Jay Curlee in Corpus Crisiti, who works with my friend Bil Cornelius, got me thinking about systems today (its not that hard to do – ha!  I talk, speak and write a lot about church systems as most of you know).  Here’s what he asked:

“Progress demands change. It demands a leader who seeks to push through the chaos of change as they drive to the next level. What process should you be challenging right now?”

There are at least three times when you need to courageously challenge the systems of your church, they are:

* After a ‘season of growth’

* During a ‘season of stagnation’

* In a ‘season of testing’

During each of these times we to challenge the systems in our church or else atrophy will set in.

It’s easy to challenge the system during ‘stagnation’ and ‘testing’ but the hardest time to challenge the system is following a ‘season of growth.’

But ‘a season of growth’ is the most important time to challenge, re-evaluate and revision because if you don’t you’ll enter a season of stagnation by default.

Challenging the systems doesn’t mean that you change the Eight Systems of A Church but it does mean you innovate from within, re-evaluate the staffing of each system and imporve the systems so they can take you to the next level.

For a great resource on ‘challenging the systems’ from a non-church but yet critical leadership perspective, see The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner

Nelson

P.S. I just finished a new special report with my latest thinking on Church Systems, its tentatively titled “Healthy Church, Healthy Systems.”  I’ll be giving it away right here on the blog in a couple of weeks (I know, sorry for the tease, but I’m very excited about it!).  In the meantime, you can listen to one of my most popular podcasts on Church Systems by clicking here.