PLE for Faith & Family
In systems engineering, Product Line Engineering (PLE) reframes complexity. Instead of designing every system from scratch, engineers start with a common architecture — the chassis, the reusable assets, the design patterns — and configure variants for different missions.
Faith works the same way. God didn’t design us as standalones. We were made to be part of a family of systems — households, churches, communities. Each unique, but all anchored to the same foundation in Christ.
Paul put it like this:
“For just as each of us has one body with many members… so in Christ we, though many, form one body.” — Romans 12:4–5
That’s God’s version of PLE.
Core Assets → Scripture, faith in Christ, the Spirit.
Variation Points → Different gifts, personalities, and callings.
Integration Mechanism → Love, which binds everything together in perfect unity (Colossians 3:14).
The PLE of a Bedtime Ritual
Every family has a bedtime routine. Ours looks simple from the outside: brush teeth, pajamas, prayers. That’s the baseline architecture.
But the reality? Bedtime in our house is never “one-size-fits-all.” Each child has their own variant.
Ava (1): milk and snuggles — plus her beloved blanket-cover game.
Olivia (4): belly tickles, a made-up story starring her as the hero, and a song before sleep.
Damon (6): a nightly “dad score” rating my performance (sometimes a 12/10 - humble brag…though I’ve also landed some 7’s), followed by choosing the perfect stuffed animal companion.
If I forced one child’s ritual onto all three, the system would collapse. Olivia doesn’t want a bottle, Ava doesn’t care about storytelling, and Damon won’t rest without his review.
The genius of PLE is balancing shared assets with tailored variants. The architecture holds the mission steady, while allowing space for individual expression.
That’s not just engineering. That’s community.
“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.” — 1 Corinthians 12:4
A Teaser of What’s Ahead
In System of Interest: Me, bedtime is just one case study. Chapter 9 goes further, showing how God has always engineered product lines of faith:
The Twelve Tribes of Israel — one covenant, many tribes, each with a unique role.
The Disciples — one Savior, many personalities, forged into a unified mission.
The Early Church — one gospel, many communities, bound together by the Spirit.
The Seven Churches in Revelation — one Lord, many local expressions, each called to overcome.
The Eternal Family — one redeemed multitude from every nation, tribe, and tongue (Revelation 7:9).
The story of bedtime points to something much bigger: God has always used PLE principles to build His people as a family of systems — diverse in expression, unified in mission.
This is the vision of Christian Systems Thinking:
Common foundation.
Unique expressions.
One mission in Christ.
Because PLE isn’t just for vehicles or software. It’s for families. It’s for the people of God. And it’s for eternity.
