Creating a New Culture
Creating the Culture of a Disciple-Making Church
When people start a new church, the instinct is often to start by designing programs. What ministries will we offer? What will Sunday services look like? How will we organize classes or small groups? But before any of those questions should be asked, there is a more important one.
What kind of culture are we creating?
Every organization produces the results it was designed to produce. Leadership experts often say it this way: “Systems are perfectly designed to get the results they are getting.” If a church is not making disciples, it is usually not because the people are unwilling. More often, it is because the system is not designed to produce disciples. If a church has little influence in its community, it is rarely because people don’t care. It is usually because the culture and structures of the church do not naturally lead people outward. The systems produce the results. But systems don’t appear out of nowhere. They grow out of culture. Culture answers the deeper questions:
What do we truly value?
What do we celebrate?
What do we expect from one another?
What does it actually mean to follow Jesus here?
Before we ever build programs, schedules, or structures, we must build a culture. Because culture will eventually shape every system we create.
Jesus and the Problem of Old Wineskins
Jesus addressed this very issue during His ministry. When people tried to force His movement into the rigid patterns of existing religious structures, He responded with a powerful image.
“No one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins… No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins (Luke 5:37-38).”
In the ancient world, wine was stored in animal skins. As new wine fermented, it expanded. Fresh wineskins had flexibility and could stretch. Old wineskins had become brittle. If new wine was poured into them, the pressure would cause them to burst. Jesus was making a profound point. He was bringing new wine into the world. The kingdom of God was breaking in. Lives were being transformed. Ordinary people were becoming disciples.
A movement was beginning that would spread across the world. But the existing religious structures were not flexible enough to contain what Jesus was doing. They had systems, traditions, and expectations that had become rigid over time. And Jesus said something revolutionary: If you want the new wine, you must have new wineskins.
The New Wine of the Kingdom
What is the “new wine” Jesus was talking about? It is the life of the kingdom of God. It is what happens when people truly follow Jesus together:
Lives are transformed.
People experience forgiveness and new beginnings.
Believers grow in obedience and love.
Ordinary people begin to live on mission.
Disciples begin to make other disciples.
When we read the story of the early church in the Acts of the Apostles, we see this kind of life spreading rapidly across the Roman world. The early Christians did not have large buildings, professional programs, or elaborate ministry structures. But they did have something powerful. They had a culture shaped by Jesus.
They shared their lives.
They prayed together.
They invested in one another spiritually.
They lived with the constant awareness that they were sent into the world as witnesses.
Their culture created the conditions for the gospel to multiply.
The Hidden Challenge: Our Previous Church Experiences
One of the biggest challenges in creating a new church is not opposition from the outside. It is the expectations we carry from the inside. Most of us have spent years inside church environments that shaped how we think about faith and ministry. Without realizing it, we absorb certain assumptions:
Church is primarily a weekly event.
Discipleship is something that happens in classes or programs.
Ministry is something a small group of leaders does for everyone else.
Mission is mostly about inviting someone to attend a service.
These patterns are so familiar that we often assume they are the only way church can function. But if we try to pour the new wine of a disciple-making movement into those same expectations, we often end up frustrated. We may desire something different, but our habits and structures quietly pull us back into familiar patterns. This is why creating a new church is not just about starting new gatherings. It is about intentionally creating a new culture.
Cultural Shifts We Are Pursuing
If we want to become the kind of church that produces disciples who make disciples, several key shifts must take place. These changes reshape how we think about church, relationships, and mission.
From Attending Church to Being the Church
Church is not just something we attend—it’s who we are. We are a community that belongs to Jesus and lives as His body in the world. Faith is not confined to a building or a weekly service; it is lived out in everyday life.From Gathering Crowds to Making Disciples
Jesus didn’t call us to build crowds, but to make disciples. While gatherings matter for worship and encouragement, transformation doesn’t happen in crowds alone. It happens through intentional investment in people’s lives.From Programs and Performances to People and Participation
The church is not a performance where a few lead and others watch, nor is it built around programs. It is a people-centered movement where every follower of Jesus plays a role—serving, encouraging, and discipling others.From Information to Transformation
Studying the Bible is essential, but knowledge is not the goal transformation is. Jesus calls us not only to hear His words, but to live them. A healthy church helps people move from understanding Scripture to practicing it.From Belief About Jesus to Life With Jesus
Faith is more than agreeing with truths about Jesus it is a daily relationship with Him. Disciples learn to walk with Jesus through prayer, obedience, trust, and attentiveness in everyday moments.From Casual Connection to Intentional Relationships
Disciples are not primarily formed in rows, but in relationships. Real spiritual growth happens through spiritual friendships walking through life together, sharing meals, praying, encouraging, and speaking truth to one another.From Addition to Multiplication
The kingdom of God grows not just by adding more people, but by multiplying disciples. One person invests in another, who invests in another, creating a multiplying movement that extends far beyond what any single leader or program could achieve.From Discipleship as an Event to a Way of Life
Discipleship is not a program or a scheduled meeting it’s a lifestyle. It happens in homes, around tables, in conversations, and through the rhythms of daily life. Following Jesus is something we live, not just something we attend.
The Culture We Build Today Shapes the Church We Become Tomorrow
Culture is not something that appears years down the road. It begins forming from the very start. The way we treat one another, the way we prioritize relationships, the way we pursue Jesus together establish patterns that will shape the church for years to come. In a church plant, the launch team carries a special responsibility. They are not just volunteers helping something start. They are culture carriers. What they model now will eventually become normal for everyone who joins later.
A Vision for What Could Be
What if a church truly embraced the kind of culture Jesus envisioned? Imagine a community where:
disciples consistently make other disciples
relationships shape spiritual growth
ordinary believers live on mission in their daily lives
people genuinely experience the presence and leadership of Jesus
This is the kind of movement Jesus described as new wine. But for that movement to flourish, we must be willing to create new wineskins.
And that work begins with us—right now.
