Inside North Point

By Casey Ross, Director of Ministry Services, Browns Bridge Community Church

There is a national chain restaurant near our house that my family will not visit even though we love their food. Instead, we drive a longer distance to go to another location of the same restaurant. Why? The experience. Trying to order your food, the time it takes to get your food, and how they check on you while you’re eating are disappointing and frustrating compared to what we experience at the location we choose to go to.

The restaurant we will not visit recently remodeled its building. It looks so nice that we gave them another chance. Are we now driving a shorter distance to eat at this restaurant? No. A better-looking physical environment was not enough.

On our campuses, we lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by creating environments that are appealing, engaging, and helpful. And God changes lives.

Mostly, we think of our environments as the physical spaces we create. Of course, the physical spaces are vital. People interact with the look and feel and sounds of a physical environment. They walk away feeling something. How they feel is critical to how they will process what they heard and felt about God and themselves. It will determine whether they return.

But physical environments are not the only kind people experience in our churches. There is another type of environment. It’s the one my local restaurant needs to pay more attention to. And it’s this type of environment many churches do not intentionally think about.

My friend and co-worker, Meri Stonaker, gets the credit for helping me realize this. Two years ago in a meeting, she said something that has framed my thinking about this.

“Systems are environments.”

Isn’t that brilliant? Can’t you see the impact this will have on your church? Okay, maybe not yet. Let’s keep going.

Systems are how we do things, or how we ask people to do things. In churches, systems are things like . . . how someone registers for camp, how a new volunteer signs up to serve, how someone signs up for online-giving, how staff report an IT need, how parents enroll their children into a class, how someone joins a small group, etc.

How someone experiences our physical environments affects his response to our church and even God. The same is true for our systems. People walk away from our systems feeling something. And their feelings can determine whether they come back and even how they respond to God.

Let’s look at an example: how parents enroll their preschooler in a class in your preschool environment.

Someone will lead the parent through this process. Does this person have the right personality? Is she knowledgeable about the preschool environment? Is she passionate about the preschool environment? Does she value people?

The parents will fill out paperwork. Is the paperwork easy to understand? Can it be filled out easily and quickly as they hold their child? Do you have pens available?

The child needs to get to the right class. Who leads the parent and child to the class? How are they greeted? How is the child checked in to the class?

Hopefully, they will come back the next Sunday. Will they know where to go? Is their child on the roll? Does someone remember the child’s name?

This is an example of just one of many systems. And this one system can determine how these parents connect with God and your church.

• In your church, what systems are in place?
• Do you view these systems as just necessary processes or as meaningful environments?
• How do you measure the experience people have with your systems?
• Do you try to maximize your systems so people walk away feeling good about the experience?

The environments we create are one of the ways we partner with God in what he wants to do in peoples’ lives. Yes, we must create appealing, engaging, and helpful physical environments. But we must also create systems that value people and provide predictable results. After all, systems are environments!