Just as humans have a genetic code which governs how they develop, I think the church has a “spiritual DNA” which governs how it develops. This “DNA” is written into the soul of every believer when they are saved (“I make all things new”). If the entire church were destroyed down to one person, it is possible for a new church to be grown from this “code.”

If we look upon the church as a bio-system, then we can look upon its interactions with bio-systems as system-to-system connections. The communication of the church over these connections must be and is governed by the “spiritual DNA” which defines its very nature. Likewise, the communications of other systems back to the church are governed by their “spiritual DNA” as well, which has become corrupted.

System-to-system communications are in their nature persuasive. Both sides exchange information in the hopes of persuading the other side to their point of view. Consider these communications as “viruses” or an exchange of “pollen” - seeds from one to the other. These seeds can either be accepted or rejected - examined by the parameters of the bio-system’s guard-filters.

When the church labors to communicate with another culture at any level, it runs the risk of accepting seeds of that culture back into itself. If it permits these seeds to take root, they might have the force to change the DNA of the church, corrupting it. The church’s filters must be strong enough to prevent these seeds from taking root, or else its guardians must be capable of “weeding” out the church (a much more painful process).

On the other hand, when the church succeeds in planting the seed of its spiritual DNA in another culture, that culture will be changed from the inside out. This process is not instantaneous. The flowering of the new seed will be visible at harvest time, but the whole of the bio-system is not changed by one small flower - that flower must put out seeds of its own, which yield new fruit, which results in the slow change of the system over time. The new, changed system will likely resemble the one from which the seed came, and yet be different in key ways. For example, my son resembles me but does not look exactly like me. In a garden, no two tomatoes are exactly identical.

However, the system-to-system links between them can now change in nature, since they share at the root the same spiritual DNA. The two systems can learn things from each other. In fact, they can even unite together and plant new systems through their joint efforts.

System-to-system communication, as I noted above, is dangerous. However, systems that share this spiritual DNA of the Gospel are redemptive systems. They are charged by God to be a blessing to the rest of the world’s nations, as well as to fill the earth, subdue it, care for it and have dominion over it. Systems that become “closed” and refuse to communicate with the rest of the world defy this charge.