Strategies for transforming a toxic church culture
Why is it that the best strategic plans and good leadership often are not able to move churches in the desired direction? Sam Chand contends that toxic culture is to blame. Quite often, leaders don’t sense the toxicity, but it poisons their relationships and derails their vision. This work describes five easily identifiable categories of church culture (inspiring-accepting-stagnant-discouraging-toxic), with diagnostic descriptions in the book and a separate online assessment tool. The reader will be able to identify strengths and needs of their church’s culture, and then apply practical strategies (communication, control and authority, selection and placement of personnel, etc.) to make their church’s culture more positive. Discusses how to diagnose the state of a church’s cultureReveals what it takes to put in place effective strategies for creating a more positive church cultureAuthor served on the board of EQUIP (Dr. John Maxwell’s Ministry), equipping five million leaders world-wide.
This important book offers a clear guide for understanding and recreating a healthy church culture.
Culture, Not Vision, Is the Most Powerful Factor in a Church According to Sam Chand, “Culture–not vision or strategy–is the most powerful factor in any organization.” Many churches formulate excellent vision statements and strategic goals for reaching their communities. But their success or failure depends on whether they have attended to “the personality of the church,” that is, its “organizational culture.” Chand arranges these churches on a spectrum from “inspiring” to “toxic.”What separates inspiring churches from toxic ones is how they…
How to deal with change, conflict and problem people Culture – not vision or strategy – is the most powerful factor in any organization, according to Samuel Chand in this book. Culture determines how receptive people are to new ideas, it encourages or suppresses creativity, it builds up or deflates enthusiasm, it creates a sense of pride or discouragement, and it shapes individual morale, teamwork, effectiveness and outcomes.The book describes a range of different cultures. Inspiring cultures are ones with clear direction and an…