necessitated by exigent circumstances.
 
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