In building church culture, the best measuring stick we have is the pattern of ministry that Jesus built and followed. Seeing the way Jesus built cultures, we can catch values that He shared and portrayed.
Culture is defined loosely as a set of values, language and behaviors that a large group of people share. Determining culture and directing it are crucial tasks that leadership must do for communities to grow and thrive. The same is true with churches today.
Many churches are not proactive in getting into the business of building empowering and positive cultures. Most spiritual leaders just "go with the flow," but God teaches us that we are to readily engage in setting the tone for culture both inside our church and in our communities, cities and nations.
God desires to see a church that does not "conform to the patterns of this world," (Romans 12:2) but one that is enabled by His grace "to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age." (Titus 2:12) If we are to see vibrant and healthy churches that grow, we must start allowing the Spirit of God to start bringing values that bring about a godly kind of culture to our ministries.
Here are some of the most prevalent values that Jesus took on in building a culture for what would be the early church.
Empowering leadership. Jesus spent a lot of time performing miracles, feeding crowds and healing the sick, but He never let it take away the time that He spent empowering those who would become His next-in-line leaders. Church leaders today should be just as active in readily identifying leaders who have competence and a clear call from God to lead.
Value for the lost. Jesus said in Luke 19:10, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." God took care of His leaders, but He also spent a lot of time winning sinners into the kingdom of God. Churches are to share in the same value. There is no such thing as a ministry that does not have evangelism as a practice.
Discipleship and teaching. The word discipleship does not appear anywhere in the Bible, but it's a concept that is prevalently present. Jesus discipled His 12 apostles, Moses discipled Joshua, Abraham discipled Isaac, David discipled Solomon, Paul discipled Timothy and the list could go on. 2 Timothy 2:2 teaches us "and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."
Spirit-empowered programs. Left to our own power, the church would have dwindled and died a long time ago. The very reason why the body of Christ still lives on today is because of the power of the Holy Spirit moving through our churches. A church that shuts out the power of God's manifest Spirit is one that does not have a vibrant culture.
