TITUS CONNECTION Volume 17, Number 7 July, 2023

Greetings.  Last month holiness from Isaiah 6 was shared.  Now a series of articles over the following months on Team Development and specific application will be regarding WILD.  This month a discussion is offered regarding Team Culture, what it is and what WILD’s culture is shaping to be.  I trust the teachings on Team Development will encourage and help you to strive to continue in your personal holiness, representing Jesus the best you are able.  Thanks,  Mike

“Culture is not a document that hangs on the wall.  Culture is what people believe, how they behave and the experience their behavior produces for others.  Written statements help clarify the culture, but documents do not build a culture.  People do.”  (Tim Kight, 2016)
What is organizational culture?
Organizational culture is all of WILD’s beliefs, values and attitudes and how this influences our ministry behavior.  In other words, is WILD an organization filled with integrity or are we hypocrites.    For WILD, the culture affects how people experience WILD.  The culture is what a prospective ministry person, person off the street or another organization experiences when they are introduced to WILD.  WILD’s beliefs, attitudes and values impact and effects day-to-day operations.
WILD’s culture is developed by the leadership.  Culture drives the behaviors of the people involved in WILD.  That behavior then produces results.  Think about how Jesus worked with the twelve apostles.  He conveyed to His group through words and actions how He wanted His organization run and how to treat people.  His behavior produced the desired results in His team (and beyond).
“Culture is the soil everything that comes out of your organization” (Source Unknown).  WILD leaders create the culture that is desired and through our behavior, that encourages others to follow the same way.  The behavior of everyone involved produces results that WILD seeks.  Strategy determines how an organization will carry out their culture to those they minister to.  If our culture is clear and consistent, people involved with WILD will know what is expected and pursued.
What is WILD’s culture and core values?
If WILD’s core values are Honoring God, Serving One Another and Empower Others, then these values need to be evident in day-to-day operations, how WILD training is handled and how WILD personnel treat one another (and everyone else we make contact with) in our relationships.   If we do not live out these values, then those words become as cheap as what the words are printed on.
Core values need to have specific behaviors associated with them.  You do not lay out how a person is to behave in every situation but just like parents in raising their children, provide guidance and overall principles and truths for the person to follow.
Our behavior should exemplify the values we say we ascribe to, thus the reason these values are based upon Scriptural truth.  When someone says that honoring God is a value one ascribes to, then our priority is having a growing, fruitful personal spiritual journey representing Jesus Christ the best way we can.
If serving others is a value, then no job or responsibility is below anyone of us, to include from the International Director to someone assigned to pick up garbage after a WILD event.  Our goal is to work to meet as much as possible the needs of others through the ministry given to WILD.  In WILD we must treat everyone we come into contact with, with the greatest respect and love that our Savior expressed and lived out to mankind.
When we say we empower others, essentially everything we do, we should be looking to develop people so the baton can be effectively handed off.  None of us should have a viewpoint that we are not expendable and that if I train and develop someone, I may lose my job.  To engage people God puts in our paths and expand the Kingdom of Heaven through God’s directions, we cannot have the attitude of, “I am the team”.
None of us will live on earth for more than 100 year or so.  Thus, it is imperative to help develop those who are coming after us so the Kingdom of God continues to have impact through the Church.
WILD’s goal for the people who serve in WILD is to live out our core values and the Word of God in everything we do.  If that is the culture that we are living, then people see Jesus in us as we represent WILD.

In 3 John we are introduced to Gaius, Diotrephes and Demetrius.  Gaius received a lot more press than the other two and you learn of how great of a person Gaius is, especially his walk with the Lord.  The apostle John wrote specifically to Gaius but threw in Diotrephes and Demetrius in the second half of the letter (verses 9-12).
It is interesting why New Testament writers quickly include a mention about names.  This does show that the Church was growing, and many people were involved in different ways in the early Church.  But not all those mentioned in the New Testament are always a positive influence.
We meet Diotrephes in verse 9.  It says he loved to be first and did not have anything to do with John.  Diotrephes was haughty.  That meant he was arrogantly superior and disdainful.  Synonyms for haughty include pride conceit, scornful, and snobbish.  Proverbs 16:18 – “Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall”.  You don’t want to be haughty.
Diotrephes was maliciously (intending to do harm) gossiping, totally unhospitable, or friendly, and wicked.  This guy was part of the church. He even would not let others be hospitable to the point of throwing hospitable people out of their church.  This guy was mean and vengeful.
I sure hope you are not this way at all.  Are there people in our churches today who have a haughty attitude?  I believe so.  What is your attitude towards others?  How do you treat people in general?  Are there certain people because of the color of their skin, ethnic background, religious view or who are handicapped in some way, you feel superior to?
Everyone of us needs to take an inventory of our attitude, how we view others and be honest.  If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, there is no room for any such attitude.  We probably do not get along with everyone but we must treat everyone with respect and show love, including those who we would have the tendency to hate and to those who are our enemies.  Matthew 5:43 according to Jesus, “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies!”
In this letter John says to not imitate what is evil but what is good.  You are from God if you do what is good; doing evil, you have not experienced God (vs 11).  Strong words but being a believer in Jesus is not the way the rest of the world does things.  We are called out to be different in the sense of doing and living life the way Jesus did and told us to follow.
Demetrius is then mentioned as an example of doing good or right.  His testimony or reputation was watched by John and those he associated with, his influential circle of people.  Demetrius’ standard for life was the Bible; he followed biblical standards and obeyed what the Bible taught (what was being passed on by John and other apostles who taught the early Church).
He knew right from wrong.  He served people and thus was serving Jesus.  Demetrius was a growing, developing believer in Jesus, taking the Bible and making the truths of the Bible real in his life.  Completely opposite of Diotrephes.
These two men are examples of decisions you and I have to make.  Which one will you and I emulate or be similar to?  We can be show up to church and youth groups looking like a nice, wonderful Christian young person, but on the inside of us, be mean, vindictive and malicious, treating people with disrespect and a lack of love.  Or, we can simply be a person of truthful integrity; love and respect, caring for others whether we are all by ourselves or with a group of people.  The choice is ours.
God knows your heart.  We can’t fool Him.  Who are you?