Systems are essential and often overlooked structures in life. Understanding which systems are in place and how they function can be greatly beneficial in anticipating what to change and what to change to.
Author Nelson Searcy illustrates 8 systems essential to a healthy church.
8 systems for a healthy church
I’ve just finished reading Nelson Searcy’s free ebook – ‘Healthy Systems, Healthy Church‘ (also available on Amazon).
I like his definition of a SYSTEM: ‘Saves You Stress, Time, Energy and Money’.
Searcy proposes 8 systems for churches:
- Weekend Service System (How we plan, implement and evaluate your music, preaching, transitions, offertory, etc.)
- Evangelism System (How we attract people to our church)
- Assimilation System (How we take people from their first visit to fully developing members of church)
- Small Groups System (How we fill and reproduce small groups in our church)
- Volunteer System (How we mobilize people for ministry)
- Stewardship System (How we develop strong givers)
- Leadership System (How we develop staff, lay leaders and high-powered volunteers)
- Strategic System (How we evaluate the above systems for constant improvement)
He also includes a helpful diagram about the importance of good systems and good people (click to enlarge). It got me thinking about where our bad systems might be frustrating good people.
Have a read of this very short ebook, and let me know what you think.
Do you agree with the proposed systems? Can you think of any other systems that should be included?
I wonder if it should include some kind of spiritual growth system – how to develop members who will be constantly growing in their faith, love of God and others. But perhaps this is covered by the other systems (i.e. small groups system).
Reflections 