Turning Losers Into Winners

I remember watching the Green Bay Packers when I was younger. They were a football dynasty. It seemed they were always winning. Winning and Green Bay football somehow seemed to be synonymous. The coach at that time was Vince Lombardi (do the math - I am old). When he first came to Green Bay as head coach the team was the worst in the NFL. They were losers. Under his leadership they completely turned around. How did he lead such a turn around? Yes he brought in some new players. Yes he changed some of the plays. Yet it was not new players or new plays that led to the turn around in the team. It was a new team culture. By culture I am referring to values, worldview and priorities of a group of people. Lombardi changed the way the team saw themselves and their destiny (an excellent biography of Lombardi that brings this out is 'When Pride Still Mattered'). Without a change in the culture of the team none of the new plays or even new players would have led to a turn around. Lombardi built a culture of winning as the only option. He had bull dog like focus and tenacity in building this culture. Once the culture changed then the team changed.

The reason many efforts at church renewal fail is because leaders do not change the underlying culture of the church. Real renewal must happen at the level of the culture of a church. It is easy to bring in a new worship leader or change the name of something or purchase the latest DVD curriculum or change a structure but if a leader does not work to change the culture of a church nothing will change.

The good news is that the culture of a church can be changed. To do so a leader must know several things:

1. What is the current culture of the church? Not what people say but what do they really desire in their hearts. Do they really desire to see lost people saved and lives transformed or is that just something they know they must believe?

2. What is the culture that the leader wishes to build. Lombardi knew what he wanted to see. The leader must know clearly and specifically what the culture needs to look like for the church to be renewed.

3. How to systematically and deliberately build the new culture. An excellent book on this is the book by McManus, 'An Unstoppable Force' listed in the resources section. McManus writes that a pastor is a cultural architect. There are specific things that a pastor can begin doing that if done consistently over time will change the culture of the church. I have put these practices into place in the church I serve and I have seen the culture change - slowly but surely. One practice is to see every interaction, every crisis, every problem as an opportunity to build the new culture.

Culture building takes time, commitment and perseverance. Become a cultural architect. That is the road to the super bowl.