Have you ever held a newborn baby? Have you counted tiny fingers and toes or watched a little chest move up and down, drawing breath for the first time?
That baby may be a simple bundle of joy for his parents but, in reality, he’s also a bundle of something else. He is a bundle of perfectly formed, intricate systems that are already working together to keep him alive.
Thanks to his tiny circulatory system, his heart is pumping blood through his veins. Thanks to his respiratory system, his lungs are taking in air. His digestive system is breaking down his mother’s milk from the very first drop and his muscular system is letting him wrap his tiny hand around his father’s finger.
Even in a brand-new baby, each of these systems and others are fully developed, fully functioning and ready to grow with him as he starts his journey toward adulthood.
God must be into systems.
He organized the universe with systems. He established the measurement of time through a system. And, from the beginning, He formed our bodies as a cohesive unit of systems.
Adam and Eve – untouched and unblemished specimens of God’s craftsmanship – were compilations of the systems that caused them to function. They were perfect adult examples of that newborn baby. Without systems humming under the surface, they would not have been able to walk or even breathe.
They wouldn’t have been able to experience the pleasures of the garden. Eve wouldn’t have been able to pluck the apple from the tree and Adam wouldn’t have been able to take the bite that set God’s redemptive plan into motion. Without their systems, they would have remained as unmolded lumps of clay, unable to fulfill the purposes of God.
From the beginning, God has put systems to work, providing the mechanics and the platform through which He shows His greatness.
One more thing about Adam and Eve: what is it that we know about them for sure? What was the blueprint God used in creating them? Himself.
Genesis affirms that God created man in his own image. Don’t miss this: God created beings that function through systems and said that they had been created in his own image.
Yes, God is into systems.
Paul understood God’s affinity for systems. That’s why, in trying to help us wrap our minds around how the church should function, he compared the body of Christ to the human body. He aligned the design of the church with the functioning of our own different parts.
In Romans, Paul writes, “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
Sounds remarkably like how God designed our physical bodies with systems, right? Go back and read the verse again substituting the word “systems” every time you see the word “members.” Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?
And so it is with the church as it is with our own bodily systems. Can the endocrine system say to the nervous system, “Because I am not the nervous system, I am of no use?” Of course not.
All the parts of the body – both the church body and the physical body – work together, allowing us to fulfill God’s purposes and plans on this earth. And both of those respective bodies function best through well-developed systems.
Your partner in ministry,
Nelson
P.S. You’re invited to join me on a FREE Webinar I’m leading this week and next, called “The Introduction to Church Systems Webinar ”
I’d like to share these systems with you this week or next on a FREE, 75-minute “8 Systems of a Healthy Church” Webinar. Choose from one of these five convenient times:
- Tuesdays @ 11:00am, 2:00pm & 7:00pm Eastern OR
- Wednesday @ 11:00am, 2:00pm & 7:00pm Eastern
- Thursday @ 11:00am, 2:00pm & 7:00pmEastern
Reserve your spot right now at:
Click Here to Reserve Your Spot Now
The webinars are FREE, but you need to RSVP.
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