Organizational Culture

Note: I've had a handful of people ask me recently some questions in regards to the transition that we've been through as a church, so I thought I would start sharing some thoughts along these lines.

It seems like I’ve had several discussions the last couple of weeks with people in regards to organizational culture.

I think when it really comes down to it, the goal of any organizational change or transition is really to see a shift in the culture of the company/church/business/etc...

Changing a few words or adding a new slogan alone doesn’t change one’s culture - but it can certainly play a major role in seeing a new and improved culture emerge.

Less than three years ago, the culture of our church was one that lacked leadership accountability, was very insider focused, and was (for the most part) void of healthy environments for people to grow and expand in their relationship with God.

Things have changed.

Are we perfect now? Of course not! BUT, we’ve got a clear cut mission which just about everyone knows, we are intentionally focused on creating environments where people (regardless of their spiritual background or condition) can feel safe while taking steps forward on their spiritual journey. And as hard as it can sometimes be, change is embraced and is quickly becoming the “norm”.

How does that happen? Good question. I’m not totally sure, nor do I feel very qualified to try and figure it all out. But the more I think about it, the more I can identify a handful of things that we did (mostly by accident). So, I’ll start with one today and add onto the list as the days go by.

1. Leadership by example.

Since day one of our transition we have been very intentional about connecting with people (Christ followers, unchurched people, whatever…) in our community. Believe me - it’s much easier to ask people to join with you in that endeavor if they see you (the leaders) actively doing it.

It’s as simple as spending time with those that we feel "called" to connect with - which for us is unchurched people. We would be foolish to exclusively spend time with “churched” people if our mission is to lead people (churched, unchurched, non-churched, seekers, blah, blah, blah, blah...) PERIOD.

Part of creating a culture where people are connecting regularly with others is to tell stories of how YOU (as a leader) is actively engaged in connecting with people who you are trying to reach. Tell the stories!

Modeling leadership is HUGE. Anyone can get up and teach leadership principles or teach a lesson from a John Maxwell book, but it's a whole different thing to live it, breathe it, sweat it and contaminate others with it.

Our emerging culture isn't intersted in lip service when it comes to leadership - they want the real thing. And the real thing isn't perfection either. It's authenticity. And man, is that refreshing...