Culture Shift: Transforming Your Church from the Inside Out

Orginally published on Monday, February 21, 2005 at 10:06 AM
by Todd Rhoades

Robert Lewis and Wayne Cordeiro have a new book due to be released in April called "Culture Shift: Transforming Your Church from the Inside Out." It is a fascinating look at how as church pastors and staff members, we must address our church’s own culture before making long and lasting changes. I’m enjoying reading through the book, and want to take the next couple of weeks to discuss the issue of ‘culture’ in the local church. Lewis and Codeiro know alot about what they write in their new book. They are both pastors that have seen dynamic culture change in their own churches (one in Hawaii, the other in Arkansas). Here is a little bit from the opening of "Culture Shift". Robert and Wayne write…

"Culture is the most important social reality in your church. Though invisible to the untrained eye, its power is undeniable. Culture gives color and flavor to everything your church is and does. Like a powerful current running through your church, it can move you inland or take you farther out to sea. It can prevent your church's potential from ever being realized, or-- if used by the Holy Spirit-- it can draw others in and reproduce healthy spiritual life all along the way.

Culture is also an enigma. It defies simple definition and is difficult to explain. It's not a "plug and play" program that you buy off the shelf. Nor is it something you can clone from another church that seems successful.

You might underestimate its capability for helping you or blocking you, just as you probably don't think regularly about the roll of the air you breathe. Yet to make any kind of transition as a church, your church's culture can't be ignored. Only if you play an active role in shifting the culture can you best help your church to become the organic, life-giving environment you've always known it can be.
What about your church? Would you like it to be an island of health that magnetically draws people who feel lost, seasick, or shipwrecked? Or people who are simply in need of solid ground on which to build their lives? Your church can indeed make certain changes and become the way church was always meant to be. Such changes focus not so much on the leatest new idea or program but on a culture shift that honors your church's unique values.

Are you in love with the potential that's in your church? Do you see the great potential God has already willed to it? As a leader, you're the tutor God has called to release it!

"But we don't have all the right resources, " you say.

"But we don't have that kind of culture," you say.

"But you don't know our church and the leadership group we inherited," you say.

God's children are heirs to things so precious that no amount of money can buy them. All they need is a tutor who sees their potential. That's you as a leader in the church. Your job is to develop a culture in which these young emerging leaders can mature to the point where they can steward the inheritance of Christ. Your church can have the best programs in the world, but deep-rooted change won't happen without the right culture shift.

Ephesians 4:11 says the purpose of a leader is "for the equipping of the saints", or "for building up the body of Christ." If you have people with Christ living inside, then you've got all you need. The right culture can be built by starting with what you already have.

Next week, we'll take a closer look at what culture actually is and how you can get a grasp on how to begin changing the culture in your church.

As I said, Robert and Wayne's book is set to be released on April 8, but you can pre-purchase a copy of Culture Shift now by going here. I think it's a book that you'll really want to read!

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Hi... I'm Todd Rhoades. I'm a Christ-follower, husband, father and I love to connect leaders with other leaders. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step on Twitter.

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