
Consider this. A pastor goes to a conference to learn about the new ministry that launched a church forward in growth. He immediately implements that new ministry in his church, only to discover that it does nothing to spur on the growth of his church. The pastor is discouraged and the people become less willing to accept a new idea in the future.
Or, a manager learns of a new strategy for his organization. He roles out the new strategy in his department and it meets with so much opposition that he eventually moves things back to the way things were before. The manager wonders why it didn’t work and the employees see yet another failed attempt to change the organization.
Both of these scenarios play out every day in our churches and businesses.
In both cases, they have learned the one reason many new ideas fail: we fail to take into account the culture within which we are attempting that change effort. In his book Cracking Your Church’s Culture Code: Seven Keys to Unleashing Vision and Inspiration, Dr. Samuel R. Chand identifies 5 types of cultures that can be found in your church, or your organization. They are (the titles are Dr. Chand’s and the descriptions are mine):
- Inspiring – a culture in which new ideas and ministries are enabled to flourish
- Accepting – a culture in which new ideas and ministries are easily accepted and have opportunity for success
- Stagnant – a culture in which new ideas and ministries are not easily accepted and have little chance for success
- Discouraging – a culture in which new ideas are resisted and attempting new ministries is discouraged
- Toxic – a culture in which new ideas have no chance of success due to the dysfunction in the organization
When attempting new ideas in your church or organization, you must take into account the culture of the organization. Asking the following questions will help you determine the potential success or failure of your new idea.
- Is the culture of my church/organization ready to accept this new change initiative?
- How can I best implement the new idea within the current culture?
- Is there a better change initiative that I can implement within my current culture?
- Do I need to change my current culture before implement my new idea?
When looking at your current culture and your new change initiative or idea, take the time necessary to investigate the potential success of that idea within your current culture. Not sure how to do that? Then, I want to encourage you to participate in my new FREE Webinar on culture change. I want to share with you some of the things that I’ve been learning about changing the culture within our churches. I’ll be announcing the details in a few weeks. For now, be certain that you have subscribed to my website by filling out the form at the top right of this page. You will be notified as soon as registration opens for this FREE Webinar. You’ll also receive a free e-book as my way of saying thanks.