For the last several months, I’ve been working on the systems for our church.
I have identified 13 different systems that we will need to have in place BEFORE we launch.
Operational Systems:
- Leadership Structure: How our church is led
- Communication: How we communicate in and to our church
- Financial: How the finances are handled in our church
- Campus management (i.e. Facilities): How our facilities are secured, maintained, and transitions are made
Strategic Systems:
- Marketing: How we present our church to the community
- Weekend: How we prepare for and present the weekend experience
- Evangelism: How we lead people into the life Jesus promised
- Assimilation: How we get people to return and get involved in our church
- Discipleship: How we facilitate spiritual growth and healthy community
- Volunteers: How we connect people to fulfilling service
- Stewardship: How we develop visionary givers
- Leadership: How we raise up leaders in our church
- Strategic evaluation: How we review, evaluate, and revise our systems
For each system we are working to clarify the win. In other words, we want to be able to identify “success” for each system so that we know it is working!
We will regularly evaluate our systems to assure that they are in a synergistic relationship and NOT working against each other!
We are writing down each of these systems on paper so that when we start the church we won’t be “trying to figure it out” as we go!
We are also working to create systems that are reproducible that so that when we are doing ministry in multiple venues (i.e. multi-site church) the systems will be transferable.
Now, I’m quite certain that we will have a lot to figure out as we get started, but cool enough, we will have a starting point… the systems that we have developed and written out!
I’ll be talking more about these systems in weeks to come, but for now… I’ve gotta run!
paulpetersonlive.com 
You may have already checked it out but you should definitely read Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars by Patrick Lencioni. Another good read on systems is Be Our Guest from the Disney Institute.
Hey dude. My favorite part about this post is that you seperated assimilation from discipleship. It is one thing to assimilate, another thing to disciple. I totally miss that sometimes…
re Stewardship: from my experience, I am a much better steward when I remember that all we have is God’s and that he has given it to us in the first place–that He is generous first and that stewardship and giving is a part of worship. I was more reluctant to give when I was taught I had to trust God with my things. That when I give, He gives back–that teaching missed the crucial point that God has always given first. Its subtle but it made a huge impact on me.
Paul,
Will you allow people to be involved in more than one system? How can these 12 systems coexist and synergize? Does this require at least 12 people to be part of the church plant start-up “TEAM”? How many of these systems do you really love to be a part of?
As I read the list I could see myself in the following systems: leadership and strategic planning. But then again, that is probably the stuff of pastoring anyway! 🙂
Thanks for thinking this stuff through.
Mike
Hey Paul,
Can’t wait to interact with you as you work through these systems. Doing the same thing at the moment. Have you see Nelson Searcy’s (Journey Church New York) resources on various systems? If not, you can do so at the Church Leaders Insights website.
Thanks for sharing your work, thoughts and ministry.
Will.
Thanks for sharing! This list will help us on our checklist for our church plant!