If you read yesterday’s post, I touched briefly on culture. Not culture…as in world. But culture…as in church. The basic premise was every church has a culture. I’d like to expand on that a bit here and hopefully it won’t be seen as beating a dead horse.

A great example Matt gives in his book is the culture of Mother’s Day. What started out as a simple effort to express love and appreciation to her hero, Anna Marie Jarvis now hates what she started. MD has become, as many things tend to, a big business. Can anyone say Christmas? Easter? Despite the efforts of the minority, those two holidays have certainly lost their luster as being religious holidays to many people. Our culture has adapted and adopted that change.

Over the years we have seen a number of programs hit churches, with two of the most prominent being a Seeker-Driven and Purpose-Driven church. Those are only two, of course. And this is not mean to be disparaging of those. They both had some good points. But like many programs designed for church growth, it had as its main purpose either people or the growth of the church.

The focus wasn’t on Jesus as much as it was on a program or on people one is trying to reach.

A church without its focus being on Jesus is missing the boat. I hesitate to say it is not a church because that is awful judgmental and I don’t want to go there. However Jesus is not the center of our church culture…if He is not the One we promote…if He is not the One we glory in, sing about, preach about. If He isn’t then I believe our culture is skewed. I have said in the past that I was one who pursued church growth programs like fleas pursue an animal. And I watched them fail time after time. No make that I watched me fail time after time. The real truth is (and I agree with Matt here) is “we do not build His Church, nor did He promise to build our church.” It is His Church not mine/ours.

So what makes up a church culture? Three things:

1. Theology– the church’s “thinking about God.”
2. Philosophy-the church’s “thinking about ministry.”
3. Practice– the church’s “thinking doing for God.”

There is so much more to say but my (self-imposed) space is winding down. I know not many of you can do much about your church culture since you are not in leadership. But then again you can. Evaluate. Question. Most importantly, PRAY. Pray that your leadership “gets it.”