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Home > Articles > Discerning Your Church's Hidden Core Values
Discerning Your Church's Hidden Core Values
It's the unstated, underlying purpose that really drives a church.
Angie Ward

Topics:Character, Church, Church health, Church life, Church staff, Core values, Culture, Mission statements
Filters:Church board, Counseling, Elder, Management, Pastor, Service, Shepherd
Purpose:Discipleship
References:Acts 4:32-35, Philippians 3:12, Philippians 3:14
Date Added:July 11, 2007

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"Don't rock the boat" seems to be a common ethos at many churches, but here are some others:

  1. We can find something wrong with anything.

  2. The world isn't safe, so we will protect you.

  3. Visitors are welcome to come back, if they really want to.

  4. Saved by grace but living under law.

These core belief are rarely articulated, but they have enormous impact on the health and effectiveness of a church, no matter what its stated purpose.

Culture takes a long time to create, and even longer to change. Melting the tip of the iceberg does not eliminate the ice below the waterline. But in any church, the first step toward creating a healthy culture is identifying the existing ethos, whether positive or negative.

Our experience at our first church prepared us for our current church. (Let me say that we had many gracious, supportive friends and fellow ministers there, and we learned so much.) This time, we knew to look for the underlying culture. The ethos we eventually discovered in our new congregation was "You don't need to do anything." From spiritual growth to evangelism to giving to ministry, a church that was founded as a safe place for those wounded by religion became a place for long-time Christians to be comfortable and inactive.

Changing that culture, of course, is an ongoing process. Slowly, but surely, our church is beginning to reflect a renewed purpose of "Life-changing relationships with God, with each other, and with the world around us."

Our new ethos? "The more the merrier!"

Angie Ward is a consultant, ministry leader, and pastor's spouse in Durham, North Carolina.

Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Leadership Journal.
Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
January 17, 2005