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Changing a Church Culture
Creating a healthy ministry culture takes prayer, hard work and intentionality.
Changing an existing culture generally takes more prayer, harder work, more intentionality, patience, endurance and more hard work.
You might have stepped into a ministry role with a culture that:
- Doesn’t care about evangelism
- Has poor stewardship habits
- Competes with other ministry areas within the church
- Thinks it is succeeding when it isn’t
- Has lost touch with what is happening in the world
- Puts systems and procedures ahead of people
- Has a scarcity mindset
If you’re the leader, it is your role to become the catalyst for change.
The first thing you must do is to identify the problem. (If you have been the leader for awhile, the problem may have developed on your watch. It might be harder for you to recognize the problem.)
Let’s start with this exercise:
What is the number one thing about your church culture that needs to change to increase the effectiveness of the ministry?
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Craig!
This post is a NEEDED breath of fresh air! Even most Non-Christians can see the basic problems of the “Christian church” as a whole! I pray that the leaders of “The Body” of Christ, whom God has appointed to lead, will truly listen to these words (wake-up call), be completely changed by these posts and take some serious new directions.
I am so thankful to know that you have been appointed to lead where my family attends church. We are blessed to be a part of the LC vision.
Transition from program driven to people driven ministry mentality. Many church-goers tend to rely on the ‘professionals’ and the programs of the church to ‘do’ ministry for them. It’s difficult to deconstruct this old paradigm and reconstruct a biblical model of thinking. Christ was able to bridge the gap or cross over from the sacred to the secular and bring spirituality into daily life. The church at large has an either or mentality while a both and mindset is needed to take the Gospel revelantly to the world. Our ministry challenge lies in leading by example and inspiring this vision in followers, changing the the church culture by thinking outside the box creatively, giving away power to ALL our people and mobilizinng people to action and encouraging every heart on the journey.
Thanks Craig for bringing these issues up.
I agree with Bishop Scott. I would also add a faith that takes risks for the Kingdom.
The bottom line…
A faith in absolute truth… (and I mean not just a head knowledge)…
Everything else falls into place after that…
As a leader who transitioned a church just a few years ago from stuffy, tradition-worshipping and visionless (if that’s even a word) to kingdom-minded, I agree. Intentionality and prayer are BIG components. I would offer this for anyone looking to make a major shift in their church:
1) Identify key leaders and pour into them your heart and vision. If your key leaders won’t get on board with you, then you might think of moving on or invite them to move on… seriously.
2) It is going to be hard and painful work. Are you, and your family, truly up for the pain that you will need to endure? People will call you names, say things about you, and try to distract you from the vision.
3) Find models and mentors. I am guessing that if you are reading SWERVE then you already have these people in your life. Cling to those friendships. Learn from those modeling it for you. They will get you through a lot.
Having just started a church plant with LC network we are hopefully starting on the right foot. But I would say the 2 churches I have been invloved with over the last 9 years have one major issue I see hurting churches everywhere…intentional communication. I think many churches assume everyone knows what the vision God has placed on that body is or what the next “step” in their discipleship program is, etc… We need to be better communicators.
Craig,
Thanks for the inspiring post. Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated “the church is the church only when it exist for others…”
evangelism
C,
Being the pastor of a fairly new church (3 1/2 years) is a new experience for me but in some ways the same type of stuff plagues them all but perhaps to a greater or lesser degree (depending on size and age and entrenchment). One, is the whole participator/fringe element. Every church has those who are involved and those who want the fringe benefits (or is it the benefits of the fringe?) Two, we struggle financially due to the culture of our county (2nd poorest in Indiana)and also those who can being willing to do so. Three, communication between the leadership, finance team and church fellowship. Until about a year ago the finances were “run” by the leadership with a treasurer. One of my “pushes” was to get the leadership away from the constant worry about finances and establish a team. Now it is the communication between the two that takes work. :)
This is a good question Craig and I look forward to seeing what others have to say. I am learning tons from these. (Can I turn back the clock about 20 years?)
I am currently in a new role where I am leading our church’s return to health. I agree that it begins with prayer. I am also challenged with how we intentionally empower our leaders.
Scared to take risks - and when we think about taking them, we wait and wait and wait some more and end up getting behind the curve, or worse yet…being obedient at the wrong time - which is simply disobedience!
Large numbers of people doesn’t = spiritual growth or a healthy ministry
Spiritual depth and intentionality, instead of spiritual passivity. And I resonate with Scott Williams too. Guess a lot needs to change! Great post!
I am grateful to report our culture is changing…and it’s due to good teaching/instruction about God’s vision. You know, a kingdom mindset, to be about what God is about. If we can help our people see what God sees…their attitudes and actions begin to align and culture begins to shift toward the vision begin cast.
So practically, it is about right teaching.
one thing is that we don’t strive to do things with excellence…we settle for mediocrity in all that we do and we always find the easiest and cheapest way to do stuff
That the things that we do as a church or as individual Christ followers cannot make much of a difference.
As I read your comments and your desire to bring about change I could not help but “see” that your passion for your people. You are giving them the precious gift of opportunity. The opportunity to meet Jesus again and again through constant change and that makes you all the most beautiful people I have NEVER seen, ’cause I don’t know your faces but I love your hearts.
hmm….
a raise of the glass to scott w. - here, here
we bring them in with the ‘wow’, now we (actually He, but we can sure help) must transform them with the service/sacrifice/stewardship roll that only comes from the heart of God
We have been trying for some time to break the idea that we are still and will always be a “small” church. This has been a hard concept to break thru. People really want to know everybody and feel like they know what is going on with everything. But in doing so, put a cap on our ability to grow and see new people come to faith in Christ.
Any advice?
Matt asked a good question. Maybe some of you can share any wisdom you have on the subject.
Matt, Have you told them the vision? Tell them how you feel…tell them what Christ has called us to do. Not to be as small as possible, but to be as representative of Him as possible! And the main point of that is: leading others to Christ. Tell them we shouldn’t feel uncomfortable getting bigger, but that we will feel more comfortable knowing that others are being led to Christ! Let them know if they need an attitude check!
Love you bro, let me know if you need me to go more in depth…I kinda just scraped the top. Sometimes the top is just all you need though…
Often a congregation becomes satisfied simply being seen as Christians. Yet as “unChristian” points out, these same people have no idea (or don’t care) what the world–right or wrong, for better or worse–thinks of us. My wife and I have been here for nearly five years. In the first two years the church doubled; after that, there was “the Bell Choir incident.” Lost all of the momentum except in the area of gossip. There we were at full strength.
And still, Jesus is the best boss in the world. Take care.
Less about numbers….more about changed lives.
If you’re looking to take your church through a cultural change, I highly recommend the book “Leading Change” by John Kotter. It provides principle based step by step process that will help your organization avoid pitfalls as well as increase your chance for success.
It’s interesting, our people love seeing people give their lives to Christ, and we have seen a lot of that for being a relatively new church, but it is statistically proven that you just cannot know more than a certain number of people. And that is what we are fighting against, the everyone knowing everyone syndrome. Because whether they like seeing people saved or not, that mentality will put a cap on how they will reach people and how many people will be reach by this part of the body.
Thanks for the thoughts Jared. Unfortunately our building doesn’t help the breaking of the small church mindset. We can only seat 90 people per service, and we are already at 2. Essentially we have the 60 person growth barrier X2.
To me, the real issue is the tipping point. You have to know the body God has called you to well enough to discern how much change they are prepared to take on. If you go too far, too fast, you risk an exit that is not of your own making. Ask God to help you navigate these waters. Be honest. If you must see change and the body is not ready to receive it, perhaps you need to shake the dust off and move on. However, if you feel God wants you to stick it out and prevail, keep your heart pure and your ears alert. God will make sure you make it.
Mat, there are so many great things about a small church, so many great opportunities to bring change and reach out to people and build great relationships, harness the great stuff about being small, don’t try to be big, try to be healthy!
Healthy things always grow.
Enjoy the journey
[...] publicerade han en till som handlar om att förändra en trasig församlingskultur (”church culture”): You might have stepped into a ministry role with a culture that: * [...]
I am a young adult attending Buckhead Church in Atlanta, GA. Now, this comment has nothing to do with Buckhead (I think they’re tenacity for change and their drive for leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ is phenomenal), but this comment IS about the church I sort of grew up in before I moved to Atlanta.
I have been praying, talking with others, and having countless battles with myself concerning this question you presented Craig. Coming from Atlanta where a church like Buckhead Church strives to create an environment/culture where authentic teaching and community is the norm, has opened my eyes to seeing that so many churches are hindered and held captive to religion and tradition.
Occasionally, I visit my former church in Albany, GA whenever I go back to my hometown, and my former pastor and I are good friends. If anything, I would say that the number one thing about the church culture of my former church that needs to change to increase the effectiveness of the ministry is that… “There must be a conscious breaking-away from the ‘traditional black church mentality’ and an even more aggressive embracing of passion and freedom to pursue and fulfill God’s vision in order for change, influence, and effectiveness to occur within the black community”.
It seems to me that one of the biggest strongholds of my former pastor is having a vision that is hard to accomplish with a traditional-minded black church. I feel that if he was more aggressive about going DIRECTLY after the burden and vision that God has laid upon his heart - even at the expense of losing longtime dedicated members - then change would be inevitable. But I think his passivity and desire to be likable has in someway insnared him. I believe that there are many pastors and leaders and even staff in the black community that feel hindered because tradition is so strong in black culture.
My prayer is that these leaders and pastors would experience Godly discontent that would drive them to say ENOUGH is ENOUGH and to become the change agent [Catalyst] that God has destined them to be to move their congregations out of traditionalism and religious bondage.
As you can see, this is one of my personal discontents. My heart is that I may be of some assistance in helping to break traditionalism and religious bondage in the black community that keeps us mentally, spiritually, and emotionally ensnared so that pastors, leaders, and their congregations can pursue what God has purposed for them with no restraint.