Archbishop Derek Worlock defined culture as 'the way we do things round here'. Because this is the case, if we have been 'round here' a long time we grow blind to our own culture. For most churches, the change to becoming whole-life disciplemaking communities demands a culture shift, a change of perspective and priority.

How do you change a culture? There are six steps that we have found helpful for church leaders to take:

1) Feel the need; articulate the need

Culture change needs to be provoked. Often this is achieved through a growing frustration or dissatisfaction with the status quo. Sometimes we know or feel that something needs to change even though it can be hard to define. In preparing for culture change it's really helpful to find materials that articulate the frustration, problems or common cause in a way that coheres with people's own frustrations or desires.

For some, the Imagine DVD or the magazine Imagine how we can reach the UK have helped articulate the need for a fresh focus on whole-life disciplemaking. For others, attending an LICC day seminar or our Toolbox course have helped them to see things differently and enabled people to give voice to their convictions. And for others, even completing a simple questionnaire How whole-life is your church? has brought clarity to their thinking.

2) Have a driving vision

Most churches have vision or mission statements. Often they concentrate on what the church will do and be when gathered together. Becoming a whole-life disciplemaking community is a vision that can encompass the times when we're gathered and when we're scattered. It's one which can become embedded in every area of life together.

Potentially this focus helps churches to resist being pulled in a thousand different directions by a range of plans or programmes that are not compatible with the vision.

However the vision is expressed locally, it has to make a difference. In other words, it needs to be prominent in decision-making. And leaders need to be courageously persistent in giving it airtime and significance so that the community itself becomes fluent in passing it.

3) Build a core team

Real change in the culture of a church is owned by a core group of influencers or culture-makers within the community across the clergy-laity divide. The call for change can come from a very few, but without a group of people able to energise and nurture the emergence of change there will be little lasting change.

Leadership teams in churches vary, but the people that are actually needed in these core teams are those with the reputation, moral authority and access to people and structure in the church to make things happen. A small group, committed to the process of change is what is needed. People who might not all be in formal positions of church leadership and therefore perhaps not bound by the normal hierarchies of church life.

4) Actively Listen

Central to whole-life disciplemaking churches is a willingness to take seriously the contexts where people 'do life'. Finding ways to discover and understand the issues people face is crucial. There's a short questionnaire churches can use. Or look up the national results of this questionnaire.

5) Generate one degree shifts

This image comes from a compass. If you change direction by just one degree and walk far enough, you will end up at a different destination. Small changes are helpful in a culture shift programme, because they are visible, create little sense of anxiety, operate as powerful symbols for the overall change that is hoped for, can easily be reversed or adapted if they are not working well, do not have to be defended to the death. Real transformation takes time, but if there are no signs of change in the early days then momentum will be lost.

One-degree shifts can be as simple as changes to the notice board or prayer meeting; or changes to sermon preparation and application. Or it can a new intentionality in the stories that are invited to be shared at small groups or in larger gatherings. The skill is in elevating their significance and articulating how they link to the vision.

Read an article about generating one degree shfts here.

Find ideas other churches have experimented with here.

6) Harness the power of life stories

People need to be able to see what whole-life discipleship looks like. And everyone needs to be encouraged that their lives matter. Stories can work powerfully on both these fronts.

One of the most difficult tasks for those in church leadership is to find the time and space to find, hear and re-tell these stories. Often leaders only meet people who are in trouble or who are engaged involved in some area of the church programme with them. Finding creative ways of hearing what's going on, how God is at work, and creating spaces for these stories to be heard is part of the real business of church leadership. Read some stories of change here.

Finally...Stay the course

Culture change that is not merely a revolution, takes time. Churches are complex volunteer organisations. Courageous persistence is a pre-requite for those leading change. Distractions abound. Crises emerge. Unpredictable developments have to be handled. This is life. None of us have ideal travelling conditions all the time. The question is how we respond to the potential distractions along the way. Can they become spurs to greater learning if we choose to approach them differently.

Culture change become permanent when it becomes 'the way we do things round here'.