Culture

There is a lot of talk about culture in society.  What about the culture of an organization?  I've been a part of some toxic environments.  The sad thing is many of them were churches and religious organizations.   If Jesus has transformed our lives, why doesn't the culture look like that?

This week I got to serve at GROW 19.  It is a conference that Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama puts on every year to help pastors grow their church.  The secret to Highlands is prayer and culture.   I'm not naive to believe that it is a perfect environment.  Nowhere this side of heaven is perfect.  But the culture is contagious.  We had hundreds of Dream Teamers (volunteers) giving of their time to serve almost 4000 pastors.  I am passionate about serving at Grow because I was one of the desperate pastors 12 years ago.  

What the pastors and staff find when they visit Highlands is that there is a healthy culture.  Perfect, by no means.  But healthy, yes.  Trust me, I know the difference.  I've been a part of 4 church splits.  One as a child and three as a staff member.  One of those splits was a mutiny.   In unhealthy cultures, the staff and members don't work together.   They are territorial.  The last church I pastored, I had groups formed to get rid of me.  They met in the back of a local restaurant with stacks of complaints about me.  I don't want to make it sound like I'm perfect either.  I'm sure I was the cause of some unhealthiness at places I served. 

When we joined Highlands the excellence and culture was what attracted us.  It is a church that is truly about going after the lost.   It excites me every time I enter the doors or go out monthly serving at the Dream Center.  Thursday was my birthday.  I'm not one who cares about being noticed.  I didn't tell anyone on the team I was serving at Grow that it was my birthday.  But one of my friends who is on staff at the church wished me a happy birthday because he saw it on Facebook.  Next thing I know the whole team I was serving with is singing happy birthday.

Several of my co-workers called and wished me a happy birthday.  Then someone from the ministry I serve at called.  When I saw it I just assumed he was calling to wish me a happy birthday.  That was a bad assumption.  He wanted to know why I had not done my monthly reports.  I always get my reports in on time but they recently changed the date of our deadline and I thought it was the 1st not the last day of the month.   Nothing was said about my birthday or even asked about my family.  Let's just say, it was a contrast of two cultures.  Thankful that I can be part of a healthy culture at church.  That is more than most people can say.

Serve Day Everyday

Our church does a Serve Day every July.  Our pastor says this is the one day he wants everyone who considers Church of the Highlands home to serve on this one day.  If you have read my blog enough you know that I eat, breathe and sleep outreach.  I found the Dream Center a few years ago.  Well, actually it found me.  I'm an adjunct professor at Highlands College.  One of my first students 5 years ago asked for prayer for an outreach he was doing at the Dream Center.  I asked if he needed help and he said sure.  I had the privilege of leading a few students to Christ that day.  I was hooked and went every time he had that outreach. 

The next May I was going through Step 4 of the Highlands Growth Track for the 5th time because I was going to start serving on the Online Campus Dream Team.  While I was there the student who was now on staff at the Dream Center named Kevin Farmer was at the Dream Center table with Pastor Jamil, the Woodlawn Campus pastor.  Jamil's wife worked at Highlands College and we knew each other.  They recruited me to go to the Dream Center and serve on one of the Saturday serves.  I went to the next one that happened to fall on the 2nd Saturday of the month.  I went out to this community called Kingston.  I sat back an observed as our team went door to door passing out groceries and inviting people to a block party.  After we knocked on a few doors I began speaking up to the people we were interacting with.

Next thing you know I had the opportunity to lead 2 or 3 people to Christ.  One of the Outreach people looked at me and said, "this is your first time?"  I said I'm kind of a ringer. lol.  I was hooked.  I kept coming back and said that I just wanted to go every month but didn't want to be on the leadership team.  Well, Robby Johnson wouldn't take no for an answer and so I've been serving as a Door-to-door leader for over 4 years. 

What I've learned is that God has given me a gift.  I don't know how to explain it.  It is not me.  I'm not a great salesman.  I'm an ok communicator.  But put me in an opportunity to share Jesus with people and the Holy Spirit kicks in.  So, Saturday our small group went with my team on Serve Day.  We saw 13 people give their lives to Christ just on our team!  Wow!  Serve Day is awesome, but serve day is every day.  I don't want to just minister on one day a year.  I want to share Jesus every day!