Samuel Chand presents a great look at what prevents successful change and transition in "Cracking Your Church's Culture Code."

Chand presents the idea that it is a church's culture that needs to be addressed even more so than an eloquently articulated vision or strategy. Culture is about the people, and deep lasting change will never happen unless the culture is addressed. Presenting vision, implementing strategy and not addressing the deep issues of culture will result in resistance to the vision and strategy.

He identifies five categories of church culture - Inspiring, Accepting, Stagnant, Discouraging and Toxic - and goes on to give some of the defining characteristics of each category. Once the category has been determined, Chand provides seven leverage points that can specifically be addressed to change the culture. He uses an acronym of the word CULTURE; Control, Understanding, Leadership, Trust, Unafraid, Responsive, Execution. Chand also anticipates many of the key issues that will arise during times of organizational culture shift.

Having served on two churches that attempted significant transitions, this book could have been used a few years before it was actually written! This is a book that every church leader who is looking to impact deep long-lasting change should have.

Cracking Your Church's Culture Code from Leadership Network on Vimeo.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the this book for the purposes of blogging about it from Leadership Network.

My father told me that when we told him and my mother we were expecting our first child almost 20 years ago! He was right... well, we still have kids at home so I don't know for sure about the 'after they've left them home' part. He's done pretty good with other advice...

There are two times you know all there is to know about leadership, before you lead and after you die. While you're the one leading and responsible for making the decisions, all bets are off... at least if you listen to all the people second guessing every move you make!

Actually, you never know all there is to know about leadership. What are the most important leadership lessons you've learned? Go ahead, leave a comment and share your wisdom!

Churches that believe the regular attender is the customer are churches that do not understand the priesthood of all believers. A firm understanding of the priesthood of all believers leads to others focused thinking. In a department store, front line employees are served by behind the scenes personnel (stock personnel serve the floor associates). The floor associates are the 'customers' of the stock personnel. The floor associate serves the external customer, the paying customer who has a need that is being met through the store. The most important customer in the chain is the external customer, without them, the whole chain dies. However, this does not mean that you can neglect the internal customer! Without the internal customer, the chain will also die.

In the church world, there are both internal and external customers. There are ministries that exist to support those in the church. However, there must also remain the focus on the external customer... those not yet in the church. If the balance between these two focuses isn't managed well, disaster will arrive. Either the church body will become ingrown and ineffective or the church body will be neglected and under-nourished.

The church that focuses internally will think that they are fulfilling their mission because they are maturing believers. The church that focuses externally will think that they are fulfilling their mission because they are getting more people into the kingdom.

The Bible teaches not either-or, but both-and. We are to make disciples! Evangelism and discipleship are required to make disciples.

Balancing the tension between the two is the responsibility of church leadership.

One of the major challenges that the team captains face is "pairing" the right players together in the Fourballs and Foursomes matches. Style, chemistry and competence are all factors in how the captains put together the pairings. In the Fourballs, a captain may choose to put an aggressive player and a conservative player in the same pairing. In the Foursomes, a captain may pair a great iron player and a great putter. In all pairings, the player's chemistry is usually taken into consideration... I say usually because a there was the time that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were paired together - their professional competition hasn't fostered much goodwill toward each other.

Here are some thoughts regarding teams and how they can work best.

Teammates need to complement each other. This is undeniable. Scores of books have been written in the last few years about playing to our strengths and letting others play to their strengths. When a team is assembled that has complimentary strengths there is incredible potential.

Complementary strengths are not enough, competence must also exist. When someone is in a role that requires certain strengths but lacks the competence for the role, it really doesn't matter how the other team member's strengths complement that individual, the team will be in for a tough road.

There are some core competences that are needed in all leaders. Teammates can complement each others strengths but they cannot compensate for weakness. When staffing with paid or volunteer staff, it is important not to neglect the aspect of competence. These seems like a statement from the 'are you really wasting my time pointing out the obvious?' file. However, far too often, a person's "likability" or charisma gets them into a position instead of their competence.

One of the marks of a great teammate is that they is not just aware of their strengths, they are aware of their individual weaknesses.

One form of evaluation comes through the power of story.

One evening at our group I started by telling the group they could choose Option #1 or Option #2. I gave them no indication what was behind ‘door #1′ or ‘door #2.’ One of the outspoken individuals picked #2 and everyone else just fell in line. I got more insight as to whom I could approach as a future apprentice.

Well, option #2 was an exercise that required self-examination and some serious thinking on the part of the group members. I handed out this page and challenged everyone to think back over the past year and see how they’d grown in the four core values. Then to spend time thinking forward about how they would would like to grow in the four core value areas.

But wait, that’s not all, then they were to spend time thinking about how the group could help them grow in those four core values. This was one uninterrupted quiet time about 20 minutes long… okay, there were a couple of times when little kids interrupted us to tell mommy that they needed to go potty.

After the quiet time, we spend about 45 minutes discussing our thoughts. We focused mainly on the future personal growth and the group involvement in that growth. It was a great discussion. We learned some things about each other, both vulnerability and acceptance were present. It was one of the best group nights we've had.