People will often ask, “How did you go about advancing the ministry at Subiaco Church?” When I came to Subiaco in 1989, it was known for its Bible teaching but it had a tendency toward being insular and inward looking. They preached the Bible and talked about outreach to the community in the sincerest terms, but in the end of the day, the culture of the church actually prevented the fellowship from growing and from reaching the unchurched.

Every gathering of people possesses a culture, an atmosphere, an ethos, and a church is no different. The culture represents the unspoken rules and the values; what it is that we deem important. The word culture is derived from to cultivate. In saying that, we must realise that a fellowship is not a inert object like a rock. Let’s think of it more like a garden in that what tends to flourish are the flowers we plant or conversely, the weeds that we allow to remain. If you don’t like what is growing at your church, you have to ask yourself, “What have we planted or allowed to grow?”

If the leadership intends to change a fellowship’s culture, what are some of the steps to reinventing the culture?

1. You must “define the reality” of where you presently are. If you have a “sick” or dysfunctional culture in some aspect, you can’t sugar coat it or excuse it. Defining reality means that you must say, “Something is clearly wrong here!” Begin by articulating some of the unspoken rules or existing values in your fellowship. For example, many churches talk about reaching people but when it comes down to it, they value the smallness and familiarity of their present size. In short, they really don’t want to grow. Or similarly, they want to reach people, but it’s our kind of people, that is, people who look and think like the existing members. These unspoken values become governing factors in the fellowship’s development. The first step is to recognise: Our garden needs help.
2. You need to write out the new values and demonstrate the biblical basis for each one. Step two, start to plant the things you wish to see grow. This is more than vision-casting of communicating the direction the fellowship. It’s about providing boundaries in how we will operate, the way we go about ministry. Bill Hybels speaks about “heating up one’s values”, regularly explaining to your people why a biblically functioning community must subscribe to these ideas if we are to honour Our Lord in our ministry.
3. You will have to step on some toes. You must be willing to aggressively confront those who will thumb their noses at the new values, and believe me, they will! Leith Anderson talks about dealing with the church “bullies”. These are the people who habitually show a disregard for others and for the greater interest of the fellowship. Sadly, often times, special rules are implemented to protect the bully and allow him or her to run rough shod over people. For the sake of the gospel, the fellowship, and even that person, bullies must be confronted and held accountable. The leadership needs to give a clear signal that certain behaviours and attitudes will not be tolerated. Remember, step three, gardening is not just about planting but it is weeding as well
4. The key leaders must model and live out the values that you desire the people to embrace. The old “do as I say, not as I do” formula will not work in establishing values. Our body language always overpowers our verbal communication to indicate to people what we really believe to be important. Values are self-evidencing and can’t be hidden. So, the leader who preaches outreach and does not practice it will get nowhere. Step four: What we plant is what we practice.
5. You must make heroes of the people who take the new values seriously. Step five: Feed and water the plants you wish to grow. We wanted to see Subiaco become a relevant, seeker-sensitive, dynamic community of grace filled people. It’s better to praise those who respond positively to the new values than to constantly brow beat the rest. All of this culture change takes time but you can facilitate the change by recognising and encouraging those who are helping to shape the fellowship for the better.

If you don’t like your garden, do something about it.