People Spots
Online
Produced by James W.
Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants
Provided as a service by New Life Ministries
Understanding Culture
A church will match the culture of the community in which it exists. Congregational ministry and outreach will be effective to the extent that pastors and congregations understand and relate to their cultural context.
by James W. Moss, Sr.
Faith Church is in a small Midwestern community. Very few of the homes are painted. Many are in need of repair. Faith Church, though it has grown significantly, looks like the community. Very few people have education beyond high school. Few do serious reading. Strategies of ministry cannot include significant reading. There is a sense of depression in the community. The population has been declining slightly but relentlessly for 20 years. The one significant business in the community closed. Most of the storefronts on Main Street are vacant. The businesses couldn’t be sustained in today’s climate. An additional harsh blow was the merger and removal of the high school to a nearby community. The church reflects this spirit. Though attendance and giving are near all-time highs, the attitude is not very positive. Members of the church cannot be convinced to spruce up the building, let alone expand it. They may need the money for a rainy day. This church, whether right or wrong, reflects its community. Any effective strategy for ministry has to take the culture of the community into account.
Hope Church exists in the midst of a booming suburban community. The population is growing. Businesses have trouble-finding employees to fill all their jobs. New schools are being built. A significant portion of the population range in age from 35-50. Most of the people have some education beyond high school. A number have completed college and others have advanced degrees. Hope Church is growing and resides in an upscale building that is kept neat and clean. The church is bold and aggressive. Strategies for ministry include extensive reading. This church, whether right or wrong, reflects its community. But this is a highly transient community. Hope Church just lost five recently won families because of job transfers. Any effective strategy for ministry has to take the culture of the community into account.
Charity Church exists in a community which had been rural. The farmland was developed and the area has become suburban with people moving in from the nearest metropolitan area. Everyone in the church was native to the community. The natives feel a real sense of frustration with the people from the metropolis invading their turf. The pastor has spent a great deal of time attempting to reach the newest people to the community. None of them have been assimilated into the church. This church should probably concentrate its ministry on long-term residents. In communities where the newcomers are fighting with the old-timers, a single church will have difficulty reaching both segments of the population. Any effective strategy for ministry has to take the culture of the community into account.
Simply stated, a church will reflect the culture of the community where it exists. This fact is totally unavoidable. It is also consistent with biblical understandings. The Gospel transcends culture. Missionaries of another era attempted to win people to Western culture as well as Christianity. That was an aberration of the gospel then as now. Most culture is benign. It is neither right nor wrong, moral nor immoral, spiritual nor unspiritual. It just is.
A pastor must not fight the culture of the community or that pastor will communicate that he does not like the people of the church. If that is truly communicated, then ministry ends. People must believe that the pastor loves them before they will allow the pastor to minister to them.
There are many Anglo cultures as well as cultures of other ethnic groups. Most of the churches in the conference I work for are in a 150-mile square. We have churches in at least 6 major different Anglo cultures. They are sufficiently different that a person can be a good pastor in one and not do well in another. Pastors can bridge those cultures, but they have to be very flexible and understand the culture and work with it and not against it. If a pastor is not of the culture where he/she is serving, then the pastor needs to gently learn the culture.
When I was in seminary many years ago, the common wisdom said, "Pastors shouldn’t serve within 50 miles of their home. This "old pastor’s tale" was not accurate. It takes the pastors out of their culture and makes it more difficult to serve effectively. Some can adjust to such removal and others can’t.
Church people are frequently frustrated in areas of declining population. I have been told many times, "All the children leave the community when they graduate from high school." I respond, "Do you still have schools?" The inevitable response is, "Yes." Since young families have children, they all haven’t migrated away. The pastor and people frequently take a fatalistic attitude. "We are in a declining community, so there is no option for us but to see our church decline." That often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is more difficult to grow a church in an area with a declining population, but it is not impossible.
Some communities, such as those in the "rust belt" region of Pennsylvania and the upper Midwest, don’t have good community self-images. Consequently many of the people don’t feel good about themselves either. A church which hopes to do effective ministry will have to begin with affirmation for the individuals, church, and community. Design a number of strategies to help everyone feel better about themselves.
People in a very transient area don’t stay long enough to build relationships. Loneliness becomes a dominant factor. A church must do some things that will assist in building community and bringing people together to build friendships.
There are several issues I look for in assessing ministry potential:
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Does the pastor match the culture of the people in the church? Or, at the very least, is the pastor comfortable and able to communicate with the culture of the people in the church? Ministries with this match have meaningful potential. Ministries where this match does not occur will be short. I have known of several ministries that lasted an extended period of time but were quite stormy throughout that time. |
| Do the pastor and people of the church match the people and culture of the community near the site where the church worships? A church that has existed for a long time in one place may or may not match the people of the surrounding community if that community has changed significantly. Reaching the people of the community is very possible if there is a match. It may be very difficult if there isn’t a match. |
The dictionary defines culture as used here in this manner: "The arts, beliefs, customs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought created by a people or group at a particular time." Being culturally relevant means speaking and acting so the people of a specific culture will understand and appreciate what is being said and done. It has become apparent to me that a culture is much more geographically confined than I had ever dreamed. Two small towns just five miles apart can have very different cultures. Any effective strategy for ministry has to take the culture of the community into account.
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Also see Church Culture
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Read about Jim's seminars and books.
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February 9, 2000. Volume 3, Issue 1. People Spots Online is prepared by James W. Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants. It is provided as a service by New Life Ministries, www.NewLifeMinistries-NLM.org. Articles may be duplicated and reproduced in any way. A new article is produced about every two weeks. To be added to a list to receive these messages directly by e-mail, send a request to churchconsultants@yahoo.com.