Culture Shock: The Hidden Force Killing Your Vision
Many leaders, especially church leaders, are competent communicators. They know how to communicate a vision but they don't know how to change a culture.
Here's the brutal reality: a leader who cannot change a culture is a leader who will never see the change they are believing for.
So you've just articulated a compelling vision. As soon as you step down from the platform, with adrenaline still pulsating through your system, you are greeted with cynical voices who are already undermining the seeds of vision you just sowed. What's happening here? Your culture is eating your vision for breakfast.
You see, you can have the greatest vision in the world but without a healthy culture, your vision will be eaten alive.
Here's what every great leader understands: the role of a leader is not only to be a visionary but to also be a cultural architect.
One of the most missing skills in the toolbox of a leader is the skill of defining and developing a culture within your team, church, and organisation that is conducive to the vision.
When I took on the senior leadership of City Life Church, I had an agreement with the outgoing leader that I had the freedom to pull together a small group of people from our church to begin defining and developing the culture we needed to move the church forward.
I have made plenty of errors in my leadership journey, but I am thankful that I got this one right! I learned from mentors in my life that a healthy culture is the most essential ingredient I needed to cultivate in my church. Here's why: it's easy to cast a vision, especially if you're a visionary type. But changing a culture takes effort, intention, and plenty of patience.
As someone once said: "The dream is free but the journey is costly." Casting vision is free but cultivating a healthy culture is costly.
Here's some of the costs I have had to pay over the years:
Good people have left because they got offended.
People you thought were your friends leave.
Offerings took a hit.
I've had to risk offending people because of necessary and hard conversations.
Many leaders decide not to pay the price to change the culture of what they're leading. We convince ourselves that it's alright. That God will take care of it anyway.
But here's a reminder: God has called you to lead. And as the leader, you are called to create the culture that is conducive to the vision that has been put on your heart.
Yes, be kind, be gracious, be humble. But the vision you have in your heart is too important to not be implemented.
Okay, so the obvious question then becomes, what next? How can we build a healthy culture?
To do proper justice to this question requires an answer as long as a book. Thankfully, leaders better than me have already written such books. I've put together a list of recommended reads.
But I want to leave you with a practical 'how to'.
One of the things I did a few years back was to write a 'Culture Guide'. Put simply, this guide is a playbook written for the leaders of our church. It contains the following contents…
Culture Guide: Table of Contents
3 A short word on Culture
5 Our Vision
7 Our Mission
9 Our Core Values
10 Why Leadership Matters
12 Our Definition of Leadership
13 How we Develop Leaders
15 Our Leadership Values
16 What We Do
18 Team Culture
19 Appendix (Reading List, Leadership Community Hub, Church Life Rhythms)
As you can see, it's pretty simple. It spells out our vision, mission, core values and our ministry philosophy. It’s not too long or complicated either.
You see, this is the most important thing about cultivating culture: you as a leader must define it.
You cannot develop a culture you do not define. Nature abhors a vacuum. Leader, define the culture you want to create.
Take the time to create your own culture playbook. And more importantly, teach through this playbook with your team.
Remember, the vision you're carrying inside of you is too important to be sabotaged by a toxic culture.
Book recommendations:
Cracking Your Church’s Culture Code by Dr Sam Chand
How’s The Culture In Your Kingdom by Dan Cookerell
