I talk a lot on this blog about different ways to practically improve on your meetings, events, and groups. One thing I’ve been learning though is that the culture of a ministry must change before all the other elements. I talked last month about how big an impact the culture of my BASIC group impacted my time in college.
The foundation of every ministry must be built first on a culture that reflects the Gospel and the core values of the Bible.
Whether you inherited your BASIC ministry from someone else or you were the one who pioneered it, the culture must be the most important part. God may have spoken to you about focusing on evangelism, discipleship, worship, or any other number of things this semester, but if your culture isn’t transformed to focus on those things you won’t go anywhere. There are four questions you can ask to make sure you’re creating the culture you want.
Have you clearly communicated to your leadership team what you’re going after? Getting everyone on the same page is essential. You may need to do some extra teaching with your leaders to communicate and instill the vision God has given you for the ministry. It’s important that you make the vision easy to communicate and repeat it over and over and over again. People need to hear things multiple times before they remember it and even more times before they begin to implement it regularly.
Are you modeling what you’re expecting in your own life? Since you’ve been placed in a position of leadership students will follow what you model. If you’re not getting the culture you want it’s probably because you’re not displaying it for them to see.
Is everything your ministry does communicating your vision? It’s easy to add pieces to your ministry over time that don’t make sense with your ministry’s vision. You may want to read about The 3 P’s of Evaluation if you haven’t yet.
Are people being given the opportunity to take ownership of the vision? Once you’ve determined where you’re headed the changes you make will contribute to the culture you’re trying to build. When they hear messages and see actions that communicate the vision effectively they will begin to adopt that for themselves and take ownership of the vision. Give people opportunities to buy into and embrace the new culture you’re working to create.
If you don’t intentionally communicate and execute your vision all efforts will be aimless and fruitless.
What culture have you built in your ministry? What can we learn from the culture Jesus created while on earth?