The culture of your church is essentially comprised of who you are, what you value, and how you get things done.
All churches begin with an enthusiastic vision of a culture that is so inviting people can’t resist. But leading a church is complicated. Vision for the culture will not naturally stay aligned without diligence and intentionality.
Candidly, it’s easy for a church to lose its way.
Even in the healthiest of churches, culture can drift. New people come, new staff gets hired, culture drifts. It needs constant attention.
Perhaps your church, however, has passed common drift. It’s possible that your culture has become unhealthy.
Here are some symptoms:
- Consistent and unresolved conflict among the leaders.
- The morale of the staff is low.
- There is a sense of “politics” in the church.
- Critical decisions are delayed or unwisely made.
- There is more conversation about problems than stories of life change.
- There is high defensiveness.
- Trust is low.
- There are very few visitors.
- There is a lack of vision.
- There is little joy.
Please don’t read this list and panic. Even the best churches can experience one or two of these symptoms for a short season. That’s normal.
In a healthy culture you name the problem, talk about it openly, make the needed corrections and go on.
No church is perfect. The idea here is to help churches where it’s evident that the culture needs improvement.
Let me be candid and name the number one problem of a toxic culture:
No one is taking ownership and responsibility for the condition of the culture.
Until a leader, the leader, steps up and says, ‘The culture of our church is not healthy, and I own that problem. I take responsibility for the solution.’, the church will remain in trouble. This doesn’t necessarily mean the leader is the cause of the problematic culture. He or she may have inherited it, but ultimately it doesn’t matter. The leader must step up and take ownership.
I don’t know your story or what you are going through, but I’ve worked with hundreds of churches, and I’m confident that while this plan may not be custom for you, it will serve you well as a general guideline.
1) Own it.
Again, the current condition of your church’s culture may not be your fault, but as the leader, it is your responsibility. However, if you have been there for a while, whatever culture, behavior and results you have, you have either created or allowed.
I love the book Boundaries for Leaders, by Henry Cloud. Chapter two is worth the book. “You are Ridiculously in Charge.” He tackles this topic in more depth; I highly recommend it.
2) Tend to your soul.
It’s easy for you as the leader, whether as the senior pastor of a small or large church, executive pastor, campus pastor or department leader in a mega-church, to carry the weight of an unhealthy culture almost as if you did something wrong.
There are no perfect churches. It’s your job to help your church become healthy, not perfect. Click & Tweet! Give yourself grace as you get ready to lead this change. Take plenty of time for reflection and prayer.
3) Identify the gap.
Write down how you describe the current culture. Write it from three perspectives:
- How visitors experience it.
- How long term attendees experience it.
- How staff and key leaders experience it.
Be as objective as possible.
Gather a small, but trusted group to help you.
1) Choose five words that describe the problem/culture.
- You might write keywords like defensive, distrust, political, silos…etc.
- Then, write one sentence for each word to describe what that means in your context.
2) Write five words of how you want the culture to experienced.
- Such as loving, bold, trusting, empowering, fun, honest…etc.
- Write one sentence describing specifically what that means.
Don’t make the lists long or complicated. The difference between the two lists is the gap.
Note: It is possible that you will write a different experience for visitors than for long term attendees, leaders, and staff. If that is true, describe why.
4) Lead toward solutions.
The solutions are the specific plans that you design to close the gap between what your current culture is to what you want it to become.
These conversations can get tense. It’s easy to be tempted to ascribe blame; resist that temptation, that never helps. It is, however, essential that you are honest about your current reality and speak very candidly about what is necessary to bring change. (Close the gap.) Remember, you will get what you allow.
5) Consider getting outside help.
It is possible that you may hit an impasse and need an independent outside voice to help you walk through at least the initial stages of change.
You are not looking for a consultant to assist you with ministries and mechanical programming and processes. (What you do and how you do it.) You need a reliable and trusted leader who can guide you through the nuances of the experience of your environment. More of what it “feels” like to be part of your church. This is not as “fuzzy” as that might sound. Remember how particular your sets of five words are. Stay focused.
6) Make tough decisions.
This is the part where you first go back and re-read the chapter on “You are Ridiculously in Charge.”
The absence of these means you choose to allow things to remain as they are. This is a costly process. You may lose some people. No one ever wants that to happen, but it’s often necessary to realize change.
7) Plan for the long term.
Don’t bail at the first sign of rough water. It may get rocky; keep in mind this will take time. The larger the church and more problematic the culture, the longer it takes. I can promise you this, if you continue to pour your energy into practical ministry without tending to your unhealthy culture, all you will get in return is exhaustion.
Think long term. Get some help. Lean into God (wisdom and favor) and don’t give up. It’s worth it. Changing your culture is possible.
Another great resource is the book Cracking Your Churches’ Culture Code, by Sam Chand.
Henry Cloud has some videos on YouTube to get you started thinking about being “ridiculously in charge.” Thanks for the new resource.
Here’s a question. I am about to take on a church re-start that went from about 75 to now 15 of whom about 5 remain of the original congregation. I was not told what precipitated the events. Do I need to know?
Absolutely. That’s like asking a doctor to help a sick person get better but he’s not allowed to know their current medical history. You need to know to understand where they’ve been. You will lead the 15 differently according to what you know.
Thank you so much for this article. I have been voraciously absorbing Dr. Cloud’s info today. and thanks so much for your reply.
Why users still make use of to read news papers when in this technological
world the whole thing is existing on web?
Hey would you mind letting me know which web
host you’re utilizing? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 different web browsers and
I must say this blog loads a lot quicker then most.
Can you recommend a good hosting provider at a honest price?
Many thanks, I appreciate it!
Great post.
Hi, Neat post. There’s a problem along with your site in web explorer,
might test this? IE still is the marketplace leader and a
huge component to other folks will miss your excellent writing
because of this problem.
Hey this is kinda of off topic but I was wanting
to know if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML.
I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding expertise so I wanted to get guidance from someone with experience.
Any help would be enormously appreciated!
Hi, the whole thing is going well here and ofcourse every one
is sharing information, that’s in fact fine, keep up writing.
I like what you guys are up too. Such clever work and
reporting! Keep up the awesome works guys I’ve added you guys to our blogroll.
Superb, what a blog it is! This weblog gives helpful facts to us, keep
it up.
It’s amazing to visit this web page and reading the views of all mates about this article,
while I am also keen of getting know-how.
It’s going to be end of mine day, except before finish I am reading this fantastic piece of writing to improve my experience.
I’m not sure where you are getting your information, but good topic.
I needs to spend some time learning more or understanding more.
Thanks for great info I was looking for this information for
my mission.
Hi friends, good post and pleasant arguments commented at this place, I am
genuinely enjoying by these.
I couldn’t resist commenting. Perfectly written!
I am really thankful to the owner of this site who has shared this impressive piece of writing at at this place.
Great information. Lucky me I found your blog by accident
(stumbleupon). I have bookmarked it for later!
WOW just what I was searching for. Came here by searching for naga169
Howdy would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re working with?
I’m looking to start my own blog in the near future but I’m having a tough time selecting between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
The reason I ask is because your layout seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something unique.
P.S My apologies for being off-topic but I had to
ask!
I constantly emailed this blog post page to all my
associates, as if like to read it afterward my links will too.
Excellent post. Keep posting such kind of information on your blog.
Im really impressed by your blog.
Hi there, You’ve done a fantastic job. I’ll definitely digg it and
personally recommend to my friends. I am confident they will be benefited from this website.
If you are going for finest contents like myself, only go to see this web page
all the time because it provides quality contents, thanks
Great blog right here! Also your web site quite a bit up fast!
What host are you the usage of? Can I am getting your associate hyperlink to your host?
I want my website loaded up as fast as yours lol
I do accept as true with all the ideas you’ve introduced on your post.
They are really convincing and can certainly work. Nonetheless,
the posts are very short for beginners. Could you please lengthen them a little from next time?
Thanks for the post.
I’m not sure where you are getting your information, but great
topic. I needs to spend some time learning more or understanding more.
Thanks for excellent info I was looking for this info for
my mission.
Hey! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be ok.
I’m undoubtedly enjoying your blog and look forward to new
posts.
Hey There. I found your blog using msn. This is a very well written article.
I’ll make sure to bookmark it and come back
to read more of your useful info. Thanks for the post.
I will certainly return.
Hey there! Do you know if they make any plugins to protect against hackers?
I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any suggestions?
Appreciate the recommendation. Let me try it out.
Hi there! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard against hackers?
I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve
worked hard on. Any tips?
It’s an awesome article in support of all the online users; they will obtain benefit from it I am sure.
I have learn several good stuff here. Certainly value bookmarking for revisiting.
I wonder how a lot effort you place to create this
type of magnificent informative site.
I like the valuable information you provide in your articles.
I will bookmark your weblog and check again here regularly.
I’m quite sure I will learn lots of new stuff right here! Good luck for the next!
Hi there, just wanted to tell you, I enjoyed this post.
It was inspiring. Keep on posting!
Greetings from Los angeles! I’m bored to tears at work so I
decided to browse your website on my iphone during lunch break.
I really like the information you present here and can’t wait to take a look when I get
home. I’m surprised at how fast your blog loaded on my mobile ..
I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyhow, very good blog!
This paragraph will assist the internet people for building
up new web site or even a weblog from start to end.
This information is worth everyone’s attention. How can I find out more?
This is the right web site for anybody who wishes to find out
about this topic. You realize a whole lot its almost tough to argue
with you (not that I actually would want
to…HaHa). You definitely put a fresh spin on a topic that’s been discussed for a
long time. Great stuff, just great!
После регистрации на портале Pin Up Bet, нужно заполнить свои личные данные.
Hi to every one, the contents present at this web site are truly awesome for people
experience, well, keep up the nice work fellows.
Howdy! Would you mind if I share your blog with my
facebook group? There’s a lot of folks that I think would really
appreciate your content. Please let me know. Cheers
If you desire to grow your know-how only keep visiting this
web site and be updated with the most recent news update posted
here.
I like it when people get together and share ideas.
Great website, keep it up!