I’m BACK!!!
Since I’ve been away, I’ve been extremely busy launching an online Bible Study, planning a Praise & Worship Concert (March 25-27, 2011) at Mars Hill Baptist Church of Chicago, pouring into our men, and leading a thriving and growing church. The greatest blessing while being away is I took time to work on creative content to share with my blog family. Thanks for your patience.
Laying hands on our men during an altar call – Sunday, March 20, 2011
It’s officially conference season and like any other industry, Christendom has plenty to offer. Before you run off and attend this year’s bevy of conferences, I suggest you spend time clearly defining and understanding the culture of your church, business, or ministry. Why? One of the deadliest mistakes leaders make is failing to understand the existing organizational culture. Often new leaders work diligently to transplant their heart and vision into people who ultimately reject it. Why…failure to take time and discern and understand the culture.
I define culture as the beliefs and behaviors of an organization. In short, every organization has a “certain way” of doing things and that way is ultimately determined by that organization’s culture. For this reason change is often difficult to embrace because it pushes against that organization’s culture.
“Culture – not vision or strategy is the most important factor in organization” according to leadership consultant Samuel Chand (Source: Cracking Your Church’s Culture). He goes on to share how “it determines the receptivity of the staff and volunteers to new ideas, unleashes or dampens creativity, builds or erodes enthusiasm, and creates a sense of pride or deep discouragement about working or being involved.”
Mars Hill is currently transitioning to a church that focuses on Worship and The Word. Consequently, as leaders we worked long and hard to discern our culture before we transitioned our church. First, we had to establish a true leadership culture of service.
What is True Leadership Culture?
Leadership culture takes on many forms. Many theories on leadership talk about natural leadership styles that are linked to your personality type. Indeed, personality does play quite a big part in leadership. Some people are simply more natural leaders than others. The question is: Is there a culture that can be adopted by leaders that will make them more efficient? Is a successful leadership culture something that can be learned and applied? The answer is yes – A Culture of Service makes a Great Leader. Stay with me for the next few days as we discover this powerful leadership principle.
Question:
When you hear words like “culture” or “a culture of service,” what comes to mind?
When I think of culture, I too think of behaviors and beliefs. The way a person behaves is a reflection of the things they believe. Coupled together, behaviors and beliefs characterize the culture of a group, and from that culture (noun), the group is subject to culture (verb). In the verb tense, culture means to cultivate. In biology it means to GROW an organism in a controlled environment. If we would control our high places (our minds…our thoughts…our beliefs), it will be reflected in our behavior. Phil 2:5 says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:” and Phil 4: 8 tells us what we should be thinking about – things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report. Yes, this does require some change, but anything that doesn’t change is dead.
I didn’t mean to write all that. lol
Thanks for sharing such a profound response. I am so glad I know smart people 😀