I have almost been at the church where I serve as Lead Pastor for 8 years.  As a result, I am starting to see a culture that has developed since my time here at Grace.  In that culture, I see strengths and weaknesses.  Some of the things I see are some of the positives found in my own gift set and personality and some are the weaknesses of my gift set and personality.  I found myself at times really happy about our culture and other times I break out in cold sweat.  The culture of any ongoing institution is so important.  Every culture is going to produce a certain type of product.  This means we have to be willing to evaluate our culture and make modifications where it is called for.  I know I have been spending some time assessing our church culture.  This led to me to begin asking some questions about the culture of other important institutions.

• What is the culture of your home life and family?
• What is the culture of your employer?
• What is the culture of your sports team?
• What is the culture of your social network?
• What is the culture of your city?

The culture of all these is going to influence what you become.  Be willing to see the good and bad in each of these environments.