Church leaders set the tone for discipline of the organization. The discipline of an organization will never reach beyond that of her leaders. In the previous post I gave a metaphoric analogy. In this post let’s look at practical examples.

First Rockwell Church has recently experienced a refocusing, re-visioning process. Part of the church’s new overarching theme in their vision is to practically reach out to the 2,500 people who live in the immediate vicinity of the church building. The church has been in existence for sixty-five years and was founded as the community neighborhoods sprang up in the area. The make-up of church membership is mainly Caucasian, many of whom raised families in the community or were raised in the surrounding neighborhoods. However, many have moved out and the neighborhoods have a strong Hispanic influence today.

For First Rockwell to be successful in carrying out its vision to reach out in practical ways to the people living around the church, the need to rethink everything they do – to rethink the entire culture of the church. The church will perhaps need to develop a whole new set of discipline for how they conduct themselves and interact with the community.

I would venture to say people of all ethnicities enjoy a good party. First Rockwell is known (within their own circles) for an annual summer block party before school begins in August. However, they have not had success with drawing local residents in the last 6-8 years for the block party. Perhaps it is because they throw a “white-American” block party, complete with hot dogs, potato chips, floating duck ponds, cake walks. A change of discipline is needed.

When we say we are going to reach a certain people group, we must change our disciplines to be relevant to that group of people. When missionaries move into a new area to reach the people of that area they do not take hot dogs, plastic duck ponds, and cake walks. The missionaries must discipline themselves to engage the culture of the people who live amongst them. First Rockwell Church must decide to be disciplined in their approaches of reaching and ministering to the people around the church. This could include the food they serve at events and church dinners, the music, times of worship, the terminology used in the church. This will require big changes for the members of the church. More importantly, accomplishing their vision will require a strong discipline of being culturally relevant.

Moorstown church has a three year plan to be actively engaged in the Moorstown community displaying a caring, compassionate community church. To accomplish this the church will need a strong culture of discipline within its membership to get involved in the community through various means; i.e. visiting in homes, church involvement in community parades and events, working with government officials to meet needs in the community, demonstrating compassion for the people who live in Moorstown for the next three years. It is a longer term commitment but the moment the church backs off of its discipline and loses sight of its commitment the community will lose sight of the church.

Bethany Church has set a priority of moving her members from being attendees and spectators to being involved, and on to being fully engaged. Church leaders must develop a course of disciplined cultural moves to assist everyone in moving through these stages and becoming fully engaged. Without discipline the depth of strategic planning will be to little avail.

Whatever your church sets to do inside the building or to the community outside, you need an established culture of discipline. Discipline should not imply punishment Rather discipline is the continuing self-controlled, adherence to regulation and order to accomplish the task at hand.

For more information on building a culture of discipline in your church or organization contact George Yates and visit soncare.net.