Growing up in the church and being a Pastor I was constantly bombarded with catch phrases or hot words that made people sound like they knew what they were talking about and or were on the cutting edge. I was often left in the dark when it came to understanding what they meant and the word “culture” was a big one for me.
For the past 4 years God has been showing me the meaning and revolutionary power of culture.
As I understand it today, culture is the soul of the church, its what we do and defines us.
Please don’t misinterpret that as the anointing, mantle, presence of God or any other adjective to describe whether or not the church is Holy. I simply mean that the culture of a church will define the characteristics, values and perception of the church.
As I find my self in a season of reflection and the continuation of my own psychological and spiritual development, I realize how lost the church has become…
**Its become apparent to me that many people don’t like to live in a reality where we actually deal with reality. As much as I will share some shortcomings that I have seen, been apart of and continue to see in the church; it does not in anyway shape or form denote a bitterness or hatred of the church. My insights are things I believe God is sharing with me as He prepares me for my next season of ministry. If this is to only help me then great, if it encourages or challenges anyone else thats the point. So for those of you who can’t handle recognizing the reality of where, in my opinion, a large number of churches are; you should probably stop reading.
…For years Ive served in churches and organizations where everyone chased everything but their true identity. I literally had a Lead Pastor who would read a book a month and the following month we would change direction, vision or mission. What it led to was running in circles. Gods mercy overcomes all of that and still moves in places and people that don’t have it all together.
But for me I find myself more focused on advancing the Kingdom, not the movement of just “Being, not doing”. I have find too many times the church is instructed to do not be in the Word. To be honest, “to be” something you have to do something. The problem is so many people just do things rather than doing what they were called, created or purposed to do. When you have a church full of people spinning their wheels on things that aren’t even close to or apart of the vision of the church you being to become stuck.
I hear people say we want to be intentional all the time. Yet they spin their wheels stuck on trying to be something they aren’t because they admire another ministry and adopt its way of doing things. As the Lord has been speaking to me on culture I believe He gave me a vision of a metaphor for whats going on.
I saw a tree that was flourishing and Pastors going up to it and eating its fruit and being, fed, encouraged and loving it. So they grab the seeds and bring them back and try to plant them. This ends in fruitlessness, frustration and no growth.
You see being from California I love avocados, not like tree hugger, I grow my own and name each one. But, like Taco Tuesday should have guac. But being in Texas now and knowing how bad the Tacos are out here I need some guac. So if I were to take an avocado seed and plant it here in Texas it would not grow let alone flourish. Now if you happen to know more about gardening and this is possible then keep it to yourself this is a metaphor. Plus in the dry plains and crazy weather of Lubbock, Texas Im surprised anything grows.
Its pretty simple, you can’t take what was planted in an atmosphere (soil, sun and nutrients) and try and duplicate it in a different atmosphere. You cannot create culture by simply spending time in someone else’s culture. Theres a difference between creating culture and being apart of a culture.
People scream about wanting to be intentional but end up doing everything but what they set out to do because they loose focus, discipline and vision. Its easy to do for anyone. But what we don’t acknowledge is that it makes the church look foolish, thrown together and hypocritical. When I tell you we are all about reaching our community yet we do no community outreach because we are more focused on our services. Then we can’t create the culture of the Dream Center in Los Angeles as that is their focus and drives everything they do.
To remedy this we must take a hard look inward and ask what is the culture of our church. What are we REALLY doing and not doing and what does that say about our values or true vision.
My hope is that wherever God takes me, or whoever reads this that there would be greater focus on cultivating the culture to produce the fruit we are called to produce.
Please understand that a culture that runs contrary to a churches vision or values does not make it fruitless or ineffective. It means its not producing the crop it could and how much time, effort, finances and people are being wasted.
Anyone who knows me knows Im an Apple fanboy and the thing I love besides their great products is that they choose to focus. Not try and compete with everyone else. They have chosen to do a few things well and make those things the driving force and filter for all they do.
If your reading this and your leading don’t get caught in the comparison trap. Focus on what Gods placed on your heart to do and develop your values, vision and mission from that and stay focused. Then and only then you will develop a culture consistent in developing your vision, people and future.