Creating Culture, Part III… Cultural Imperatives

At CentriKid Camps, the culture among our staff teams is a crucial part of our ministry.  During the past year, Lance led us to define our “cultural imperatives” – those things team members must embrace to thrive at camp. Here they are.

• Christ-like Character :: The character of Christ must define and guide each of us.
• Excellence :: It is essential to our work, as it reflects our desire to bring God the very best of what we have. It is achieved through planning, preparation, and execution.
• Fun :: The first word that comes to mind when we think of camp. We work hard, but we desire for FUN to be a huge part of our work and life together.
• Team :: Not one of us can do camp by ourselves. We recognize that we need one another for insight, encouragement, support, and accountability. Therefore, we do everything we can to build up our team, and we have no tolerance for those things which seek to tear us apart.
• Hard Work :: We have a ton of work to do, and only a few short months to do it in. To accomplish all that is before us requires a commitment to work hard until the task is done well.
• Professionalism :: We are camp professionals. We desire to be incredibly fun and relational, but also to carry ourselves as professionals and experts in our field.
• Learning :: As leaders, we have much to learn from one another, our staff, church leaders, and our partners in ministry. Our culture is one where question-asking is affirmed and encouraged, because in asking the questions, we foster an ability to learn and to grow.

We share these with you in order to spur some of your own thinking… Today’s challenge is to stop and brainstorm for a minute… What are YOUR cultural imperatives for your team of teachers, leaders, staff, or lay people?  How are the communicated?  What do you do to recognize and reward those who excel in these areas? Are you shaping the culture of your team, or is culture shaping your team?

Comments

[Heidi]

Meredith, I think CentriKid excels at creating that culture! I just started a new ministry position at a different church, and creating culture imperatives is one of my priorities. Thanks for sharing!