As we grow as a church, it's easier for people to get lost unless we're really intentional about "shepherding the flock" as the Bible calls it. A lot of the shepherding happens in day to day relationships often left to chance meetings. More and more of this happens as we establish good systems that help hold us accountable to our mission and our flock.
I wanted to think out loud a little bit here on
systems. Some of you may wish to check out now. That's OK. This blog is for a little narrower audience.
So anyway, I get a little cranky when the word “systems” gets thrown
around as THE solution to being effective as a church, or people are looking for a simple check list to make decisions by. We can too easily miss the real point. “Why are we here?” “What
are we really trying to accomplish?” “How do we measure it?”
When I first came on at Abundant Life from a career history of management and establishing systems, I put my shoulder to the plow to
establish systems in our growing church. I pretty quickly became frustrated, and then gradually adapted to a pretty organic culture called the church. But as we grow larger, just like in the case of Moses, we must, must, must "systematically" have more leaders, and ever more clarity in
how we roll as a church!
Here are some thoughts I have about systems...
We must avoid a check-list mentality. As we learn in the Bible and are reminded of in the book we like around here called "No
Perfect People Allowed," people are messy. Not everything (and not much at
times) can be navigated with a check list or system. We need to seek out God's heart for everything we do and look at each decision in context with the Bible, and look at each Bible verse in context, too.
We must implement the “right systems,” not just create systems for everything. We need to set
direction and process based on our Biblical mandate, the Holy Spirit, and our God given intellect to establish systems for those things which repeat and must be transferable so we can be more effective and others can follow in our path.
And we need to suck it up when we are dealing with a situation or crisis that requires a solution beyond a check list, and lean into the Holy Spirit for direction!
We must develop outcome based systems, not systems for systems sake, or
because it works for someone else. This is the mistake that gets made a lot, and is always temping for a quick fix to a challenge. We must
first identify WHAT God has called us to accomplish before researching, creating, and
implementing systems. This is the precursor to ANY successful
project: what do you want to accomplish?
The basics of most any system is:
1. Say what you’ll do (based on mission, vision,
values).
2. Do what you say (create/implement a systems to
support this).
3. Check on the results (did it work?).
4. Act on the difference (correct course).
Then back to number 1.
I think our next step at Abundant Life is going back through and asking “what
does God really want us to accomplish?” for every area, especially those in need of a more systematic approach as we grow; those areas that may be neglected or feel like they are spiraling out of control.
Big challenge, but that's OK. It's good to be reminded regularly of why we are doing what we are doing, whether it's showing up for the weekend services, or leading a ministry with thousands.
