What I Mean When I Say “Culture”

One day, a friend was telling my wife and I about their move to New York city. In the course of discussion, we learned about their recent church maneuverings as well. They shared that even though they had originally chosen to go to a certain famous preacher’s church, they ultimately chose another. When we inquired why, they said,

“You know, I love their preaching. But (being from a hispanic background), I constantly felt like an outsider. Even though I tried to get involved, it was just too…different.”

Around the same time, another friend shared something similar. She had recently moved to Washington D.C. for work and had almost the same exact story. While she valued the preaching from another prominent pastor, the length of the service, relationally cold vibe, and lack of familiarity of the liturgy and structure of the church, she wasn’t able to find the kind of connection with people she had hoped. Herself being hispanic also, the preaching, alone, wasn’t enough to keep her.

No program addition, extra bible study night, or young adults hang out would have done it for these two friends.

Both of these examples highlight an important distinction for churches and their artists to consider: why is culture the determining factor for evaluating outsider integration?

© Matt Taylor. 2026

3 Elements of Culture

When I use the word culture, I really have three traits embedded together. Culture, in its pure and simple form, is a social group’s creation of both its internal and external worlds. This definition makes the word, culture, both a noun and a verb. It’s not only the stuff a group of people makes themselves, but the hidden assumptions, worldviews, and values unseen at work. It includes the activity of making such things occur in real space and time as well as the manifestational expressions existing.

To make this more “bottom shelf,” though, I want to simplify this. There are three specific reasons churches ought to consider their church culture when integrating their cross-cultural neighbors. I break these down into culture, social, and story reasons because these are all connected to our humanity. These three provide a metric for us to measure our church’s “reach” or “engagement” into the communities they reside.

1. Culture

The “Culture” lens is our church’s comprehendability to others. Who feels like they are understood in our church? And who is interpreting what we do, say, and value? What language and depth of “insider-ness” does the church’s people and pulpit assume of its hearers? If the church were a middle school, what “cliche” would be the obvious one we’d have to join in order to fit in?

This was Paul’s heart in 1 Corinthians. He said in 1 Corinthians 14:23, “If the whole church assembles together and all are speaking in other languages and people who are uninformed or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your minds?” There are few actual places the New Testament speaks to our Sunday worship gatherings. But this chapter would be one place where it’s explicitly talked about. Paul’s whole point about speaking in tongues is that while they historically served as a sign of judgment for Israel’s hardening, his desire for the church is clarity and edification (14:3, 14–19, 26, 31). He emphasizes that speaking in tongues should ultimately lead to outsiders understanding God’s heart, being convicted of their sin, and falling down to worship (14:24–25). But if they cannot understand the gospel because the church requires a cultural insider tax, we cut off this opportunity for them.

2. Social

The “Social” lens provides our neighbors with a sense of belonging. How thick or thin are the relational barriers in the church community? How quickly can they enter and conclude, “this is a place for me.” Or, “I can see my true self being valued and useful here.” Do neighbors feel like they have a “seat at the table?” Like their voice would be welcomed? Or are the invisible relational boundaries too thick, like there’s any extensive process for them to find their place socially? Can they envision the possibility of being a leader in this community one day?

This was one of Paul’s issues with Peter in Galatia. In Galatians 2:11–14, Paul opposed Peter for rubbing shoulders with the Gentiles one minute and then separating himself another at the presence of the Jews. Why? Because Peter is essentially telling the Gentile imagination “you aren’t completely welcome in this social group.” We want our neighbors’ imaginations to conclude, “you have a space here.”

3. Story

The third lens is “Story.” Our neighbor’s Story is all about their finding purpose and wisdom from the kingdom of God. Are their real-time issues being addressed? Or is the church constantly solving problems of another specific, dominant, culture? Is the church living in the past, solving front burner emergencies of one people while disregarding another?

Likewise, do the neighbors find life from your church? Does the church look Christlike similar to Jesus in a John 4 manner where we see Jesus engage the woman at the well’s personal narrative. She finds life in Jesus’ entering her issues. He entered what she craved. Many times though, our church’s direct and indirect messaging focuses on providing living water for a few types of people, but not all.

Artists have an important role to engage un-churched neighbors, but use their artistry to cast vision for God’s kingdom among the neighborhood.