Why You Need Ministry Systems (and 6 to get you started)
BIG IDEA: to be as effective and efficient as possible, you need to maintain these 6 systems (and probably some more)
“Your systems are perfectly designed to get the results you’re currently getting.” I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard that quote before, but the first time I heard it in regards to ministry, I was already about 6 years into my ministry career & it hit me like a ton of bricks. Something like systems might not feel like ‘super deep ministry’, but the reality is that when we’re intentional about something like systems, we’re creating a culture & an ecosystem that is far more fertile, sustainable & likely to see consistent growth.
When we build, design & create healthy systems, we’re not just increasing the chances that our numbers increase, but it also increases the chances & opportunities for our students & our ministries to more effectively live out our mission. So even though talking about & designing systems might not feel spiritual…you better believe it’s a spiritual & pastoral act as we lead people into a life-changing relationship with God.
Any given year in ministry, you’re going to have a bunch of really great & really important ideas. But ideas alone don’t stick if we take them back to our poor & broken systems…and our systems overwhelm our ideas.
Peter Drucker once said “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It’s pretty easy to also argue that systems then eats strategy again for lunch. We could have great ideas & a great strategy, but if we can’t implement systems, nothing changes.
Most of us didn’t go into ministry with kids & students because we love creating systems. Most of us went into ministry because we want to influence & guide the next generation into a healthy, growing relationship with Jesus. But then what a lot of us have learned, is that we get into ministry & it’s not really what we thought it was. We thought it was all talks, retreats & conversations over a milkshake. What we’ve learned is that, more than that, it’s a lot of developing leaders, conflict management & building systems.
So, in order to be an effective leader & build a healthy ministry, you have to have good systems.
If this sparks your interest in doing a deep dive on systems, there are 2 resources I’d push you towards.
One is Andy Stanley. He did a great talk on systems years ago. You can watch it here. This is what first challenged me to start thinking this way. The other is the book Sustainable Youth Ministry by Mark Devries. One of my student ministry Mt Rushmore books (there’s a kids ministry version too!).
Systems can be defined multiple ways, I’m sure. For the sake of our conversation, systems essentially answer 2 questions:
How do we make sure happens?
This question pushes you to build proactive systems so that we don’t leave important things up to chance. A great exercise would be to sit down with your team or your volunteer leaders and say, “what do we want to happen?” On a Sunday morning, Wednesday night, in a small group, during large group, when a new student shows up, at that retreat, etc,. Make an exhaustive list. What do you want to happen at any given moment of a program, event, trip? Then, ask the question…how do we make sure that those things happen?
The next question systems answer is…
2. What do we do when happens?
This question pushes you to build reactive systems so that you & your team are ready for the messiness & the predictably unpredictable sides of ministry. Another great exercise is asking the same team/volunteer leaders to brainstorm all of the potholes you’ve hit in the last year & what it looks like to best handle those.
The computers shut down during attendance...Brenda brought her boyfriend & wants to bring him into small group time...someone showed up for the retreat who wasn’t registered...a parent asks if they can sit in on a small group. What do we do when those things happen & is the answer the same for everyone?
Creating systems allows you to automate as much as you can for the sake of efficiency & effectiveness, but also allows you to delegate in healthy ways so that it’s not always up to you to handle issues when they arise.
Yes, there are a lot of situations in ministry that should push us to handle them differently based on the circumstances...and having systems doesn’t mean you can’t call an audible...but systems are an invaluable resource in your ministry that you can’t afford to not create.
In my experience, having good systems in place gave me more freedom to call an audible & handle issues based on the circumstance because I did have a foundation in place.
Let me clarify something about systems. Systems don’t mean…
you don’t still use discernment.
that you don’t call audibles.
you can’t change things up.
that things always work the right way every time.
Systems just mean…
you aren’t starting from scratch.
that everyone is on the same page on the direction we’re going.
that we have a plan in place for the what-if situations & that, if nothing else, someone knows what to do.
that something is important enough to not leave to chance.
Whether you realize it, whether they’re written down or understood, your ministry has systems. There are systems that move your ministry toward your mission, systems that don’t really move it at all, and systems that deter you from your mission. There are systems that you’ve designed & systems that have sort of just designed themselves…the path of least resistance. That tends to be why we get text messages 3 days before a retreat asking when the retreat is & if it’s too late to sign up.
Your systems are perfectly designed to get you the results you’re getting right now. We see spikes in attendance, but then they even back out at some point. We have new guests, but we notice they don’t stick around very often. We have volunteers who at one point seemed invested, giving us a 2-week notice. Systems aren’t the solution to everything. Obviously, when we’re talking about spiritual things, they can’t be forced via systems. However, as I said earlier, systems help create a culture & an ecosystem that is far more fertile, sustainable & likely to see consistent growth.
So...systems. They’re important. I’m assuming you agree with me at this point or surely you’d have stopped reading. Hah. Now, let’s get super practical. I want to spend some time talking through 6 things in your ministry that should be systematized.
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but this is an inclusive list…and what I mean by that is that this is a list that regardless of where you are & your context…you should have a system for these 6 things. Some of these will be SUPER obvious & you might already have some sort of system designed for some of these, but I bet they're still systems we can probably shore up or build a little stronger.
BUT...this blog has been long enough...hah. So, you can take a gander at the list below & go on about your day or you can click each link for a bit more of a deep dive. I can’t tell you exactly what your systems should look like, but in those links, I’ll share ideas I’ve learned from other groups or that I’ve learned myself.
