An Intelligent Design ?

Over time I have been involved with designing many different computer systems and software modules. On one of those occasions I helped design a 'church' organisations database. It took a few weeks to come up with a suitable design but one key things played a cruicial part and was very enlightening - relationships.

You see when I started out I started to design the database as a 'hierarchical' structure - you see this is how the leadership viewed the organisation. So I put the senior pastor at the top of the pyramid and the supporting management team below him and then added the supporting operational managers below them in their respective teams and so and so on. But this was not working as the model was not a true representation of how the 'church' was structured. The reality was that there where many people who did not fit the model - they either worked in multiple teams or where not 'connected' structurally in a recognised grouping like a cell group or a serving team or a leadership team.

The reality that hit me was - the organisation was best defined RELATIONALLY.

Each person or group existed as separate parts of the organisation but the relationships between the parts was a crucial part of the whole thing. An example was myself. I was a small group leader with people in my small group. I was also a member of the 'pastoral' team with a leader in that group. I also ran a team in the main organisation that taught and looked after 'new christians'. But I was also a part of the IT group that helped look after the software used in the church. In all of these roles I had many different roles and relationships to many different people.

The relationships defined my connections - they where as much a part of me as me being a team lead, or a team member.

I saw that nurturing the relationships was as important, if not more important, than the role I played or the title I had. If we are to be church and not just go to church - we need to nurture and be intentional about nurturing our relationships with others.

I think its a good idea to write down a list of who and what we are connected to and then write a list of our relationships next to each person or thing. Then write out how we will intentionally nurture those connections. Then do it !

Good Relationsl link : http://lifestream.org/index.html