Living In The 3rd Culture: Creating a Leadership Culture

Most young pastors and church planters do not fully appreciate the importance of creating a leadership culture within the local church. Nevertheless a church’s vitality is directly tied to its leadership. Creating a leadership culture includes providing an environment where leaders can lead and having pathways of natural leadership development. Good leaders do not happen. They are trained and then given freedom to lead within in their gifts and abilities.

In Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton’s New York Times Bestseller book entitled All In: How the Best Managers Create a culture of Belief and Drive Big Results, they present what they call the E+E+E to describe a successful business culture. Though this book was written primarily for a business context, it offers helpful insight in how to create a healthy leadership culture in a church. The three E’s the authors describe are:

“Engaged: Attachment to the company and willingness to give extra effort.” The leaders understand how their work benefits the church and have a clear understanding of what they are responsible and accountable for. They can see the value of their contributions to the church’s larger mission.

“Enabled: A work environment that supports productivity and performance.” The pastor supports the leaders with the right tools, and training. The pastor invests significant time into coaching his leaders so they do not feel isolated in their work.

“Energized. Individual physical, social and emotional well-being at work.” The leaders have feelings of well-being and high levels of energy because the pastor helps them see fruit of their work and helps them balance ministry, home life, and recognizing their individual contributions. (pp. 50, 51, 62)

Unfortunately, most pastors are not actively involved in their leader’s lives resulting in churches full of disengaged, confused and tired leaders! Most pastors are not engaged in their leader’s lives because they have not developed pathways of relational leadership development. Many pastors mistake the theological training that is commonly done for elders and deacons as they only leadership training necessary. Though this is an important step in the officer training process, it in itself is not leadership training.

Early in my ministry a seasoned leader advised me to invest heavily in the young men in my ministry, and since that time I have dedicated a substantial amount of time and energy on spending time with men from one-on-one, to groups of three to twelve. My primary goal was not to train them through any specific curriculum, but to build relationships where I could better understand where they were spiritually and then root them deep in the Gospel.

These groups of men became the “farming system” for the leaders in my church as well many other churches. As I grew to know their strengths, weaknesses and spiritual struggles, I was able to give them the tools they needed to grow and to be their encourager or coach along the way. I was also able to identify early in the process not only where they could lead, but if they should lead.

Author’s Gostick and Elton point out the 10/20/70 learning principle that says:

10 percent of all learning happens during formal training, or event.
20 percent of all learning happens from working directly with your leader.
70 percent of learning occurs during real-life on-the-job experiences or individual cultural encounters (p. 215-16).

In order to build a leadership culture in a church, you must be a leader who operates in the 70 percent “real-life” category. And in order to encourage and maintain a leadership culture you must live in the 70 percent and make sure an E+E+E leadership culture exists in your church. In a church setting it should look something like this:

Engaged: Your leaders feel an attachment and ownership to the church and are eager and willing to give extra effort. They understand how their ministry fits the overall mission and vision of the church. They “get” how their ministry is necessary both in the church and for the Kingdom.

Enabled: Your leaders feel the freedom to do their task and are not micromanaged. They know you trust them. You have provided an environment that supports productivity and performance. You are supporting them both personally and with the right tools, and training. You are coaching these leaders so they do not feel isolated in their work.

Energized: Despite of what is going on in the life of the church your leaders do not feel hopeless, but are energized. The leaders have deep understanding of the Gospel and how it applies personally as well as to their ministry. They are also energized because you did not let them burn out by overextending themselves and not keeping their commitments in balance.

I may have mentioned this in an earlier blog, nevertheless though it may sound ridiculous, you cannot have a healthy team unless the team not only has a game plan, but the know what game they are supposed to be playing.

Teams operate at their best when there is a clear vision that each member of the team fully embraces.
Teams reach their full potential when each team member is in a position that fits them and they know what they are supposed to do and are empowered to do it.
Teams have longevity, when they enjoy each other as well as the game – They have fun! Remember the 3 P’s – PRAY together, PLAY together, PLAN together.

In summary, a healthy leadership culture is one where leaders are constantly being identified, trained, engaged, enabled and energized. A leadership culture does not simply happen. It must be exemplified and maintained by the pastor.

Third Culture Defined

The term “Third Culture” has been used in various ways. One “Third Culture” group “consists of those scientists and other thinkers in the empirical world who, through their work and expository writing, are taking the place of the traditional intellectuals in rendering visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefining who and what we are.”Another common use of “Third Culture” in fact describes my personal experience. The term was first coined by sociologist Ruth Hill Useem, professor emeritus of sociology and education at Michigan State University. She used the term to describe children growing up outside their citizenship countries because of a parent’s work abroad. A “TCK or Third Culture Kid has since been defined as, “someone who as a child has spent a significant period of time in one or more culture(s) other than his or her own, thus integrating elements of those cultures and their own birth culture, into a third culture" Though I am a TCK, it is my desire to use the term in referring to the people who make up the true Christian Church (Theologically defined as the “Invisible Church”). In other words, the Church is a Third Culture. Scripture teaches us that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law and the punishment of Hell, and through faith in Him we become citizens of His Kingdom, receiving not only the full benefits of citizenship in His Kingdom, but indeed the right to become sons and daughters of God. The moment, we step into this Kingdome we experience a new and different culture. We are no longer in the kingdom of darkness, but now live in the kingdom of light and that changes everything! At the same time we never went anywhere physically as we continue to work, live, and play with the same people as before, we see the world differently, we no longer truly fit – we are “in the world, but not of it” -- we have a new culture. For most of us this life changing experience occurs within our birth culture and our Christian experience is saturated by those influences. For those who grew up in non-Hispanic White North America, Christianity is uniquely different than those who grew up in an African American context. Our birth culture effects how we live out our faith in the Kingdom of Christ. Yet the Kingdom of Christ requires one more cultural shift and that is away from birth culture and into a culture made up of people of every ethnic and cultural group that has ever existed on the face of the earth. This Kingdom is no more North American than it is Tanzanian or Tibetan. It is a unique or shall we say a “Third Culture” that integrates elements of all cultures into one new and better one, where there is no Jew or Greek, slave nor free, male nor female“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Gal 3:26-298). In fact Revelation 7:9-10 gives us a description what this will look like one day:“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." A Third Culture Perspective is one that understands and appreciates that God gathers people from every ethnic and cultural group and brings them into the new culture of His Son Jesus Christ. It is a perspective where birth cultures are appreciated and respected as coming from God, but none are superior. It seeks to have a deeper understanding of the Gospel, pays attention to culture, our own as well as others, and then attempts to bring them together. It is a perspective that “seeks first His Kingdom and His Righteousness” and lovingly and passionately enjoys and glorifies God in all we do. It is a perspective that welcomes immigrants….

Creating a Leadership Culture

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