Welcome to the Management System, the “backbone” of YOUR CHURCH’s continued development of a strong, capable infrastructure.
What is the Management System?
The Management System enables growth through leveraging and scaling up the talent and expertise of leaders.
To “define” the Management System, we must begin with the term “Quality.” What do we mean when we say something is “high quality?” Or, what is meant by “excellence?”
A very long time ago, the International Standards Organization (ISO) defined Quality as “The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy a defined requirement.” In other words, quality is “fitness for purpose.”
How does this apply to YOUR CHURCH? What is “fitness for purpose?” It’s pretty simple. Quality is how well we accomplish the “purpose.” And, of course, our purpose is to honor God by following his teachings. Specifically to be a community that reaches the lost and helps them become “disciples of Jesus.”
So “Quality” means getting the job done well. It’s basically the sum of …
- Knowing the Stakeholder Needs
- Equipping YOUR CHURCH to Meet Those Needs
- Excellent Implementation
- Reliable Inputs
- Clear Instructions
- Efficient, Effective Execution
- Feedback and Continuous Improvement
The main ingredient of the Management System is people. As leaders, we must find staff and volunteers, train and develop them, communicate with them, and put systems in place that help them to succeed. The Management System is the framework for implementing these systems.
The Management System contains the methods we use to analyze stakeholder needs, define processes that meet those needs and manage these processes to ensure that results are predictable and repeatable. The Management System also provides the framework for continuous improvement, increasing the likelihood of achieving the stakeholders’ satisfaction. It gives the stakeholders confidence that YOUR CHURCH has the capability to deliver consistently.
How does the Management System benefit YOUR CHURCH?
There are many reasons our church has implemented a Management System. The first is that it brings consistency to routine activities and helps to ensure best practices. What does that mean? The bottom line is this one of the biggest challenges in any successful organization is effectively identifying, recruiting, training, and deploying leaders. The senior leader’s ability to constantly communicate and give direction is limited. Even the best leaders can only do so much. Keeping up with an increasing demand for new staff and volunteers requires us to develop and implement systems. These systems, collectively, form the Management “System.”
The Management System is a training aid that enables staff and volunteers to be trained quickly and efficiently. Best practices are established, documented, and made available to anyone needing to know.
The Management System formalizes our communication infrastructure. Simply put, it provides a vehicle for organizing and disseminating information. Once it’s set up, a “one-stop shopping” simplicity is in place when information is needed to get something done. From “How do I spend money?” to “How do we assess an individual’s spiritual gifts?” methods are established and made available, enabling new people to come up to speed quickly.
The Management System is a means to manage and facilitate change and improvement. One of the biggest obstacles to flexibility and change for the better is the lack of formal, established methods. Yes, this is counter-intuitive, but it is true. It’s very difficult to “rally the troops” around a change or quick tweak to something when nothing is really “formally” in place.
What does the Management System include?
The Management System is organized under 5 different sections or elements, with a Manual at the top of the hierarchy. The Management System Manual defines the “minimum requirements” under each element. For example, under “Management System Administration,” the manual explains that systems are in place to ensure the proper control of data, documents, and records. It refers to a set of procedures that the church follows to ensure the consistent control of data, documents, and records. The Management System Manual also functions as a guide to the system’s organization and hierarchy, helping us navigate and easily find what we need.
The elements of the Management System are listed below, along with a listing of the areas under each element within which YOUR CHURCH has defined minimum requirements:
Management System Administration
- Control of Data, Documents, and Records
- Policy and Procedure Review and Approval
- Access to Information
- Document and Data Distribution
- Version Control
- Record Retention
Leadership Responsibility
- Church Governance
- Organizational Structure
- Responsibility and Authority
- Strategic Planning
- Management System Review
- Environmental Responsibility
Human Resources
- Recruiting
- Job and Ministry Descriptions
- Training and Development
- Performance Review
- Health and Safety
Execution
- Ministry Area Operations
- Finance
- Purchasing and Supplier Development
- Office Operations
- Information Technology
- Facilities Management
- Site Security
- Project Planning
Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement
- Measurement of Results
- Management System Assessment
- Continuous Improvement
- Corrective and Preventive Action
