Essentials Part 11: Systems

This week's Essential: Systems.

See my prior ten posts for other ministry growth Essentials.

Genesis 1 and 2 are full of order and symmetry.

Everything is in its proper place.

There are systems for creating, naming, marrying, populating and ruling.

No doubt God sees ahead to a massive falling out (Genesis 3), the selection of a people for Himself, a royal lineage eventuating in the Messiah, and an eschaton of cosmic restoration.

Those are some big systems.

Does God improvise along the way, or is the whole thing pretty much scripted?

College students ask me that question, in one form or another, often (four times on a recent tour of Michigan schools).

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Zoom back in. As beings made in God's image, how can we emulate God in our own little ministry "world-making"?

It seems to me that growing ministries think ahead. They plan, train, pray. The world they're creating  exhibits the same order and symmetry as God's.

Struggling ministries tend to do things on the fly, then call that the Spirit.

Thriving ministries always have a crisp plan in place. During actual practice, however, they show flexibility as the Spirit leads.*

Struggling ministries never made a good plan in the first place from which to deviate.

Thrivers know who's in charge of stuff.

Strugglers let things fall through the cracks because the cracks are everywhere.

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Systems. Do not despise. Please.

* (Without commenting on whether God Himself improvises, I think He does ask us to go off script at times).