How to Create A Healthy Church Culture.

A healthy church culture doesn’t happen on accident. It has to be cultivated on purpose – over time.  Whether you’re a Lead Pastor or you’re leading a ministry team, culture is far too important to leave to chance. Below I’ve offered three proven and time tested ways to create the culture that you believe God’s called you to cultivate in your ministry.

STEP 1 – Become the culture you want to see.

You can’t fake culture – at least not for long.

Leaders reproduce who they are, not what they say. If you’re trying to convince your church or ministry team to become something that doesn’t represent who you are personally, you’re wasting your time.

• If you want a praying culture, you must become a praying leader.
• If you want a generous culture you yourself must cultivate generosity in your own life.
• If you want a relational culture, soul winning culture, or leadership culture you have to become that.
• If you want a culture of transparency, humility, and integrity you have cultivate those same qualities in your life and leadership.

Be it good or bad, your ministry will inevitably pickup the flavor of the leader and so the first thing you have to do is become the culture that you want to see reproduced. This is why personal development is so important!

[shareable cite=”@PastorTHall”]Leaders can only reproduce who they are, not what they say.[/shareable]

STEP 2 – Model the culture that you want to see.

Refuse to do ministry alone.

As you cultivate the qualities of a healthy culture in your own life it’s crucial that you’re intentional about modeling that culture for the people around you. How?  Jesus was intentional about including His disciples in His day to day leadership; modeling a Kingdom culture in front of His team every step of the way. If all of your leadership decisions are made behind closed doors, how can you expect your team to reflect your heart and vision. Jesus said “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done…” (John 14:12). He modeled the culture that He wanted to reproduce and then He asked His ministry team to follow suit. The Apostle Paul said it this way, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1)

STEP 3 – Teach the culture that you want to see.

Don’t keep culture a secret.

Far too often people jump over steps one and two and get right to step three, but that never works. You have to learn how to “be” before you can teach others how to “do.” If you’ve taken step 1 and 2, you’re ready for step 3. It’s time to be intentional about communicating the culture that you believe God has called you to cultivate in your ministry. Every meeting, sermon, or email that comes from you should somehow communicate a value/principle that reflects the culture God’s called you to cultivate. Every time you get together with your team you need to passionately emphasize the importance of why you do what you do the way that you do it.

Organizational experts tell us that it actually takes two years to cultivate healthy change in any organization. So be patient and stay focused on the long game. The souls of those God’s called you to reach weigh in the balance.

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