Systems Can Be Environments: Part One

Over the summer, a friend of mine said something in passing that rattled my brain. I’m still processing it. I’ve mentioned what she said to a couple of friends, and they immediately wanted to know more.

In my world, we create environments that lead preschoolers, kids, students, and adults into a growing relationship with Jesus and help build relationships with other people. And we do an amazing job of creating these environments. You should come see / experience them! When we talk about “environments”, we’re almost always talking about the physical spaces we create. No surprise there.

People interact with the look and feel and sound of an environment. After an experience with an environment, people walk away feeling something. What they’re feeling is so important. You don’t create an environment to manipulate feelings. You create an environment to create a genuine experience. In our case, that experience is a personal experience with God.

What Meri said this summer, though, changed my thinking. And she said it in passing while talking about how systems can be leveraged for better customer service.  What did she say?

“Systems can be environments.”

(Part Two Later This Week)