Roxburgh Missional Network

Each of our 360s are tools we have developed to use in larger processes of mission-shaped transformation. We have learned that tools and programs, by themselves, do not result in mission-shaped transformation.

In a recent newspaper article researchers where explaining the results of a study on diet books. They noted that millions of diet books are sold each year in North America but there hasn't been an appreciative change in the levels of overweight or obesity. They summarized the reason for this in a pithy headline - It's Not the Diet; It's the Dieter. They explained how most diet books are actually full of helpful advice which, if followed, would result in significant weight loss for a lot of people. The reason this does not occur is because most people using diet books do not understand how to go about changing their habits, values and practices around eating or their sense of themselves. We call this the need for a culture shift.

Culture is about the internal habits, patterns and values that shape us over a long period of time. Another way of explaining this is in terms of the defaults shaping how we act, how we see ourselves and how we see our context. These defaults are rarely conscious; we don't go around thinking about them all the time but they powerfully shape the way we act as individuals and as groups in organizations. What we have learned is that without culture change the best programs and ideas are of little help in creating a mission-shaped future. These programs and tools might work for a short period of time (a year or two at the most) and then things go back to the way they were before (a dieter follows the diet book, loses fifty pounds over a twelve month period and then, almost inevitably, puts back on sixty pounds). The results can be discouraging, causing us to lose hope. The reason is straightforward - we do not understand the principles of culture change.

Over the last ten years we have learned, by trail and error, that programs, tools and great ideas do not create missional life. We have developed a series of resources focused on culture change. Frankly, when a local church, a denominational system and a leader learn the principles and skills of culture change it hardly matters what kind of program they use - it's the culture change that drives successful transformation. We have developed processes to innovate culture change that produces missional life in a series of areas:

1. Local Churches
2. Leaders
3. Denominational Systems.

Our experience is that you can't fit these three very different groups into one neat package; each requires its own unique set of processes.   To learn more about these processes, visit our Resources or contact us.