By Gerry Teichrob

Consider a couple of events that have precipitated transitions in local churches

“I wish our pastor cared more about community needs” Susan sighed. She had just made a proposal about getting church seniors involved in a reading program at the request of the neighborhood elementary school. “A reading program won’t get the gospel message out” her pastor replied, “getting them here to find Jesus is the answer for our community.” Susan felt that all her pastor cared about was another “successful” Sunday morning service. She decided it was time to initiate a conversation about this event with fellow members of the church council. A few months later Community Church requested the resignation of their pastor and moved into transition.

As Pastor Bob reflected he was frustrated, “Why is it that every time a proposal comes forward that would help our church take a stand for righteousness in this community George is against it? When I candidated at this church George was the one who was so enthusiastic about making a difference.” George’s influential status as church board chair seemed to ensure the rejection of any similar proposals. It was not long until pastor Bob resigned. Once again First Church was facing a pastoral transition.

A vital but often overlooked question that local church leaders need to explore is: What are the core values that shape our church’s stance toward culture? These cultural engagement values are resident in every church but often they have not been clearly explored and articulated. In this article I would like provide some compelling reasons for transitional leaders to help churches explore this question and suggest a way to do it.

Why it is important to assess and articulate cultural engagement values.

It is necessary in light of the times in which we live.

Over the centuries sincere Christians have reached different conclusions about the church and culture. More recently, in the Canadian church scene, diverse cultural engagement values have emerged. As a result, many churches are having somewhat of a “wild west” experience about cultural engagement values. Struggles often get centered on issues – worship styles, programming, allocation of resources, leadership roles, and lifestyle practices. Assessment of cultural engagement values move past the issues to clarify the values that specific character and nature unique to the local church at a time when there are many perspectives.

·Increased effectiveness for the pastoral search process.

In these days the stakes are high in a pastoral search process. No church wants to fail in selecting a new pastoral leader. Clarity about cultural engagement values helps the church and prospective pastor explore their views during the search process. Often dissonance about cultural engagement values becomes apparent after the pastor has already been engaged.¹ If these values are not carefully explored it can precipitate another transition.

·Assumptions that create conflict can be constructively addressed.

It is not uncommon for church leaders to assume that other leaders hold similar cultural engagement values to their own. This assumption precludes discussion about cultural engagement values. Why bother if everyone thinks alike? But the differences emerge in other ways. As soon as a leader attempts to move the church in a certain direction someone else “hits the brake pedal.” The proposal becomes the lightning rod while the underlying values are overlooked. Exploring cultural engagement values provides opportunity to address assumptions that if left unexplored can be deadly to unity and church health before engaging a new pastor.

How can the values that shape a church’s stance toward culture be assessed and explored?

My research has resulted in the development of The Culture Stance Assessment Matrix©. This is a tool transitional leaders can use to help local church leadership groups constructively explore cultural engagement values using a four step process:

∙ Framework – Outlines four major stances Christians have historically held toward culture.

·Diagnosis – Leaders use the matrix questionnaire to assess their cultural engagement values.

·Summary - A presentation of collective results to the church leadership group.

·Mentored Dialogue - Guidance is provided for the church leadership group to discuss their collective values with a goal to gain understanding and consensus.

This process provides a path for pastors, church leadership teams, transitional pastoral leaders, and search committees  to constructively explore the core values that shape a church’s stance toward culture - often a “make or break issue” of an effective pastoral tenure. For more information visit the Culture Stance Mentoring website at CultureStance.ca

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Rev. Gerald (Gerry) Teichrob, M. A. is the founder of Culture Stance Mentoring. He brings 28 years of pastoral ministry experience (including 13 years as a Senior Pastor) to help leadership teams better understand their cultural engagement values using the Culture Stance Assessment Matrix.© Gerry also assists churches with information management resources as a development consultant with NCOL Ministries.  Gerry is currently involved in transitional ministry at Mission Alliance Church in Mission, BC.

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¹ See Angie Ward, “Discerning Your Church's Hidden Core Values,” Building Church Leaders. January 17, 2005 [newsletter on-line]; available from http://www.christianitytoday.com/leaders/newsletter/2005/cln50117.html; Internet; accessed January 23, 2005.