Culture Episodes

This final conversation isn’t a conclusion as much as it is a pause.Throughout this series, we’ve talked about culture not as something you install, enforce, or fix—but something you inhabit. We explored posture before instruction, trust before compliance, process before outcomes, and context before conclusions. Each episode pulled at a different thread, but all of them pointed to the same quiet truth: culture is formed over time by how we show up with one another.In this capstone episod...

Where do we go from here? This is the tricky part so that your actions are not disruptive.

The modern church is incredibly good at keeping itself running.Week after week, the gears turn. Services happen. Scriptures are listed. Programs are maintained. Everything works—efficiently, faithfully, predictably.But what if that efficiency is the problem?In this episode, we explore how the church can slowly drift into becoming a machine—one that only needs power to keep spinning—while missing the deeper invitation of the story God is telling in the world.We talk about how Scripture is often reduced to instructions to follow rather than a narrative to trust, and how obedience—while good—can quietly replace participation. When faith becomes about keeping the system going, we may find ourselves running hard on a wheel that never actually moves us forward.This conversation isn’t about rebellion or abandoning the church. It’s about posture. About trust. About stepping off the wheel long enough to ask whether we’re maintaining something God never asked us to preserve,…

Building church culture is not for the faint of heart. Collectively it causes the group to ask good questions and to more or less throw all your cards on the table. The question of the year started out as:"Are you excited about your place in the churches future?"This gets unpacked into exploring the differences in the two different mentalities of the church, The traditional mentality and the participation mentality. We go further into the conversation by talking about the authority of the Bible or the chance to trust the Bible as God's story. This is where most people punt their podcast players across the room and give up wrestling with God. And that is where we want to come into the conversation and tell you a story that maybe just maybe reflected how Jesus might have explained how the authority of God has been given to him and what that now looks like. Do you trust the story?

Most people say they’re waiting on God. But what if God is actually waiting on us?In this episode of The Culture Series, we dive into Preparation—not as a checklist, but as a posture. Drawing inspiration from the story of Nehemiah’s watchmen, we explore what it means to live with spiritual readiness in a church culture that often drifts toward comfort and sameness.Preparation is more than planning—it’s becoming the kind of person who’s ready when God moves. We’re not called to sit passively, waiting for signs. We’re called to sharpen our spears on the wall, to lean into transformation, and to resist the slow fade of spiritual survival.If you’ve ever felt stuck in the same rhythms, or sensed your community was waiting for someone else to go first, this episode is for you.Let’s stop surviving Sundays and start preparing for something sacred.

Culture, Part Three, Posture and ProcessToday we continue with storytelling our way through some sample values that you might want to add to your church culture discussion.  Stories are a great vehicle to make a point and to reflect on.  No sermons here, just another short journey on the road to understanding and building culture in your church.

Have you ever met someone that works for a company or a corporation that loves where they work because of the companies culture?  We have all heard of some of those companies and the way they set themselves apart.  The real question is, why are churches not doing the same thing?  The answers may surprise you as we unwrap several stories and incorporate them into figuring out how to choose values.If you choose integrity or authenticity as a value, how are YOU going to contribute to those values being carried out.  This is the vital part of the discussion and there are numerous stories to help us understand what posture looks like.  Posture has many looks, so it's important to be thorough.  If you want to make history and develop culture then its important to have backstories.

Most churches focus on beliefs and mission statements—but miss the deeper force that shapes everything they do: culture. In this kickoff to our Culture Series, we’ll unpack why a formal culture statement is the “secret sauce” that makes your church unique, how it differs from mission or belief statements, and why 99% of churches overlook it. You’ll discover how culture can become the living example of what Jesus modeled, and how it can transform the way your church thinks, leads, and relates. Plus, we’ll give you a roadmap and resources to start building a culture that thrives.