{"id":853186,"date":"2025-07-09T05:00:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T10:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=853186"},"modified":"2025-07-07T14:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T19:05:09","slug":"dont-just-do-discipleship-build-the-culture-in-your-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/dont-just-do-discipleship-build-the-culture-in-your-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Just \u201cDo\u201d Discipleship (Build the Culture in Your Church!)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Culture encompasses the values, thoughts, attitudes, and actions of the people within it. According to John Kotter, culture is simply \u201cthe way we do things around here.\u201d Every environment we encounter has its own culture.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your home has a culture.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your workplace has a culture.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And your church has a culture.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Culture is developed over years through shared experiences, including joys, pain, and responses to environmental factors. It is akin to a set of unwritten rules that people follow within that specific environment. It\u2019s not just about actions\u2014it\u2019s about how you think, how you feel, and of course, how you behave. The culture of a given environment is what lies beneath the surface; it\u2019s what truly governs that environment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The concept of culture is like rebar on a construction site. No one looks at the rebar early on and is impressed by it. Instead, we wait until the structure begins to rise. We\u2019re not interested in what keeps it stable; we want to see what makes it look nice. Even though rebar isn\u2019t pretty, it\u2019s incredibly necessary. Rebar gives a building its stability and strength. It\u2019s what holds everything together below the surface, making a structure resistant against the forces of time and nature. Without rebar, a building crumbles because rebar controls the form of everything built above it. The same principle applies to culture.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>That brings us to an important question: What do you want the culture of your church to be?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are likely many answers here &#8211; we want the unwritten rules of the church to be kindness, joyfulness, truthfulness, and mission, along with more. But what if the best way to describe the culture in your church was summed up in one word? Discipleship.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Certainly, that\u2019s at least part of\u2014if not the main\u2014answer to the question. This is the church&#8217;s broadest mission: to go and make disciples of Jesus. But it becomes part of the culture only when it\u2019s not just the church\u2019s mission, but also the mission of every member. It\u2019s not part of the culture until everyone considers discipleship as part of their own job description.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Isn\u2019t this where we want to be? Isn\u2019t this the kind of church we want to lead? Not one where paid staff members run programs for people to participate in, but instead, one where every member sees the ongoing spiritual growth of the whole congregation as their personal responsibility. But how do we start to instill this value in our culture? How do we not just \u201cdo\u201d discipleship, but build a discipleship culture? Here are three suggestions.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ol>\n<li><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Distribute<\/span><\/i> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">leadership more broadly<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Too often, leadership in our churches is limited to a few individuals\u2014the same people repeatedly. To truly embed discipleship into our culture, we must regularly empower and release new leaders.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Free up margin for organic discipleship<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Ironically, one obstacle to a discipleship culture is overprogramming. Often, our people are so busy with scheduled events that they lack the margin for spontaneous opportunities, such as inviting someone to read the Bible or meeting for breakfast and prayer. Instead, they are too committed to attending another discipleship class.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Treat<\/span><\/i> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">discipleship<\/span><\/i> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">as<\/span><\/i> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a<\/span><\/i> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">way of life<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Do we need discipleship classes? Yes, we do. But even as we implement them, we must be careful not to treat or train people to think of discipleship as merely an intellectual activity. Discipleship is a lifestyle, and until people understand that, it will never become part of the church culture.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The call of Jesus to us (and our people) is to make disciples. Let\u2019s do our best to ensure this call is deeply woven into everything we do in the church. When that happens, discipleship becomes everyone\u2019s responsibility.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rooted Network can help meet this need. Thousands of churches have discovered how the Rooted experience can create an Acts 2 discipleship culture\u2014one that connects your people with God, the church, and their purpose, resulting in discipleship rhythms that cultivate continuous transformation in Jesus. To find out more, <\/span><\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/experiencerooted.com\/churchanswers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">visit <\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">experiencerooted.com\/churchanswers<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Culture encompasses the values, thoughts, attitudes, and actions of the people within it. According to John Kotter, culture is simply \u201cthe way we do things around here.\u201d Every environment we encounter has its own culture. Your home has a culture. Your workplace has a culture. And your church has a culture. Culture is developed over&#8230;","protected":false},"author":18832,"featured_media":853190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,183,184,179,175,192,177,178,14796,180,194],"tags":[20862,98,20861,76,20214,20213],"class_list":["post-853186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-communications","category-discipleship","category-first-impressions","category-grow","category-how-to","category-lead","category-membership-and-assimilation","category-monday-wednesday-featured","category-outreach-and-evangelism","category-preaching","tag-build-the-culture-in-your-church","tag-discipleship","tag-dont-just-do-discipleship","tag-leadership","tag-michael-kelley","tag-rooted-network"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Don\u2019t Just \u201cDo\u201d Discipleship (Build the Culture in Your Church!) | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Culture encompasses the values, thoughts, attitudes, and actions of the people within it. According to John Kotter, culture is simply \u201cthe way we do things around here.\u201d Every environment we encounter has its own culture. Your home has a culture. Your workplace has a culture. And your church has a culture. Culture is developed over years through shared experiences, including joys, pain, and responses to environmental factors. It is akin to a set of unwritten rules that people follow within that specific environment. It\u2019s not just about actions\u2014it\u2019s about how you think, how you feel, and of course, how you behave. The culture of a given environment is what lies beneath the surface; it\u2019s what truly governs that environment. The concept of culture is like rebar on a construction site. No one looks at the rebar early on and is impressed by it. Instead, we wait until the structure begins to rise. We\u2019re not interested in what keeps it stable; we want to see what makes it look nice. Even though rebar isn\u2019t pretty, it\u2019s incredibly necessary. Rebar gives a building its stability and strength. It\u2019s what holds everything together below the surface, making a structure resistant against the forces of time and nature. Without rebar, a building crumbles because rebar controls the form of everything built above it. The same principle applies to culture.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/dont-just-do-discipleship-build-the-culture-in-your-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don\u2019t Just \u201cDo\u201d Discipleship (Build the Culture in Your Church!) | Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Culture encompasses the values, thoughts, attitudes, and actions of the people within it. According to John Kotter, culture is simply \u201cthe way we do things around here.\u201d Every environment we encounter has its own culture. Your home has a culture. Your workplace has a culture. And your church has a culture. Culture is developed over years through shared experiences, including joys, pain, and responses to environmental factors. It is akin to a set of unwritten rules that people follow within that specific environment. It\u2019s not just about actions\u2014it\u2019s about how you think, how you feel, and of course, how you behave. The culture of a given environment is what lies beneath the surface; it\u2019s what truly governs that environment. The concept of culture is like rebar on a construction site. No one looks at the rebar early on and is impressed by it. Instead, we wait until the structure begins to rise. We\u2019re not interested in what keeps it stable; we want to see what makes it look nice. Even though rebar isn\u2019t pretty, it\u2019s incredibly necessary. Rebar gives a building its stability and strength. It\u2019s what holds everything together below the surface, making a structure resistant against the forces of time and nature. Without rebar, a building crumbles because rebar controls the form of everything built above it. The same principle applies to culture.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/dont-just-do-discipleship-build-the-culture-in-your-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-09T10:00:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Christian-Bible-Study.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Kelley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Kelley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/dont-just-do-discipleship-build-the-culture-in-your-church\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/dont-just-do-discipleship-build-the-culture-in-your-church\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Kelley\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/03039b04d8a5090e79d94cc253e1a5d5\"},\"headline\":\"Don\u2019t Just \u201cDo\u201d Discipleship (Build the Culture in Your Church!)\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-09T10:00:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/dont-just-do-discipleship-build-the-culture-in-your-church\/\"},\"wordCount\":698,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/dont-just-do-discipleship-build-the-culture-in-your-church\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Christian-Bible-Study.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Build the Culture in Your Church\",\"Discipleship\",\"Don\u2019t Just \u201cDo\u201d Discipleship\",\"Leadership\",\"Michael Kelley\",\"Rooted Network\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Church Answers\",\"Communications\",\"Discipleship\",\"First Impressions\",\"Grow\",\"How To\",\"Lead\",\"Membership &amp; Assimilation\",\"Monday\/Wednesday Featured\",\"Outreach &amp; Evangelism\",\"Preaching\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/dont-just-do-discipleship-build-the-culture-in-your-church\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/dont-just-do-discipleship-build-the-culture-in-your-church\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/dont-just-do-discipleship-build-the-culture-in-your-church\/\",\"name\":\"Don\u2019t Just \u201cDo\u201d Discipleship (Build the Culture in Your Church!) | Church Answers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/dont-just-do-discipleship-build-the-culture-in-your-church\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/dont-just-do-discipleship-build-the-culture-in-your-church\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Christian-Bible-Study.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-09T10:00:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/03039b04d8a5090e79d94cc253e1a5d5\"},\"description\":\"Culture encompasses the values, thoughts, attitudes, and actions of the people within it. 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He is the Executive Director of the Rooted Network and the author of several books, including The Whole Story for the Whole Family, Growing Down, and Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/author\/michaelkelley\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Don\u2019t Just \u201cDo\u201d Discipleship (Build the Culture in Your Church!) | Church Answers","description":"Culture encompasses the values, thoughts, attitudes, and actions of the people within it. According to John Kotter, culture is simply \u201cthe way we do things around here.\u201d Every environment we encounter has its own culture. Your home has a culture. Your workplace has a culture. And your church has a culture. Culture is developed over years through shared experiences, including joys, pain, and responses to environmental factors. It is akin to a set of unwritten rules that people follow within that specific environment. 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The same principle applies to culture.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/dont-just-do-discipleship-build-the-culture-in-your-church\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Don\u2019t Just \u201cDo\u201d Discipleship (Build the Culture in Your Church!) | Church Answers","og_description":"Culture encompasses the values, thoughts, attitudes, and actions of the people within it. According to John Kotter, culture is simply \u201cthe way we do things around here.\u201d Every environment we encounter has its own culture. Your home has a culture. Your workplace has a culture. And your church has a culture. Culture is developed over years through shared experiences, including joys, pain, and responses to environmental factors. 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According to John Kotter, culture is simply \u201cthe way we do things around here.\u201d Every environment we encounter has its own culture. Your home has a culture. Your workplace has a culture. And your church has a culture. Culture is developed over years through shared experiences, including joys, pain, and responses to environmental factors. It is akin to a set of unwritten rules that people follow within that specific environment. It\u2019s not just about actions\u2014it\u2019s about how you think, how you feel, and of course, how you behave. The culture of a given environment is what lies beneath the surface; it\u2019s what truly governs that environment. The concept of culture is like rebar on a construction site. No one looks at the rebar early on and is impressed by it. Instead, we wait until the structure begins to rise. We\u2019re not interested in what keeps it stable; we want to see what makes it look nice. Even though rebar isn\u2019t pretty, it\u2019s incredibly necessary. Rebar gives a building its stability and strength. It\u2019s what holds everything together below the surface, making a structure resistant against the forces of time and nature. Without rebar, a building crumbles because rebar controls the form of everything built above it. The same principle applies to culture.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/dont-just-do-discipleship-build-the-culture-in-your-church\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/dont-just-do-discipleship-build-the-culture-in-your-church\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/dont-just-do-discipleship-build-the-culture-in-your-church\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Christian-Bible-Study.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Christian-Bible-Study.png","width":1200,"height":628,"caption":"Christian Bible Study"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/dont-just-do-discipleship-build-the-culture-in-your-church\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Don\u2019t Just \u201cDo\u201d Discipleship (Build the Culture in Your Church!)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/","name":"Church Answers","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/03039b04d8a5090e79d94cc253e1a5d5","name":"Michael Kelley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0b9e58425d1181324339b00b6150ee33467442b976c333c67255898fe66696f1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0b9e58425d1181324339b00b6150ee33467442b976c333c67255898fe66696f1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Michael Kelley"},"description":"Michael Kelley has served the Church as a pastor and resource publisher for 20+ years. He is the Executive Director of the Rooted Network and the author of several books, including The Whole Story for the Whole Family, Growing Down, and Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal.","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/author\/michaelkelley\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18832"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853186"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853194,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853186\/revisions\/853194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}