7 Traits of an Outwardly Looking Church

Dave explains the five outwardly looking practices of a loving Christian using the B.L.E.S.S. acronym. Each practice builds our relationships and leads us to introduce Jesus to our neighbors.

Your church culture is a spontaneous, repeated pattern of behaviors reflecting your mission. But what if you don’t like your culture and want it to change? All culture begins with clear communication: declaring your values and making your vision prominent.

Corporate change starts with church leadership. If we only teach about evangelism but do not practice it, we tell our congregation that it is not important. But, if we make evangelism a part of our everyday lives—if we do it—we not only show that evangelism is valuable but model the method we want our people to follow.

Your culture begins with language—how you talk about and communicate your mission, vision, and values. To make your culture memorable, you need a message that is relatable, scriptural, and repeatable. And when we brand our culture, we unify and spur people to action.

Change happens slowly. Rather than helping us speed up the change, Dave will show us how to slowly roll out our new evangelism strategy. He will also teach us the key to change: identifying and activating our influential minority.

Once your outwardly looking culture is in place, you will need to regularly recognize when your people’s efforts and the stories of life change. Using your words to empower, encourage, and exhort, solidifies a culture of evangelism in your church. What gets celebrated gets repeated.

To enshrine your evangelistic culture, you will need to make your culture unforgettable and a part of the life of your church. Dave will teach us the ways to institutionalize our culture and develop a “scoreboard” to track our cultural health over the coming months and years.