At a recent gathering of faith community leaders, a pastor shared that the church she serves is very willing to take risks in their ministry and experiment. But it’s not because they have an extremely healthy church culture or a deep sense of mission. She said it’s because the church is on life support with dwindling members. They’re willing to try anything that might help them survive.
Her church’s experience is not unique. This is a common reality in faith communities throughout the United States. Many are facing numerical decline, caring for aging buildings, and experiencing stagnation in their ministries.
What if a faith community didn’t have to wait until they’re on death’s doorstep before they’re willing to try something new or take a risk?
When faith communities look beneath the surface at what’s going on in their culture, they can identify cultural strengths that foster transformational ministry in their context and areas of culture that need to shift for the church to move forward.
This is critical work at every stage in a faith community’s lifecycle, not just in a season of decline. That’s because the health of the church’s culture has everything to do with whether the community is willing to take risks, try new approaches to ministry, and embrace necessary changes.
Tending to your faith community’s culture isn’t optional; it’s essential.
The Covid-19 pandemic that began in early 2020 forced faith communities to innovate, to try something new or give up.
Many churches figured out how to piece together meaningful worship experiences and maintain relationships, even without meeting in person. It was a scrappy season in ministry and the faith communities who navigated it most effectively were those willing to experiment and take risks.
But adapting to the pandemic’s realities was primarily done from a reactive, rather than a proactive, stance. Faith communities today have the opportunity to become more proactive by focusing first on the health of their culture.
A church’s culture is the wellspring for their ministry – for good or for ill – and churches can’t afford to neglect it.
When a faith community’s ministries appear to be thriving, it’s tempting to grow complacent and assume the church’s culture is healthy. But faith communities that engage in ongoing and intentional cultural assessment are able to identify areas that need attention before they become urgent.
Faith communities who are willing to proactively and honestly assess their culture prior to a crisis build up greater resilience. This work sows healthy seeds within the church’s culture that continue to bear fruit even, and especially, during a period of conflict or numerical decline.
This work, in turn, builds greater trust among people in the faith community. People become more hopeful about taking risks and trying something new in ministry. Leaders are more willing to receive and act upon feedback from the community. The faith community becomes more in tune with their sense of how God is calling them to move forward. In other words, the faith community thrives.
For faith communities across the country, the urgent question for today isn’t, “how do we survive?” By the time most leaders and congregations ask that question, their church’s culture is already in a deep place of un-health.
Instead, the urgent question for the Church is, “how do we cultivate a healthier culture today so we can thrive?”
Interested in learning more about the impact of your faith community’s culture on your ministries? Our free workshop will help you explore this and other questions to develop ministries that are mission-oriented, strengths-based, and transformational for people in your community. Register now for, “Faithful Imagination: Developing Ministries that Thrive”.
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