Culture that Transforms: Creating Environments Where People Flourish

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I love talking about culture. I’ve seen first-hand in my own life, and in the lives of those I’ve led over the years, what a huge difference it can make to a person’s growth and freedom. If you intentionally create the right kind of culture, you and others are far more likely to thrive.

What do I mean when I talk about culture? Culture is about defining the kind of people we want to be as we follow Jesus. The best way I can illustrate culture is by thinking of a farmer cultivating his land to grow crops. The farmer purposefully removes anything from the ground that might hinder the seed from taking root and bearing fruit. He also enriches the soil with anything that will promote the health and growth of his crops. The farmer deliberately works on and defines the culture of his land to maximise the possibility of growth.

When we define culture in a community — in our churches, families, or workplaces — we’re doing the same thing spiritually. We intentionally decide what we want to uproot and remove from the community that inhibits growth. And we deliberately define the behaviours we want to develop and cultivate so that freedom and fruit can multiply.

It’s worth bearing in mind that if we want to create a certain culture around us, we have to start by developing that culture within us. Proverbs 4:23 says, ‘Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.’ If we focus on cultivating the culture we want in our own hearts, the fruit of that will naturally flow out of us and impact those around us. Conversely, if we try to build a culture around us that we’re not also prioritising within ourselves, the fruit will be short-lived, and we won’t see lasting cultural change.

How do we decide the kind of culture we want to create? How do we work out the things we want to remove from our hearts and communities, and the behaviours we want to pursue? And how do we help others go on this journey with us? I want to share some thoughts from the process we went through as a team when we defined the culture we wanted for our Rooted Discipleship School. I hope it helps you begin to think about the kind of culture you want to have — and how to take steps towards it.

1) Decide what you want your culture to be — and keep it simple.

Aim for no more than 3–5 words. Any more than that, and you and others are likely to struggle to remember what you're aiming for, making real change less likely.

Think about prophetic words you’ve received about who God has called you to be, passages of Scripture that inspire you, and experiences in your life that helped you feel free and grow. List potential words to define your culture, then take time to reflect on and discuss them until you can narrow the list down to no more than five.

When we defined our culture for the Discipleship School, we landed on:

• Honour

• Vulnerability

• Courage

• God’s Presence

• Hope

But we took our time discussing the other options on the list before finalising these.

• Vulnerability instead of authenticity – We all know how important it is to take our masks off if we want to step into freedom. We felt you can be authentic without being vulnerable — but vulnerability is the real key to breakthrough, with both God and others.

• Courage instead of creativity – Creativity is highly valued in our school, but we chose courage because it underpins other key values. Courage is needed for creativity. It also enables vulnerability, fuels hope, and helps us surrender to God’s presence. We need courage to be all God has called us to be.

Take your time with this process.

2) Get vision for why embracing this culture matters.

Why should you or others make the effort to embrace and implement this culture? It’s not always easy. Vision is what stirs people to say "yes" and pursue the culture — even when it costs them.

• Honour – Think about the perpetual honour within the Trinity. Creating a culture of honour on earth creates a vacuum for heaven to invade.

• Vulnerability – Scripture promises that if we walk in the light (1 John 1:7), we have fellowship with one another and we get to experience the blood of Jesus cleansing us from all sin. The light is also where Gods is, so when we choose vulnerability we grow in intimacy with Him.

Casting vision for the culture you want to create is essential — not just for your own heart, but also to inspire others to do the hard work of living differently.

3) Unpack what your culture actually looks like in practice.

The danger with defining culture is that you end up with five inspiring words on a flyer or banner, thinking that’s enough to bring change. But people need help understanding what a culture looks like in action so they can start to live it out.

• Honour – What does it mean to honour God, ourselves, and others in practice? There’s so much to unpack here.

  
  

• Living with hope – This has to involve lament. We need to help people understand that living with hope doesn’t mean avoiding grief or staying superficially positive. Lament shows that we had hope — and what we hoped for didn’t happen. Hope and lament go hand in hand.

• Courage – Courage looks different for everyone. What’s easy for one person might take huge courage for another.

4) Model it.

We can cast vision and unpack our culture in practical terms, but if we don’t model it ourselves, it won’t gain traction. People listen to what we say — but more than that, they watch how we live. Seeing a culture modelled is incredibly powerful for sustaining change. This is why we must prioritise pursuing the culture in our own hearts. What we cultivate within us is what will flow through us.

• God’s presence – Are we modelling this value in our own lives? Do we demonstrate hunger for God’s presence? Are we responding in ministry times, asking for prayer, living obediently when the Holy Spirit prompts us — whether that means apologising, saying no to something we want, or sharing Jesus with someone?

• Honour – Are we honouring ourselves? Do people hear us speak kindly about ourselves, or do they see us being harsh and lacking compassion?

Never underestimate the power of modelling culture as a way to inspire others to adopt and live it. And remember — it starts with your own heart.

5) Don’t be afraid of repetition.

Changing culture takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight. To embed culture in a community, we need to talk about it often — and repeat ourselves a lot.

In our society, there’s a temptation to chase the next best thing — the next strategy, the next innovation, the next dopamine hit. But when it comes to culture, we can’t move on. The culture we’re developing needs to become the lasting foundation for everything else we do. That means repeating it, re-envisioning people, and coming back to it again and again. We can’t be afraid of repetition.

There you go — a whistle-stop tour of culture: what it is, how to define it, and how to establish it in a community. Remember, building culture takes time. Don’t rush it.

Why not take some time this month to reflect on the kind of culture you want to cultivate — in your own life and in the lives of those around you, your family, or the people you lead? If you’ve already defined your culture, perhaps now’s a good moment to revisit it and see how you’re doing at living it out.

Developing culture is a long, slow journey — but the impact it can have on people’s freedom and their ability to be all God has called them to be makes it so worth the effort. The right kind of culture really can transform individuals and entire communities.

What kind of culture are you going to create?

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Wendy Mann Equip | www.wendymannequip.com

Building Family, Prioritising God's Presence, Extending God’s Kingdom