In my experience as a pastor, leadership coach, and interventionist this issue of developing reproducible systems, or functional structures, is one of the two most common struggles faced by congregations (the other is a commitment to inevitable conflict resolution).

The Church is the living Body of Christ. Like all healthy organisms, it requires numerous systems which work together to fulfill its intended purpose. Each must be evaluated regularly to determine if it is still the best way to accomplish the intended purpose.

Ministry Systems

1. Cell –> Cardiovascular –>Nutrients/Care & Nurture
2. Celebration –> Respiratory/Oxygen –> Worship & Spirit
3. Nurture –> Digestive/Food Process –> Teaching
4. Communication –> Nervous/Sensory & Motor –> Awareness & Discernment
5. Management –> Skeletal/Support –> Organized Structure
6. Outreach –> Reproductive/Procreation –> Evangelism, Cell, & Church Multiplication
7. Intercession –> Endocrine/Hormones –> Prayer
8. Counseling & Support –> Excretory/Eliminates Waste –> Counseling

Structures are… systems for communication and decision-making.

• the programs and ministries of the church.
• the systems and infrastructure which links them together into a unified organism.
• the written and unwritten forms, institutions and regulations which define church culture.

Some churches see structures as immovable and unchangeable. They are resistant to structures becoming “functional” since that would mean change. In these churches, the leaders refuse to take responsibility for the structures which exist since in most cases they did not create them.

Other churches see structures as unspiritual and feel that if one is following the Spirit, “structures” are irrelevant to growth. Therefore, leaders feel it is unnecessary to evaluate structure.

If they are not functioning properly, the body is sick and will not thrive.

Functional structures are like the skeleton and organs which enable the body to fulfill its intended purpose.

An honest evaluation of effectiveness which may include:

• being in accord with the values, mission and vision of the church and specific ministries.
• producing intended results.
• being congruent with biotic principles (NCD).
• raising up more leaders for the harvest.
• utilizing the giftedness of those involved.

Reflection Questions

• When was the last time your values, vision, and mission were reviewed by the leadership of your church?
• How does your church view the importance of functional structures?
• Of the essentials for functional structures (clear vision and mission statement, honest evaluation of effectiveness and openness to strategic changes to increase fruitfulness), which are strengths and which are weaknesses for your church?
• What will you do to make your ministries reproducible?
• In what way does each ministry, program and system exemplify the six biotic principles?

Reproducible systems multiply functional structures
Reproducible systems allow important activities to be repeated without “re-inventing the wheel” each time.

They enable ministry to expand according to vision, need and increased capacity for ministry.

In order to be reproducible, a ministry must:

• have an understandable philosophy of multiplication.
• have clarity on structure and protocol.
• be able to raise up the next generation of leaders from within.
• be capable of bridging generational issues.
• empower the newest person.
• provide expressly measurable success indicators.
• establish identity for participants.
• mobilize for maximum prayer support.

Multiply reproducible systems
As the harvest is gathered, the church’s potential for multiplying disciples, groups and congregations must increase proportionally. Reproducible systems increase the capacity for a greater harvest so that multiplication can happen at all levels.

In order to develop functional structures several things have to be looked at:

Values: “Who are you?”
Mission: “Where are you going?”
Vision: “How will you get there?”
Outcomes: “Are you there yet?”
Ministry Flow Chart: “What are you doing to get where we’re going?”
Organizational Chart and Job Descriptions: “Who is going to do it, and what are they supposed to do?”

Reflection Questions

• What are the core values of your church?
• What are the indicators in ministry, human resources, finances or material which measure your effectiveness? What would change if there were a problem?
• How would you explain “success,” in terms of your church’s vision, to an outsider?
• What ministries are needed to enable a smooth flow of people from unchurched to fully-devoted followers?
• Which programs are designed primarily to meet the needs of the unchurched community? How many people work in ministries aimed outside of the church? How much of the budget is spent on external ministries?
• What does your organizational chart tell you about your church?

Making structures functional
Lack of functionality in structures comes from a lack of:

• intentional approach to ministry and mission
• overall ownership to a clear, concise vision
• clarity to agreed upon model of ministry
• commitment to excellence

Creating functional structures is an on-going process of:

• evaluating — determining course action needed
• planning — determining how that action will be carried out
• implementing — actually doing it

Evaluate functional structures using three criteria:

• how closely it is related to the vision
• how effective it is in its operation with regards to its intended function and outcomes
• what its contribution is to producing harvest leaders

Action Points
Removing – Like a dead or unproductive branch, some structures may need to be terminated. Other structures act as inhibitors to growth through distractions, resource draining and competing time slots. Essentially, they squeeze the life out of more vital ministries.

Pruning – By identifying the structure with the greatest potential for fruitfulness, other structures can be pruned to allow for more growth. Some structures, while essentially good, need to be cut back to maximize focus.

Shaping – Continual evaluation and minor improvements will assure continued growth. By affirming the areas which are bearing fruit, you can encourage and participate in more of what God is blessing.

Cultivating – Training, additional resources and coaching act as fertilizer to increase the fruitfulness of those in ministry. Weeding helps get rid of ministries which are competing for resources. Sometimes, grafting one ministry into another can enhance both ministries.

Reproducing – Apprenticing emerging leaders at every level is essential. You will assure that present ministries will have the capacity to continue and grow; new ministries will be launched to meet new needs as capacity increases.

Reflection Questions

• What measurable results are you looking for in each ministry?
• How clearly can you articulate the primary purpose for each ministry structure in your church? How effectively are those purposes being achieved?
• What ministries do you need to stop doing? What ministries need to be re-purposed?
• Which present structures enhance growth? Which ones hinder growth?
• How many people have stepped into new areas of leadership in the past year?

Dr. Paul Ray and Dr. Sherry Anderson wrote their book (Harmony, 2000) and have dubbed an emerging culture, comprised of 26% of the U.S. population and masses of Europeans, “The Cultural Creatives.” (This, they say, translates into roughly 50m in the US and 80-90m in the European Union.) They argue that the urban industrial culture is evolving into a culture of information, biotechnology, spirituality, and ecological concern.

It’s a thoughtful look at how the postmodern person has now come into the position of dominant influence in American society and is deconstructing previous values and practices while simultaneously rebuilding life in innovative and new ways — we, no doubt, saw them weigh-in on a host of issues in the recent election.

Through research this book synthesizes a lot of the hunches and presuppositions that pastors working in postmodern contexts have intuited. It is a vital read for anyone wanting to more clearly understand and comprehend the future that is upon us.

According to Ray and Anderson, the Cultural Creatives are growing quickly and will become the dominant force in politics and society. Their book uncovers the thinking behind the Cultural Creatives growth and what they hold for our future. While the book’s concentration on American culture tends to weaken its universal appeal, the authors offer fascinating insight into people who care deeply about the ecology and saving the planet, about relationships, peace, and social justice, about authenticity, self-actualization, spirituality, and self-expression.

The Cultural Creatives have had no idea they constitute one in every four Americans (eight years after publication, that may be changing). As this group grows, they will discover their power and will demand the following:

• Ecologically sustainable products and services
• Concern for the whole planet and its people
• Authenticity in products and people
• Women’s issues
• Spirituality and a redefinition of success

Check out their website to learn more and to see if you fall into the category of cultural creative at www.culturalcreatives.org.

I recently finished reading this book and made some notes for a manuscript I’m working on. It’s a worthy read about a girl who grows up to become a prostitute having only encountered men as being wickedly self-centered and abusive. Michael Hosea, a man of deep and authentic faith, sees her on the street one day accompanied by her body guard and falls instantaneously in love with her. The rest of the book is the redemptive story of their transformation.

• He [Michael] wasn’t going to embrace sex and lose sight of love (pg 155)

• Sex is, “meant to be a celebration of love.” (pg 155)

• “That’s why he’s on his knees …“He’s fighting for her the only way he can.” [Miriam to Paul regarding viewing Michael in the field praying for his wife.]

• He [Paul] had plotted her [Angel’s] destruction and destroyed himself in the process. From that time, he had been consumed by hatred, blinded by it. I have been insufferable and self-righteous and cruel. The revelation was bitter and painful, but a relief, too. There was an odd sort of freedom in standing before a mirror and seeing himself clearly. For the first time in his life. (pg 450)

• If it hadn’t been for Miriam, what would he have become? Loving her had softened him. She had seen something in him he’d never imagined anyone one … could see. (pg 450)

• Now that he [Paul] thought back, he couldn’t remember one time when she had defended herself. Why hadn’t she? (pg 450)

• If he [Paul] had reached out just once as Miriam had said, maybe things would have been different, but he was too proud, too sure he was right. (pg 450)

• He [Michael] held out his hand. “Hello Sarah.” She looked endearingly confused as she placed her hand in his. He shook it and grinned down at her. I’m very pleased to meet you. Finally.” (pg 462)

• Michael had once read to her how God had cast a man and woman out of Paradise [she had been a prostitute at the Pair-A-Dice Saloon]. Yet, for all their human faults and failures, God had shown them the way back in. (pg 462)

• Love the Lord your God, and love one another. Love one another as he loves. Love with strength and purpose and passion and no matter what comes against you. Don’t weaken. Stand against the darkness, and love. That’s the way back into Eden. That’s the way back to life. (pg 462)

While I read this book a while ago, I just went through my notes and some of the quotes. I found this book to be quite refreshing and I have her latest book, Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith, on my wish list.

From the first chapter, Ham of God, Lamott’s pastor, Veronica, is quoted as defining peace as joy at rest and joy as peace on its feet (p. 7)

While describing her perspective of Rahab’s world (Joshua 2) and the impulse Rahab felt to align herself with God’s people – even at great risk to her own life – Lamott describes the upside of desperation and even likens it to an acronym for G.O.D.: gifts of desperation. The main gift, she writes, is a willingness to give up the conviction that [we] are right. The fruit is a greater sensitivity to God’s voice; which she describes as “the secret place that, as Robert Frost wrote, ‘sits in the middle and knows'” (pgs. 19-22).

When we pray, we are not starting a conversation from scratch, we are just remembering to plug back into a conversation that’s always been in progress (pg. 25).

When God is going to do something wonderful, He or She always starts with hardship (p. 33).

Lamott writes, “Some people think that God is in the details, but I have come to believe that God is in the bathroom. Prayer usually means praise, or surrender, acknowledging that you have run out of bullets” (p. 37).

Lamott writes poignantly about her mother’s death and the myriad of feelings that tormented and challenged her. She even left her mom’s ashes in the closet while she worked out her feelings and her grief! She writes, “So I left her in the closet for two years to stew in her own ashes, and I refused to be nice to her, and didn’t forgive her…I assumed Jesus wanted me to forgive her, but I also know he loves honesty and transparency…I know forgiveness is a component of freedom, yet I couldn’t…grant her amnesty. Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back.”

We are responsible not for the outcome of things, but only for their ingredients (p.61).

Lamott sees Jesus’ mother Mary as the feminine face of divine love. And in unpacking the Catholic prayer, Hail Mary (sometimes called the “Angelical Salutation”, from the first words in its Latin form, the “Ave Maria”) she focuses on the phrase “full of grace” and quotes Archbishop Carlo Maria Martini of Milan who writes that the phrase is passive and past tense, so it really means something like, “You have been loved for a very long time” (p. 63).

Laughter is carbonated holiness (p. 66).

Love and patience are like Holiness Helper in each other’s lives (p. 69).

Lamott shares a Hasidic story of a rabbi who always told his people that if they studied the Torah, it would put Scripture on their hearts. One of them asked, “Why on our hearts instead of in our hearts?” The rabbi answered, “Only God can put Scripture inside. But reading sacred text can put it on your hearts, and then when your hearts break, the holy words will fall inside” (p. 73).

Lamott, at one point, prays, “Please let me feel you You while I adjust to not getting what I was hoping for” (pgs. 74-75).

Maybe this is what grace is, the unseen sounds that make you look up (p. 162).

Time-tested friends help us to step into the shape that is waiting for us (p. 172).

Faith is not about how we feel, it is about how we live (p. 213).

Quoting Gerald May, “Grace threatens all my normalities” (p. 233).

Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns. Faith also means reaching deeply within, for the sense one is born with… (p. 257).