“Culture eats strategy for lunch.”*¹
Leadership expert Samuel Chand captures a powerful truth with this simple statement. No matter how brilliant your plans or systems, if the culture of your organization doesn’t support them, they’ll fall flat. Culture is the soil—strategy is only the seed. If the soil isn’t healthy, the seed won’t grow.
Chand drives this home even more directly when he says:
“Culture – not vision and strategy – is the most powerful factor in any organization.”*²
Pastors and church leaders know this firsthand. We’ve all been tempted to tweak programs, rebrand ministries, or overhaul our websites—thinking these strategies will produce health and growth. Yet time and again, it’s the underlying culture of our churches that either fuels or frustrates these efforts.
But there’s something even greater than culture.
It’s God.
As Christians, we must always remind ourselves: while culture is powerful, God is sovereign. While culture shapes people, God shapes eternity. While culture can encourage or resist change, God’s Spirit transforms hearts.
Wisdom Like the Men of Issachar
In 1 Chronicles 12:32, we read about the men of Issachar—leaders who “understood the times and knew what Israel should do.” They had both insight into their cultural moment and the wisdom to know the right response.
Notice the order: they understood the times (data, context, culture), but they also knew what to do (wisdom from God). They didn’t let cultural trends alone drive their decisions. They sought God’s will for their nation.
We need that same balance today. Many pastors are learning to collect and study data—attendance trends, demographic shifts, giving patterns, online engagement metrics. These are helpful tools. They help us understand the times. But they should never be our master. Data tells us the story; it doesn’t write the ending.
God does.
More Than Metrics
It’s possible to become so consumed with metrics that we let the numbers dictate our ministry decisions. We start chasing algorithms instead of anointing. We let surveys set our direction instead of Scripture. We let cultural shifts, political winds, or financial trends become our guiding lights—when only God should hold that place.
Jesus didn’t build His ministry based on cultural data. In fact, many times He acted directly against prevailing expectations. He didn’t avoid Samaria because of cultural tensions—He walked straight into it to reach a woman by a well. He didn’t choose the most educated or influential men as His disciples—He chose fishermen, tax collectors, zealots.
If we’re going to lead like Jesus, we must be willing to let God’s wisdom override the cultural narrative. We must submit our best strategies, our careful analysis, and even our cherished church cultures to His lordship.
Faith Over Familiar
Culture is powerful. Strategy is important. But faith is essential. We cannot let culture, whether inside our church or outside in society, become an idol we serve. We cannot let data-driven strategy become a substitute for Spirit-led obedience.
Instead, let’s be like the men of Issachar. Let’s study the times—yes, be wise, informed, and discerning. But let’s also seek the Lord for what we should do. Because at the end of the day, the power that transforms lives, families, churches, and cities is not culture. It’s not strategy. It’s God.
May our leadership always reflect this deeper allegiance. May we learn from culture, plan with strategy, but ultimately follow wherever God leads—even when it makes no sense to our carefully crafted charts and graphs.
¹ Samuel R. Chand, Cracking Your Church’s Culture Code, p. 12.
² Ibid., p. xxii.
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