More than Programs – Leaders as Cultural Architects

Being CCF chair next year is exciting. I'm excited to be serving the Lord and to give it the best that I can. Consequently so, I've been reading and thinking a lot about how to lead next year. Been reading a lot about leadership, innovation, spiritual formation, and organizational behavior.
Today as I was reading, something sparked in my mind and I thought I'd put it on paper, or type. So here it is. I hope some of you find it useful, and I hope especially that somehow other CCF leaders will get a chance to read it and find it helpful as they lead next year.


We've all heard it before when it comes to leadership, “it's not about programs, but about people.” And that's absolutely true. Relationships are irrefutably foundational for effective leadership.

But what happens afterwards? What does someone do that sets a person apart as a truly effective leader than just being socially adept?

Marcus Buckingham in his book, The One Thing You Need to Know, says that essentially all leadership is about is rallying people to a better future. Slightly out of the blue. Interesting thought. Not the usual leadership definition we hear. But upon reflection, I think this is so definitive of a leader.

And when I think about Jesus Christ, that is exactly what he did. The gospel he preached was not “minimal entry requirements into heaven”, but rather “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And when He says at hand, he doesn't mean coming, he means available. It's available. And as He preached this to the multitudes, He was saying, “The right and best future, where God's kingship is fully applied, is available and can be manifested in you now.” The future was available now.

Back to what do we do as leaders of people beside building relationships and rallying them into a better future. So what practical thing do we have to do in addition to those two components? I believe we have to be architects of something where people are central. Programs are not really people centered. Programs are activity centered. But culture is people centered.

For us, leaders, to rally people to a better future, and actually bring them there, we must be cultural architects who continuous lead people into a culture that enables and digs deep into their hearts.

Every organization is built on more than one person. There are always those who put their best efforts and time into bringing a group of people into that future. And as every leader has experienced, there is always the question of how to get these people to actually do it. The question of motivation. How do I get people not only on board, but rowing?

And I think that’s what culture is all about. It’s about developing a culture infrastructure with culture keys like servanthood. Leaders need to be willing to create a culture where a servant heart and hand should be extended to anyone regardless of position. And as an architect, they got to be the first ones to do so.

If we as leaders, and I say this because I've made the mistake more than once, focus all our efforts and time in developing great programs, it will only go so far. It isn’t sustainable, it isn’t people centered, it doesn’t always reach into a person’s core and release that goodness or passion. Culture is what we need to focus on. We have to put our hearts, minds, hands, and prayers into this, because the nature of culture is that if you don’t take the initiative to shape it, it will be shaped and possibly not in the way that it should be.


On a side note, let me clear something up. Some people may have an uneasy feeling about me saying that Jesus Christ did what a secular researcher defined. As if I'm somehow placing Jesus into a premade box shaped by a secular mind. This is not the case. Rather it is a secular mind who finds a definition out of what had already existed, in the lives of many but perfectly so in Jesus Christ.