Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” (Peter Drucker) We spend a lot of time strategizing. Whether it be in our businesses, our families or the church. We are captured by a good strategy almost every time. To be sure good planning and strategic thinking are important. But so is good execution of a plan. Execution of a great plan requires a change of culture in most instances. So what do we do if our culture is insufficient for us to accomplish our plan? It is understandable why culture receives much less attention than strategy. It is not hard to come up with a plan that will fix just about anything. Seminars and bookstores are raking in the profits from the popularity of an approach heavy of strategy and light on culture change. But the best plan in the world is doomed if there is not a culture change sufficient to support its implementation. There is a high degree of frustration today because so many people have gotten excited about one plan or strategy after another only to see little change in their lives for the better. Interestingly enough, the Bible is not often seen as the answer to this situation. Sometimes people have just never tried the wisdom of Scripture. Sometimes people who interact with the Bible are only focused on a quick-fix strategy. The Bible is rooted in changing the culture of our hearts so that Christ is Lord. This means the approach is more radical inner culture change than quick-fix outward change. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...” This is "Bible-speak" for how we change the culture of our inner lives. “Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.” This is another way of describing the process of culture change. When we spend time submitting our thought-life to the Lordship of Christ we change our culture and raise the bar on our discipleship.