When it comes to a church, what is a church’s culture? Samuel R. Chand says “culture is the strongest force in any organization. The best way to understand culture is the statement: ‘This is how we do things here.’”

Consultant Sam Chand has written Cracking Your Church’s Culture: Seven Keys to Unleashing Vision & Inspiration (Jossey-Bass, 2010, a Leadership Network publication), and says, “It is the atmosphere in which the church functions. It is the prevalent attitude. It is the collage of spoken and unspoken messages.”

“The strongest force in an organization is not vision or strategy — it is the culture which holds all the other components,” says Chand. Every leader at some time or the other has asked the same question: “Why is it that we are not where I know we should be as a church?” Now, you know the answer — it’s your church’s culture.

He recently gave an interview to Church Executive:

Say I’m new to a church. Should I be able to pick up on its culture sitting in the pew? Absolutely! You can go to a new church and sniff culture! Have you ever been to a new place and said to yourself (or others!), “Something’s not right.” Without knowing what it is you just smelled culture. Think about the different cultures in different restaurants, schools, churches and even homes.

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