The Lord is Honored Episode One

Leadership Culture Matters Podcast Series Episode 1: The Lord is Honored

Many years ago, God took me on a journey to reset the leadership culture of the church I pastor. It wasn’t that we weren’t already accomplishing great things, but I began to see that, second only to the clear proclamation of God’s Word, creating and nurturing a leadership culture that reflects the person and mission of Christ is the most important task of the lead pastor. 

Culture is the sum total of the behaviors and attitudes of a particular group of people, and the number one thing a healthy leadership culture can be characterized by, above all else, is that the Lord is honored. To discuss this topic, I invited Keven Drake, the executive director of Upward Sports, for the first episode of the new Leadership Culture Matters podcast series.

As Kevin makes clear in our conversation, culture is going to happen in your organization, whether it is a business or a church, whether you want it to or not. You will have a culture. This fact means you must be intentional, especially considering that culture is not just what an organization does. It becomes who they are and part of their very DNA.

So, how do you create an intentional culture that honors the Lord over having an accidental one that may not? Here are three main points that came up in our discussion. 

To create and maintain a culture that honors the Lord, you have to:

1 - Live it out personally. 


You cannot create a culture you don’t live in personally, meaning you cannot lead an organization to honor the Lord if you are not first honoring the Lord in your own life. As I mentioned in my last blog post,
you do not lead people to become what you want them to be. You lead them from who you are in Christ.

Kevin pointed out how easy it is to make day-to-day decisions that do not honor the Lord as you become more successful and find it easier to depend on yourself. Pride and self-reliance are not God-honoring, and we must maintain a heart posture of humility. Any success we experience as leaders is because of God. He brings it about, and He allows us the privilege of being part of what He is doing. But that does not mean He always will if we stop honoring him. 

Here are two questions you can ask yourself today:

  • Am I operating under the lordship of me or the Lordship of Christ?
  • Are there any areas of my life where I am not sincerely honoring the Lord?

The next thing we need to do as leaders if we desire to honor the Lord in all things is…

2 - Maintain accountability.


We have all known leaders who possess incredible and applaudable strengths, but they end up limited because of the blind spots in their lives that do not honor the Lord. The most effective leaders are keenly aware of the areas where they struggle the most in honoring the Lord, and they do two things. First, they build teams with people around them who compensate for their weaknesses. Secondly, they refuse to settle. They continue to stretch themselves and grow as a leader.

They also invite accountability.

Kevin offered the wise reminder that the higher you go in an organization, the more accountability you need. Pastors and leaders often fall into sin because pride enters their lives, and they don't have accountability. We must guard against a hierarchy where we don't allow people to speak into our lives. He recommends telling the people we lead, both individually and collectively, that not only do they have a right to hold us accountable to make choices that please and honor God, but they have a responsibility to do so.

Finally, when creating a culture that honors the Lord, need to… 

3 - Reinforce it continually. 


Reinforcing a culture where the Lord is honored looks like talking about what honors the Lord, doing what honors the Lord, recognizing when someone else honors the Lord, and correcting and redirecting decisions or behaviors that don't honor the Lord. And when you do those things over a period of time, those actions add up to a shift in the culture.

At Upward Sports, they encourage their team to live out the culture through a system where people can recognize other team members who are making choices that fit with their mission. Everyone gets involved as they purposefully celebrate and reinforce what they want to see in their workplace culture.

Perhaps you work in a secular organization and you aren't sure how today applies to you. I’ll end with how Kevin ended our conversation. If you're reading this and work at an organization that does not seek to honor the Lord or make the gospel known, you can still honor the Lord in everything you do. People are watching you no matter what. Focus on the Lord constantly. Reinforce Him in your own life, and remember that it starts with our personal walk, and then it expands to how we interact and treat other people. Who knows how your life might change the culture of your workplace?

Learn what to do when you find you have an unhealthy culture or people who don’t align with the culture of your church or business when you listen to our full conversation Leadership Culture Matters, Episode 1: The Lord is Honored featuring Kevin Drake here