Creating a Healthy Leadership Culture in your Church

Culture can be defined as the defining set of values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of any one group. It is something that is usually unnoticed, unspoken, and unexamined, particularly in Churches. As a result, few churches ever take steps towards intentionally defining and building a desired culture; instead it usually happens by default. It’s very common to see churches fall into ruts and get stuck in the familiar traps of, “Just preach the Word,” “Just reach people,” or “Just build disciples.” The problem is building a healthy culture in a church; particularly a healthy leadership culture is never “just that easy.” As the leader you have to define and create the culture. If you don’t it will default to the strongest personality or loudest voice in the room. So here are four steps you can take that will help you to begin building a healthy leadership culture in your church.

Motivate

To truly motivate people you’ve got to get past the guilt, shame and fear tactics that a majority of churches most frequently use. You’ve got to tie it to relationship, love and identity. That this is what it means to be a Christ Follower.

Celebrate

Tell stories and tie them to the win. In order to do this it requires you to have defined where you’re going, and how you know when you get there.

Train

If all you do in your training is help people manage problems or complete tasks you’ll never reproduce leaders. You’ve got to help people learn how to make decisions that reflect and build the culture of your church.

Model

If you want a culture in your church that builds and reproduces leaders than you’ve got to start handing off real responsibility and leadership not just a task or a job.

Remember, everything grows better in a healthy environment…including leaders.

Team Building Exercise

Here’s an exercise that you can do with you team: Suppose someone comes to you and says, “I want to volunteer.” What happens next? How do you move them from willing (and maybe not so able) volunteer, to a leader of volunteers?

Question

What are some successful steps you’ve taken to build a leadership culture in your church? Leave a comment below.