Recently, I was asked by Leadership Network to review a provided copy of Cracking Your Church’s Culture Code by Dr. Samuel Chand.
With pastors’ shelves full of books on ministry vision and strategies, Dr. Samuel Chand gets to the heart of church leadership: culture. While vision and strategy are necessary components to any organization, culture provides the foundation on which everything else is built. The quality of culture greatly determines an organization’s receptivity to new ideas and opportunity for growth.
Through Cracking Your Church’s Culture Code, Dr. Samuel Chand assists pastors in assessing the cultural state of their organizations. Given a great explanation of the five culture types and nine potential “potholes”, the reader is able to quickly identify his current situation from which a plan for cultural change can be developed. Topics such as developing buy-in, defining vocabulary, and utilizing one’s sphere of influence to begin organizational change all provide the reader with next steps as he begins to move his organization from that identified situation into a desirable future. Learning to embrace the chaos and uncertainty that come with that move is also discussed.
Cracking Your Church’s Culture Code is the kind of book worth studying with your church’s executive leadership team. Questions woven within the reading and at the end of every chapter provide a catalyst for some of the most honest and productive discussions your team may ever have regarding the current state of your organization. For any ministry leader desiring a solid cultural foundation on which to establish new vision and strategy, this book is a great tool.
