In Reggie Joiner's book—Think Orange—he states: “Every organization has critical systems that need to be radically upgraded.” I'll briefly introduce five important ones in today's post, mostly by sharing some key questions.
The first one is a system that integrates your leaders:
- How do your staff meet?
- What is the structure of your leadership?
- Are your leaders aligned with your overall values and mission?
The second one is a system that communicates truth:
- What's the basis for your teaching?
- What are the irreducible minimums?
- Are you constantly reinventing communication methodology to effectively reach people?
- Can we handle what is timeless in a system that is always changing?
The third one is a system that connects people:
- What do your small group structures look like? Do they all need to be the same?
- What about community life? How do people connect with their community?
The fourth one is a system that mobilizes the church: Are you simply a socialite club or are you mission-driven? (And I don't mean, do you have a missions program?) Most of our systems are built around the idea of getting people to come and attend a key event rather than seeing our people leave church as world-changers. Unfortunately, we're often more like a spectator sport than a participant sport! One fundamental flaw is that we think we need to get our youth into church to hear the truth when what we need is to see discipleship happen in the context of service and mission. For example, do we say, “We need you to teach preschool or junior high so they can have a class to be in, or do we say, “You need to teach this class so you can grow through your service?"
The fifth one is a system that partners with the family: Did you know that churches have only about 40 hours per year with kids whereas parents have about 3000 hours with them? Therefore, could we do something with our systems so that our primary focus is on equipping and developing parents to teach truth to their kids?
