Church Culture Essay

• I remember a time when I was the best parent in the world and I continued to be until I had children. This same principle may be in effect as I expound on the chapters of this book. Over the years, I’ve spent many hours thinking about how I would direct a church if I were its pastor. I have a very definite view of what I would like to accomplish. In chapter one, the author discusses church culture and makes the point that it is the church culture that makes churches different, not necessarily the size of the church. This was very enlightening to me as he presented the different cultures a new pastor could face as he accepted a position at a new church. He named seven different congregations just to illustrate the diversity of church …show more content…
One’s congregation could be based on family ties, one may be based on relationships, one may like strong leadership from a pastor, another might like decisions made by the church body, and some by the elders. All this was very enlightening to me. When a new pastor is equipped with an understanding of church culture, he can adapt his leadership skills to that culture and avoid a number of potential problems. To illustrate this, I’ll share with you a story about new pastor we hired years ago. The church was in a small town made up of mostly ranchers and farmers that were given a lot of government assistance to help subsidize their farms and their families. During a Saturday morning prayer breakfast, in the devotion, the new pastor asked us to mention someone we would call our hero. He gave the example of his hero who was Ronald Reagan. There was total silence as all those democrats that ran the church glanced back and forth at each other. It would have behooved him to have read this book. With all that said, if God blesses me with a church someday, it would be such a benefit to be able to assess the culture and learn to fit into that culture and be a part of that culture to develop the relationships you need with