Creating Culture Part 3 - Serving

The next culture I want to discuss is the culture of serving. This one is a little more talked about in the church, although most people getting involved still need to catch the revelation on the value of serving in the kingdom. Jesus was a servant and is into his followers having the heart and life of a servant.

Matthew 20:25-28 - ^25 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. ^26 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. ^27 And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— ^28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

John 12:26 - If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.
Mark 8:6 - And He directed the people to sit down on the ground; and taking the seven loaves, He gave thanks and broke them, and started giving them to His disciples to serve to them, and they served them to the people.

One culture I'm desperate to create in the NXT is a culture of "serving down". Meaning that the older students value and serve the younger. My young adults should be laying down their lives for the high school students. And the high schoolers should be serving the Jr. Highers. This is what really makes our generation model work well. If we were really to establish this culture effectively there's no telling what could happen over the course of a couple years.

Do we as a church give people clear channels to serve the Lord? Do we do well at articulating a vision of serving Him and not merely building our own kingdom? Do we really serve those that need it in our communities? How do we get better? What can we do to create the "serve down" culture?c

Creating Culture Part 2 - Encouragement

On with our discussion on creating culture (although I sure would like a few more of you to chime in on this discussion). The culture we're going to look at today is a culture of encouragement.

I think one of the most common weapons used by the enemy on Christian is discouragement. As a youth pastor, if there's anything that can slow me down in ministry it's becoming discouraged that my ministry isn't working, that we aren't reaching enough kids, that my leaders just aren't getting it, etc. With the devil working around the clock to bring discouragement, one of the most important cultures we must have in the church is encouragement.

The church should be a place where people can come and be built up and encouraged. They should leave our gatherings filled with hope and faith. I believe there must be a more concentrated effort from leaders to encourage young people in their life, ministries, and their calling.

Romans 1:11-12 - For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established— ^that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

The challenging part is that we're committed to biblical community. So while we want to bring encouragement, love, and hope to people, we're never going to stop preaching against sin and challenging people to change. That would be unhealthy for everyone. We're in youth ministry to transform ordinary young people into radical, world changing disciples.

Our strategy in accomplishing this so far is to have a two pronged attack. From the pulpit, I really preach hard against sin and foolishness. I never apologize or hold back. We bring real, relevant truth to the young people every Wed night. The second part of the strategy is this - there's a youth staff of around 50 young leaders who understand that their main job is to love and encourage young people like they've never experienced. These youth staff minister to students from a place of encouragement and unconditional love.

If both parties do their job, we should be creating a culture that is incredibly encouraging and challenging at the same time. This is a culture where young people can experience real life change. They can't listen to the message preached and stay comfortable in their sin. And when they respond, there are leaders there to walk with them and encourage them that they can and will succeed.

I feel like we are making some good progress with this approach. But I'm always looking for ways to encourage young people more.

What do you think?

What are some things we can do to create a culture of encouragement in the church? (BTW, you certainly don't have to go to FLC to weigh in. I'd love to hear from you wherever you are!!)

Creating Culture Part 1 - Inclusiveness

I think it was Erwin McManus who really started to get me thinking about the role of leadership in creating culture in the church. When we first got to Westside, Jamie and I read his book Unstoppable Force and learned about how his job title at Mosaic was a "Cultural Architect". He talks about his primary duty as a leader to create culture in the church and the city.

It's been a while since I've read the book so the details are a bit blurry. But I've been thinking a lot about how to create culture since coming on staff at Family Life Church. It was really interesting starting the NXT Youth Minsitry from scratch and having a huge part in creating the culture. It was an amazing thought for us when we realized that anything we did not like about the culture of our youth ministry was up to us to change. As youth pastors, we are cultural architects.

A couple weeks ago, Pastor Steve challenged his pastoral leadership to create culture in the church focusing on 10 specific areas. I thought I'd do a series of blog posts on the list and start a conversation about creating culture in each area. I'd love to know your thoughts, ideas, experiences, frustrations, rants, dreams etc. as we explore church culture over the next few weeks. Let's get some discussion going!

Culture #1 - Inclusiveness

The church in America has come a long way in creating a culture of inclusiveness over the last 10-15 years. But I think we need to go beyond just welcoming visitors and making services feel more comfortable and understandable. I believe that trend has run its course. God wants this to run deeper in our hearts.

It's a common complaint among young people that our churches have too many cliques. There's always a sense of competition and popularity when you're gathering a group of young people together. But the culture of inclusiveness can be created.

I remember being in high school and visiting different youth ministries in our city. The difference in the inclusiveness was one of the first things I noticed. As as new person, some groups cared that I was there and some didn't. I ended up making some of my best friends through the youth ministries where they had an inclusive culture. Why? Because they reached out and loved me - and I in turn responded to that. Pretty simple.

In our youth ministry we have a "connect team". Their responsibility is to connect with new students on Wednesday nights, set up coffee with them or something, and see how they can help get them involved in Family Life Church. But I really believe we need to do much more than just have a team of people who take this responsibility on. When inclusiveness becomes a robotic and starile or a delegated responsibility we're not truly acheiving our goal. I appreciate all that our connect team does, but I have a deep conviction that every member of our youth ministry should be on the team. In fact, I see a day where we don't need a team because it's just who we are. We include everyone.

I believe that inclusiveness must become a culture throughout the youth ministry and the whole church. I believe that God has called us to do supernatural things. And I believe it is supernatural to get young people to stop thinking about themselves, let go of insecurity and think about how new people can be included. I believe it's possible and I believe it's something that God wants us to focus on this year.

Time for you to chime in -

How do we as leaders create a culture in the church where everybody is welcome?