Every Change Changes Everything...

...or how my 2010 NCAA brackets are a shambles.

Thought not huge basketball fans, my wife and I usually complete tournament brackets for the fun of it. We started the kick back in the early 80s when we lived in Louisville and the UofL - Kentucky rivalry was at its zenith.

So, after supper the other night our son joined in and we completed our brackets and posted them on the fridge.

After the first full day of the games, my brackets are broken. When a 14 seed beats a 3, and a 13 beats a 4, its not going to be a good day for your brackets. Which makes a good illustration for this closing post on systems thinking.

A central tenet of systems thinking is that the components of the system are all interrelated. Therefore, a change in one component will ripple through the entire system. The Georgetown loss wrecked my Elite 8, and the tournament's first games are only half over.

But that's just a game - what about the systems in your church? Jim Herrington, Mike Bonem, and James Furr, writing in "Leading Congregational Change" find that: "Many times leaders underestimate the complexity of congregational life. They want to have a quick and simple explanation for every issue, and intervene directly and decisively. In reality, any given issue is influenced by all of the actions, attitudes, decision, people, and artifacts that constitute the organization".

The full consequences of changes in your congregational are often hidden, and will not become evident till a later date. If you are leading your congregation, there will be change. Don't take the easy route and look for the obvious, visible effects. Probe deeper for broader and unintended impacts of a change. The result will be a more accurate and richer understanding of just what is really going on in your congregational system.

It also may help you in your next bracket selection.

Rebuilding the Walls

Short deadlines.

Not enough staff.

Tight budgets.

Personal attacks.

External opposition.

Internal conflicts.

A huge task.

Sound like your church?

Hopefully not, but that was the situation that Nehemiah faced as he stood at the broken down walls of Jerusalem and wept. Fortunately, Nehemiah had a unique ability to solve the complex problems that faced him. His methods illustrate two powerful elements of systems thinking that every leader in ChurchWorld should possess. As you begin to understand these elements, they will help you solve the problems you face as a leader.

Nehemiah's ability to solve complex problems grew out of his manner of seeing the problems - as a systems thinker. Peter Senge, one of the early proponents of systems thinking, said "Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static 'snapshots' ".

Two elements of systems thinking made a difference for Nehemiah. He saw what Senge labeled "the subtle interconnectedness that gives living systems their unique character," and he saw "the " 'structures' that underlie complex situations".

The result? He was so successful in his work that, when people saw it, "they realized that this work had been done with the help of God" (Neh. 6:16). Each step of the way, Nehemiah had sought the Lord for direction. God answered those prayers by providing favor, strength, and wisdom.

How will you use systems thinking to "rebuild the walls" today?

A Fish Tale

Systems thinking opens our eyes to the fact that decisions we don't make will dramatically affect us, and decisions we do make will influence people we may never see.

The biblical story of Jonah is a perfect illustration. Jonah refused to carry God's message of salvation to Ninevah. He ran in the opposite direction. His decision to disobey God threatened the lives of some unsuspecting sailors. They were fighting for their lives, with a storm about to sink their ship. The sailors wanted "to find out who was responsible for this calamity" (Jonah 1:7).

The source of the problem? A man they had never previously met and a decision he had made before the journey had even begun. Jonah had become a part of their system, and all their lives were dramatically affected.

What a great illustration! The root causes of destructive problems may be impossible to pinpoint, or opportunities for growth may be overlooked, if we fail to think in systems terms. In ChurchWorld, systems thinking reveals that seemingly isolated decisions reverberate to affect staff, members, stakeholders, and people within our influence who aren't even a part of our church - yet.

Congregations are spiritual and human social systems that are complex, connected, and changing. If leaders fail to think in systems terms they will not - and cannot - make wise decisions.

Organic Systems

God created organic systems so that they transform sunlight, water, and other nonliving substances into living entities. Organic systems incorporate inanimate materials to sustain and reproduce themselves.




One of the most beautiful word pictures in the Bible speaks to this organic system as a metaphor for how the believer should grow and reproduce. In John 15:1-8 Jesus talks about the vine, branches and fruit - an integrated biological system in which the fruit is the abundant product of life that is derived from the nutrients in the soil.



The branch receives its life from the vine; believers must depend on the life of Christ within to find their spiritual life. The fruit nourishes other and contains the seeds of its own continued life. The life of Christ nourishes us, and reproduces His life in others.



If any part of the system malfunctions, the byproduct of fruit will fail to appear.



Jesus chose us and appointed us in order to go and bear fruit (15:16). As leaders, we have the dual responsibility of bearing fruit ourselves and helping others do the same. We must be more than faithful; we must be fruitful.

Are you a fruitful leader?

God: the Original Systems Thinker

We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above a below, visible and invisible, rank after rank of angels - everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him. He was there before any of it came into existence and He holds it together right up unto this moment. And when it comes to the church, He organizes it together, like a head does a body.

He was supreme in the beginning and - leading the resurrection parade - He is supreme in the end. From beginning to end He's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is He, so room, that everything of God finds its proper place in Him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe - people and things, animals and atoms - get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of His death, His blood that poured down from the Cross.

Colossians 1: 15-20, The Message

Organizing and implementing systems are the best way to accomplish tasks and achieve goals. Effective leaders know that. But we are at best only imitating God, who has a passion for order and harmony, as reflected in the verses above.

The body metaphor above portrays the church as an interconnected organism that works as an organized system of distinct and unique parts whose origin and unity is in Christ.

If God is a systems thinker, in what ways can you, having been created in His image and likeness, develop this same skill?

Looking for the "Check Engine" Light in Your Church

I travel around in my Jeep a lot - usually 4 or more days a week. It's really my mobile office: I have almost anything I might need to talk with a church in the back - even a printer, wired up and ready to print from my laptop.

The last couple of weeks, I have had an intermittent "check engine" light come on. It stays on for a few hours, maybe a day, then goes off. There is nothing wrong with the performance of the car - at least on the surface. The only thing noticeable has been a gradual decrease in gas mileage-maybe a mile per gallon or so.

Still, I want to make sure my traveling office doesn't strand me hours from home, so I dropped by my trusty mechanic shop, Autoworks Unlimited, earlier this week for a quick check. With the level of service that you don't see much anymore, Andrew interrupted his work, picked up his code reader, and gave it a quick check.

The diagnosis? An oxygen sensor is shorting out at times, triggering the check engine light. The sensor tells the engine what the mixture of oxygen and gas should be to run most efficiently. When it doesn't work right, the engine doesn't run like it was designed. It's not a big deal, but something that needs attention eventually.

Do you wish that your church had a "check engine" light? Something that would pop up when even the slightest little matter wasn't like it was supposed to be?

Your church is much more complex than even the most advanced engine in today's cars. A church is a dynamic system of relationships between and among people. It is an organic system, composed of people created by God - people created uniquely in just the way He wanted them to be, expressing their gifts according to a unique calling.

As a leader, we must realize that everyone on our team is a crucial part of the system, and we must help each individual discover his or her role and fulfill it. The leader has to recognize when the "check engine" light of a team member comes on, and help diagnose the problem.