As a child I lived about 100 yards from a river that ran through our town. On hot summer days we would spend all day fishing and swimming in the river. This particular river was relatively fast-flowing and at least once a year someone in our county would lose sight of that fact and drown in the river.

Like any other river, a swimmer could swim with the current, against the current or simply float and let the current take them wherever it was going. If you swam with the current you would move so fast that you felt like an olympic swimmer, but even the best swimmers would move frustratingly slow when swimming against the current. They were able to get to their destination, but it was often slow and with great effort. If you were a floater, you could literally float from town to town without exerting any effort at all.

The culture of a church serves like a current in a body of water. Whether people are aware of it or not, every church has its own cultural current or momentum.

If the culture of a church is healthy it carries people along toward God. If they are making earnest attempts to draw near to God the culture of the church will only facilitate that and make them feel like they have extra help in coming near to God. Connecting with God will come easier. Even people who are not making honest efforts to come near to God may find themselves caught up in the current and finding God despite their lack of effort.

When a church has a culture that is unhealthy many people will feel like it is swimming upstream. They can put effort into their relationship with God and they can still grow in God but often they feel like they are fighting against the grain of their local church and waging an uphill battle. The people that want to grow, but feel like every effort to grow is met with resistance from the direction the church is going will eventually leave to find a place where their efforts to grow are not met with resistance. People that are putting little to no effort into their relationship with God will simply drift further away from God as the current of and unhealthy church culture sends them adrift.

In a local church the culture is established by the leadership even if they are unaware or unintentional about it.

If your local church was a river, would the current of the river send people TO or AWAY FROM a lifestyle of prayer? Would the current carry people TO or AWAY FROM dynamic worship? Would it carry people TO or AWAY FROM being equipped to serve God in their congregation and community? The answers to these questions will reveal the level of health in a churches culture.

Church leaders must be dedicated to creating healthy cultures that carry people along toward growth in God. Make ministry accessible, not an impossible attainment. Present spiritually hungry people with opportunities to grow, not obstacles to prevent their growth.