
An on-demand course to implement processes that serve people at a higher level
(with less stress, and greater effectiveness, so you can make an even bigger impact)
Systems are like bridges...
🛠️ they move things from where they are to where you want them to be
🛠️ they do so with predictability and certainty
🛠️ they do so regardless of the gap you need to overcome
Using the the word system as an acronym, someone wisely said, "A good system saves you stress, time, energy, & money."

Without good systems...
Leadership becomes more difficult than it needs to be...
❌ You have to "start from scratch" every time you're presented with a new opportunity or task. Rather than building on the successes (and learning from the failures) of the past, you're doomed to go back to the beginning every time
❌ You can't grow beyond you. Someone once observed, "If you want something done right, you've gotta do it yourself." Alternatively, you could write it down AND create a system that enables a qualified person to do it the right way.
❌ You waste valuable "focus" and "brain space." A system enables you to capture the collective wisdom of you AND your team, so you can replicate what's working...
Let's be clear...
✅ Systems can't replace people... but they can make it easier for people to do the great work they do every day.
✅ Systems can't create "life," but they CAN create space where life can thrive.
✅ Systems shouldn't determine your mission (there's almost nothing worse than serving a process for the simple sake of serving the process), but they can accelerate it so that it functions at a higher level.
Furthermore...
⚙️ We all use systems every single day. Your calendar, your routine, and your regular work flow are all systems...
⚙️ We all get the results our systems facilitate... a closer look at your routines will reveal WHY you're getting the outcomes (personally and professionally) you're getting.
⚙️ We can intentionally implement the right kind of systems to serve the outcomes we want. And that's where this resource comes in.
The Process

1 | Determine where you want to go
Rather than "blindly" implementing a system, we want to install systems with intentionality-- we want to leverage healthy systems to take us to helpful places!

2 | Install systems that makes the work more efficient & more effective
After we decide where we want to go, we can leverage the "force multiplier" of the right systems to "Save You Time Energy Effort and Money."

3 | Celebrate progress (with less stress & greater impact)
Though we want to continually improve our systems, we also want to pause and celebrate the milestones along the way-- especially when those systems serve the cause of Christ.
The right systems enable you to serve people at a higher level!
Where Healthy Systems came from
"Healthy Systems" was developed in the church, for the church!

Edwin Jenkins has been in ministry for over 50 years. He's served as a youth pastor, a senior pastor, a senior adult pastor, a transitional pastor, and more...
He loves the church, because Christ loves the church and the people who comprise it.
(Not only is the church God's primary means of reaching the world, the church will exist throughout eternity!)
In 1997 he went to work for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, where he launched the newly-formed Office of Leadership and Church Growth.
A few years into the endeavor, the editor of The Alabama Baptist weekly newspaper invited him to write a series of articles on church health. Those articles were later packaged into a small 50-page booklet, The Biblical Design of a Healthy Church, which was well received across the state. It ran through multiple printings (the red book here is one of the originals).
The book provided Edwin with the opportunity to share gleanings from Scripture and his experience with leaders throughout the State.
The short book was repurposed into workshops, training seminars, certifications, and more. The goal was to help church leaders pursue "church health" and kingdom impact moreso than just "church growth."

During this chapter of life, Edwin is seeking to pull together his "core" messages and essential topics-- to leave them as a legacy.
The conversation arose once again about growing healthy churches.
"What would it look like to update the information, leverage some of the online tools and other resources that weren't available 25 years ago, and make the content available for a new generation?"
That conversation led to the birth of LifeLift Ministries as a formally organized entity. The team agreed that one of the first projects needed to be Healthy Church.
That's where Andrew, Edwin's son, comes in.
With 25+ books to his name, as well as a background in online courses, church & ministry consulting, and more, the father-son duo merged their skill sets to make a bigger impact.
It soon became clear that churches & ministries ALSO need healthy systems.
That is, they need to pursue the Presence (and become healthy) but they also need processes to implement and reach greater levels of effectiveness.


In early 2025, Edwin and Andrew tag-teamed to repurpose the previously released Biblical Design of a Healthy Church book AND add Healthy Systems for Healthy Churches, based on content Andrew developed to consult churches and ministries over the past decade.
And, with plans to train church and ministry leaders around the globe (yes, actual plans are in place for 2025 and beyond), they're starting the movement at home.
That means these Healthy Church and Healthy Systems are available for you.
Edwin and Andrew want to help you...
... lead a healthy church and leverage healthy systems to make it easier, more efficient, and more effective!
(So you can make an IMMEDIATE and ETERNAL impact!)
About Healthy Systems

Every church leader must address five systems.
The five systems are:
🧭 Path = A defined discipleship framework + clear steps forward to an intentional outcome
😇 People = Clarity on how staff and volunteers can serve & join the mission
✏️ Processes = Clear “bridges” that help them focus on people at a greater level
⭐️ Place = The environment, the culture, the mood and feel of the mission
💰 Purse = A strategic plan for stewarding time, talents, treasure, and trust
The five systems can be your "friends" and help your ministry OR they can be "foes" and hinder you.

These systems should NOT be confused with "life."
They don't exist "in" or "for" themselves. They exist to facilitate growth and health.
Think of the five systems like this:
🪵 A fancy row of trellises without a vineyard across them is nothing more than well-organized wood with a lot of untapped potential.
🍇 Grapes won't grow across the ground (like kudzu). They need the system of trellises to facilitate their growth.
⚙️ The trellises aren't "life." They are the system that facilitates life. Though necessary, they are secondary...

Each system in the church, then, should serve the functions of the church-- not the system itself...
That means that--
✅ Each system must work together
✅ We could place the five in any order
✅ The weakest one will hinder you-- such that you'll get "stuck" there, unable to move beyond it
✅ Working on each of them is a necessary skill

The five systems, working together, all serve something bigger than themselves.
In Healthy Systems, you'll clarify--
🧭 the importance of your discipleship PATH
😇 why you need to create job descriptions for all of the PEOPLE— paid and unpaid— you work with
⚙️ the role PROCESSES play in your organization
💙 the necessity of crafting your culture, that is, the tone of your PLACE, by design instead of default
💰why you need to handle the money, the PURSE, so you can focus on the mission (and practical steps you can take to do it)
Overview of the Five
(A closer look at each system)
System 1 | Path
*A clear definition of what a fully developed disciple of Jesus Christ looks like with plan to to get there.

In this lesson, you’ll discover the importance of articulating what a “full developed disciple” looks like IN YOUR unique context, as well as why you need to create a step-by-step roadmap that leads people ALL THE WAY from—
🌎 Community in which you live = you’ve made physical contact with the people around you
🔗 Connected to your church = they are in relationship with you
⛪️ Congregation = they see you as their “church home”
💚 Committed = they actively serve and give in tangible ways
🎯 Core = they are using their gifts and getting sent back on mission

Using several actual programs you can implement, we'll "drill down" on a process to lead people and, per Ephesians 4:11-12, "equip them for the work of ministry."
You'll see the importance of:
🏁 Defining a tangible target people can look towards
⭐️ Creating milestones / steps along that path
⚙️ Integrating the discipleship path into EVERY aspect of your church
System 2 | People
*Connecting staff and volunteers to opportunities to serve with strategic definitive on-ramps, as well as clarifying what they do to join the mission of leading others on the proposed path of life transformation.

Many "people tensions" are just systems and process issues in disguise. The truth is that--
💥 People are created by God to make a Kingdom impact
💥 People want to serve at a higher level
💥 People are the greatest asset you have
Yet we can't leverage the gift they are-- and walk them towards fulfillment-- if we don't have a process in place to develop them.

In Gear 2 (People), we talk about the importance of—
👉 Creating job descriptions for every role in your church
👉 What needs to be in those descriptions
👉 How to craft them in such a way that it captures the “serve, care, and win” of everything you do in your church
🤲 ♥️🏆
System 3 | Processes
*Automating what you do and how you do it, so you can focus on people. This should include written procedures so people know how to participate and serve at higher levels.

Right now, you're getting results that completely align with the outcomes your processes facilitate-- even if it's by default rather than by design.
In system 3 we step back and look at the common "bridges" we have across the organization, and we talk about how to refine them.
In particular, we look at your calendar AND the ministry's calendar.

Church leaders IN PARTICULAR often schedule their calendar BACKWARDS.
Here’s what that means…
First, they don’t distinguish between PROJECTS (one-off events) and PROCESSES (things that occur and re-occur regularly). Understanding the difference— and LABELLING it— matters a lot, because…
Second, you need to schedule PROCESSES (recurring events) first— and not PROJECTS (special events, etc.).
You'll learn how revolutionary this can be when we explore system 3.
System 4 | Place
*The environment, the abiding culture that is set— the “feel” of how things are in the organism, the unique expression of the body of Christ.

One of the most over-looked factors (and our 4th gear) is PLACE, that is, culture.
Culture transforms everything— for good or bad.
And, culture happens by design or default. That is, you either create the culture (read: environment, mood, brand) you want OR it happens automatically WITHOUT your direct input.

Church leaders are notorious for adding the WRONG kind of values...
... and for not embodying the values they want.
You'll learn--
☝️ how many core values you actually need
📣 the surprising way to communicate them in order to enhance your credibility and align your tribe
♻️ the importance of stating and restating them over and over and over...
💜 their relation to the mission of your church
System 5 | Purse
*How you handle resources. A culture of radical generosity will be created, developed, and nurtured.

We don’t know of any pastor— or church leader— who went into the ministry for the money.
I DO know, however, that MONEY eventually consumes MANY of them…
👉 You’ve got to make budget
👉 You’ve got needs in certain departments of the church that are growing (and need MORE resources), even though they don’t generate as much revenue as other areas that you seem to neglect— because you need more time…
👉 You have budget meetings (and feel “in over your head,” because they never taught you ANY of this stuff in seminary or Bible college)
👉 You need more space, but you don’t know anything about renovating, bank statements, P&Ls, etc…
So, we'll show you EIGHT ways to increase your revenue (some will be a great fit for you, some won't-- but you'll know about all of them).

You'l also discover...
💰 The ways in which lot of churches do the EXACT OPPOSITE of what they need to do in this area (we’ll show you what to do instead)
💰 There’s far more to money than just “giving” (we’ll outline this, too)
💰 Ultimately, teaching the “full counsel” of Scripture about cash loops back to your discipleship framework (“the PATH,” Gear 1)
Plus, we’ll outline a few practical steps you can take TODAY to begin tackling this issue. (Or, if you’ve got it handled, we’ll help you “level up.”)
And also...
These are part of the processes in place, too.

Every leader deals with conflict and current reality.
Think about it...
❤️🩹 Conflict is the tension that inevitably arises any time you get people together for an extended period of time. And, the more important the concern, the more likely conflict is to arise.
📌 Current reality is the tension leaders often feel between where they are and where they want to go.
We'll transform both of these frustrations into freedoms.

We'll also talk about the importance of unity...
Many leaders are surprised to discover that unity-- according to the Bible-- creates a supernatural empowerment, that is, sacred space to which God's presence and power flow.
We'll teach you how to foster it...
... and make true "oneness" part of the culture of your church.

In addition, you'll learn how to--
🔥 Navigate conflict on your team
🔥 Use conflict (though we don't want to go seek it out) as a springboard to personal growth AND God's glory
🔥 Walk others through a seven-step conflict resolution path
You can "do the processes" in a productive way.

Healthy Systems is all your path forward.
As a reminder...
Part 1 walks through each of the five systems. We show you how to implement them in helpful and healthy ways. And, we direct you to templates and worksheets you can download, video modules you can access, and other resources to help you implement each of them.
Part 2 highlights two “loose cogs” that sometimes monkey-wrench forward movement with each of them systems. We address two of the primary frustrations we encounter—
- Conflict— the tension that surfaces any time you get people together.
- Current reality— the tension we feel when we’re not “as far along” in ministry as we thought we would (or even should) be.
Our goal is to shift each of these frustrations into freedoms. They are two of your opportunities for the four-focused impact we discuss in Healthy Church.
Here's a lesson-by-lesson overview.
⚙️ Intro to the Five
🧭 1. Path | System 1
😇 2. People | System 2
✏️ 3. Processes | System 3
⭐️ 4. Place | System 4
💰 5. Purse | System 5
❤️🩹 6. Frustration into Freedom #1 = Conflict
📌 7. Frustration into Freedom #2 = Current Reality
Register Here!

Healthy Systems "Mini-Course" / @ 75-minutes in 7 modules
What you'll receive:
⚜️ On-demand, instant access to all 7 webinar-style video lessons (everything is delivered digitally)
🧭 Watch as often as you'd like by logging into this website from any device (including some Smart TVs), and/or our smartphone app-- unlimited viewing with no expiration dates
🎞️ Access to the PDF slide deck-- so you can easily review, take notes, or teach your team
📗 Healthy Systems eBook download = your companion resource for the journey
📈 Optional ongoing support & interaction