I’m fascinated with churches that are great at assimilation. The most common theme that I see in churches that assimilate quickly is culture. These churches do a remarkable job of creating culture that new people can easily adopt as their own. Some churches do this very intentionally, and some do it intuitively. Regardless, these are the components that I’ve observed make for great and easily adopted church cultures.
Language – The words spoken regularly in churches are part of their culture. The question we, as church leaders, must wrestle with is this: Is our church’s language easy to understand and adopt? This is an important question because church visitors are more likely to stick around if they understand the language.
One of my favorite restaurants has a menu in Spanish with English subtitles. Most of the staff speaks Spanish as their primary language. As a result, there are very few English-speaking patrons. Because of the cultural language disconnect thousands of people are missing out on the awesome food.
Doesn’t that sound like many of our churches? Millions of people miss out on the gospel proclaimed in our churches, and we wonder why. Perhaps it’s because we sometimes speak a language that’s foreign to the people we want to reach.
The key here is to intentionally use language that is highly relatable, memorable, and understandable. Examine your church’s culture. What language are you speaking? Is your language clear? Is it consistent? Is it relevant? Is it memorable?
Icons – Icons serve as symbols that inspire and motivate people. Icons are also portable and relatively easy to duplicate.
The greatest culture-creating churches I’ve observed leverage the power of icons all the time. I’m talking about logos…wordless logos to be precise. While we typically think of logos in terms of marketing, we shouldn’t miss the power of logos and creating culture. When a church duplicates their memorable logo on T-shirts, coffee cups, posters, bumper stickers, invite cards and pens, people in the church are eager to take those icons with them and put them on display. It’s not the marketing value that I’m emphasizing; it’s the church-pride that people feel. That sense of pride creates a strong cultural bond.
Does your church have icons? Are they portable and inspirational? Are your people carrying your icons (logos) with them and putting them on display?
Celebrations – What regular celebrations are a part of your church culture? More specifically, what unique celebrations are a part of your church culture? Every church celebrates Easter and Christmas, but what’s different about your church? LifeChurch.tv in Edmond, Oklahoma, has an annual celebration called “At the Movies.” It’s a 4-week series in July when they pull out all the stops and make a huge splash. As a result, they have their highest attendance of the year in July! While every other church in America is pushing through the summer slump, LifeChurch.tv is gaining tremendous momentum from their unique cultural celebration.
Renaissance Church in Summit, New Jersey, has a series in the fall called “Finding Faith in Rock ‘N Roll” where their band performs a well-known rock ‘n roll song, and then the message is preached about it. Their church members are more excited about this series than any other series all year. As a result, more newcomers are personally invited during this series than at other times.
Do your celebrations help people feel like they’re part of something very special? How could you create culture by leveraging celebrations?
What other aspects contribute to a life-giving culture? Watch for Part 2 of this series tomorrow.
